Dr Helen McDonald
Assistant Professor
I am a clinical epidemiologist and honorary consultant in public health. I co-lead Theme 1 'Making the most of real-world data' of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Immunisation, a partnership between LSHTM and Public Health England.
I first joined the NHS as a nursing auxiliary, then studied medicine at St John's College, Cambridge (intercalating in Philosophy) and Green College, Oxford. I was a clinical advisor to the Chief Medical Officer from 2007 to 2008, and worked as part of a team which developed national quality and safety policies and managed the development of a WHO curriculum guide to patient safety in medical schools. I completed Foundation Training as a junior doctor in London, and trained in public health, working across a variety of organisations including the Department of Health, local authority, NHS England (London), and local health protection on call.
At LSHTM, following an MSc in Epidemiology I completed a PhD in the epidemiology of infections among older people with diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease, supervised by Dorothea Nitsch and Sara Thomas and funded by Kidney Research UK.
Affiliations
Teaching
I am a module co-organiser for the Introduction to Health Data Science module of the Health Data Science MSc.
Research
In my role for the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit im Immunisation I use electronic health records to study vaccine safety and effectiveness, and inequalities in vaccine uptake and vaccine-preventable disease.