Summary
Suzie Cro is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials, Head of Trial Methodology (StatsCI) and co-Head of Statistics at Imperial Clinical Trials Unit (ICTU), School of Public Health. There are two complementary strands to her research including:
- Research advancing clinical trial methodology
- Designing and analysing clinical trials across different medical areas
She holds a personal NIHR Advanced Research Fellowship which funds research to identify the types of treatment effects (i.e. estimands) targeted in clinical trials and to develop accessible statistical methodology for analysis to enable trials to answer meaningful questions about the health benefits of treatments that matter to prescribing physicians and patients.
Suzie’s core clinical trial methodology research interests include:
- Translating the ICH-E9-R1 addendum on estimands and sensitivity analysis in clinical trials into best practice for researchers and patients and the public
- Relevant accessible methods for handling missing data in randomised controlled trials
-Handling post-randomisation events, such as rescue medication and non-compliance in randomised controlled trials
- Transparency in the statistical analysis of clinical trials
Suzie has a broad range of experience in designing and analysing clinical trials and other interventional studies across clinical areas including musculoskeletal, ophthalmology, dermatology, and most recently opiate addiction. She is a statistical co-investigator for FORWARDS - including a Bayesian, adaptive, dose-escalation trial of baclofen in opioid dependence during methadone-maintenance treatment.
She is a core group member of the MRC-NIHR TMRP Statistical Analysis Working Group. She has been an Associate Editor for the journal Trials and reviews articles for various other journals. She serves as a member of IDMCs and TSCs.
Suzie initially obtained a BSc in Mathematics with statistics and an MSc in Statistics with applications in medicine from the University of Southampton. Following this she joined the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL as a statistician, where she worked in collaboration with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital on a variety of musculoskeletal trials and other research projects. In 2013, alongside her position at the MRC CTU at UCL, she joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to undertake a PhD supervised by Professor James Carpenter. After completing her thesis on sensitivity analysis for randomised controlled trials with missing data, she joined Imperial College in October 2016.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Kahan B, Hindley J, Edwards M, et al., 2024, The estimands framework: a primer on the ICH E9(R1) addendum, British Medical Journal, Vol:384, ISSN:0959-535X
Kahan BC, Morris TP, Cro S, 2024, We must let the research question drive study methods., Bmj, Vol:384
Cro S, Kahan B, Patel A, et al., 2023, Starting a conversation about estimands with public partners involved in clinical trials: a co-developed tool, Trials, Vol:24, ISSN:1745-6215
Cro S, 2022, Time to improve the clarity of clinical trial reports by including estimands., Bmj, Vol:378, ISSN:0966-6494, Pages:1-2
Cro S, Kahan BC, Rehal S, et al., 2022, Evaluating how clear the questions being investigated in randomised trials are: systematic review of estimands., Bmj, Vol:378
Cro S, Cornelius VR, Pink AE, et al., 2022, Anakinra for palmoplantar pustulosis: results from a randomized, double-blind, multicentre, two staged, adaptive placebo controlled trial (APRICOT)., British Journal of Dermatology, Vol:186, ISSN:0007-0963, Pages:245-256
Kahan B, Morris TP, White IR, et al., 2021, Estimands in published protocols of randomised trials: urgent improvement needed, Trials, Vol:22, ISSN:1745-6215
Cro S, Morris TP, Kahan BC, et al., 2020, A four-step strategy for handling missing outcome data in randomised trials affected by a pandemic, BMC Medical Research Methodology, Vol:20, ISSN:1471-2288
Cro S, Morris TP, Kenward MG, et al., 2020, Sensitivity analysis for clinical trials with missing continuous outcome data using controlled multiple imputation: a practical guide, Statistics in Medicine, Vol:39, ISSN:0277-6715, Pages:2815-2842
Cro S, Carpenter JR, Kenward MG, 2019, Information-anchored sensitivity analysis: theory and application, The Authors Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series a (statistics in Society)