Johnny Downs

Johnny is an NIHR Clinician Scientist at the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent lead, Centre for Translational Informatics. His research focuses on the use of digital information for epidemiological studies examining risks factors and outcomes for childhood neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders. Johnny's interests lie within four main areas – patient portals to enhance patient reported outcomes, natural language processing to refine the data extracted from free-text electronic records, data-linkage to integrate non-health data into clinical record analysis, and the integration of remote monitoring technology into clinical care.

Research interests

Clinical domains:

• Autism
• ADHD
• Education/school performance
• Conduct problems

Methodology:

• Epidemiology
• Data linkage
• Natural language processing
• User experience/co-design
• Remote monitoring technology
• Objective/multimodal assessment of mental health problems using speech, video and movement analyses

Teaching

• Child & Adolescent Mental Health MSc
• Centre for Urban Science and Progress MSc
• Mental Health Studies MSc (Big Data in Mental Health Module)

Expertise and public engagement

• 2020 – Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Integrated Academic Trainee Lead (SLaM/KCL)
• 2019 - NIHR South London Applied Research Collaboration (Applied Informatics Theme)
• 2019 - NIHR Child Health and Policy Research Unit (Vulnerability Theme)
• 2019 - NIHR London Research for Patient Benefit Advisory Panel Member
• 2019 - NIHR Longitudinal Outcomes of Gender Identity in Children (LOGIC) Steering Committee, Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust
• 2018 - Lead, NIHR BRC Centre for Translation Informatics Child and Adolescent theme
• 2017 - NIHR Mental Health and Policy Research Unit (Prevention Theme)