Transcript of video
Hello from New York! We are with Professor Stephen Evans, who is in Southampton. He is a Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Professor Evans is a world-renowned expert in the study of the safety of medicines, vaccines, and surgical and medical treatments. He is an expert in the analysis of clinical trials and the detection of scientific fraud and misconduct. Professor Stephen Evans first trained in physics, chemistry, and computing. He obtained a Master of Science in Medical Statistics at LSHTM and worked at The London Hospital and Medical College for 25 years, where he became a Professor of Medical Statistics in 1990. Professor Stephen Evans was at the UK Medicines Control Agency, where he dealt with major medication and vaccine safety issues such as Hormone Replacement Therapy and breast cancer, vitamin K and childhood cancer; Measles Mumps Rubella vaccine and autism. He was an advisor on the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, an investigation into a high number of child heart surgery deaths. Professor Evans was until 2018 an independent expert for the European Medicines Agency Drug Safety Committee. Professor Stephen Evans was a President of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology. Professor Evans is or has been on various editorial boards, including the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. He has been a statistical advisor to the British Medical Journal. Professor Evans was also a member of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians of London. Professor Evans, hello and welcome! Thank you very much. Professor Evans, you have uniquely wide expertise in an important area of medicine that even for many physicians is too complex to dive deep into and you look at medical problems from a mathematical perspective, what is your background? Well, having, as you said, trained in physics, and then in computing, and then moved into statistics because medical school computers were being used by people who wanted to do statistics, so I had to learn about that. And first, I taught myself from a book The night before teaching medical students about statistics. But I then did the masters at the London School of Hygiene, tropical medicine, in middle age in 1977. And since then, I worked in statistics and Epidemiology and, more recently, in pharmacoepidemiology, but I still, I think, approach problems with the mindset of a physicist. So I regard myself primarily as a scientist but having had a fairly wide experience in science, including working for a Nobel Prize winner. I approach problems in medicine, not only with a statistical view but with an understanding of the science and I hope I try and communicate well, having a wife who is a medical doctor helps me to try and make sure that my communication is clear to people who are from a background in medicines.