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Staff Profile

Dorcas Kareithi

Associate statistician (clinical trials and health research)

Background

Dorcas Kareithi is a biostatistician with an interest in improving clinical trial methodology through the use of observational data and routinely collected/registry data. Dorcas holds an MSc in Biometry/Biostatistics from The University of Nairobi (2016) and a BSc in Economics and Mathematics from Kabarak University (2013). In October 2021, she joined the Population Health Sciences Institute, working within the Biostatistics Research Group (BRG), where she provides statistical advice and support on ongoing research with the Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation as well as other health research-supported by BRG. Her work contributes to the Innovation, Methodology and Application theme.


Before that, she was the

  • Study Design and Analysis Lead - Cocreation Hub Limited, based in Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya) and Lagos (Nigeria). (2019-2021)
  • Epidemiological Consultant - Sight Savers International, working remotely (2018-2019)
  • Senior Research Analyst, Evidence Action LLC, based at the Africa headquarters in Nairobi. (2017-2018)
  • Research Analyst, Evidence Action LLC, based at the Africa headquarters in Nairobi. (2016-2017) 


In addition to work, Dorcas contributed to her field through discussions and interactions with international professional bodies she is part of including:

  • Young African Statisticians Association (YASA), where she is the current president (2022-2025). She has been a member since 2016
  • International Statistical Institute/International Association for Statistical Computing (ISI/IASC), where she has been a member since 2021
  • Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), where she has been a member since 2018
  • International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP), where she has been a country coordinator (Kenya), since 2016


Her full profile and work can be found here.

Research

Current research interests:

  • Improving the efficiency of clinical trials using observational data
  • Surrogate outcomes in cancer research
  • Advancing statistical computing through open data 


Current and previous relevant research projects:

  • 2023-Current: Enhancing Dental Advice (ENHANCE- D) Trial: a multi-million pound, multi-centre pragmatic randomised controlled trial, funded by the National Institute for Health (NIHR). This trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of three different dental health advice packages, offered by a dental professional, and whether these packages have a beneficial outcome for general dental health and for saving the NHS money. I am a trial statistician on this trial. More details here.
  • 2022-Current: Recovery, Renewal and Reset of Services to Disabled Children (PRP): A NIHR Central Commissioning Facility (CCF) funded mixed methods study assessing the impact of lockdowns on the services offered to children, and the effect on their health and wellbeing. I am the lead statistician quantifying the change in contacts and the effect on mortality and morbidity (work package 2). More details here
  • 2021-2023: UKPBC POISE OLE External Controls: A collaborative UK-PBC /Intercept Pharma Phase 4 study. As the SAS analyst, responsibilities included data wrangling and data analysis of an external control to an open-label clinical trial, manuscript writing and contributing to an FDA report with Intercept. This study was focused on evaluating the long-term efficiency of a drug,
  • 2021: Smiles for Mothers: Nigeria government-led initiative to reduce postpartum haemorrhage through health systems improvement and effective introduction of new innovations. Responsibilities included training Ministry of Health stakeholders in research methodology and analysis of field data, leading co-research activities such as data collection, analysis and co-creation of solutions with stakeholders of the 2nd work stream (Strengthening clinical care and appropriate use of uterotonics).
  • 2020-2021: COVID-19 testing in Nigeria: a collaborative initiative by CcHUB and Nigeria Institute of Medical Research that assessed COVID-19 spread patterns and malaria coinfections, testing patterns and a DIY sampling and telemonitoring model. Responsibilities: project conceptualization, database development (that was embedded in a web platform), led data management, data analysis and manuscript writing.
  • 2020: SNA Linked: innovation initiated by the research department at CCHUB to evaluate and investigate how social ties and connectedness on social media platforms can be leveraged in times of crisis. Responsibilities project conceptualization, data curation, algorithm development, and conversion to web platform.
  • 2019-2020: NimCure: A digital health platform that enhances Tuberculosis Therapy Adherence in Nigeria. Responsibilities: support implementation of the Clinical Trial Pilot protocol, data management, follow-up of patients, data analysis and manuscript writing.
  • 2016-2018: Deworm the World (Africa): Research implemented in Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia assessing the impact and effect of the school-based deworming programme on the prevalence of Schistosomiasis and Soil-transmitted helminths, and school absenteeism. Responsibilities: supported data collection, and led data management, analysis and reporting (word and dashboards). 


Other interests:

  • Mentorship and Leadership in Statistics
  • Improving statistical literacy in underrepresented communities in Africa
Teaching

Dorcas is supporting the following teaching activities in PHSI: 

  • 2024-current: supervising Masters in Public Health (MPH) student dissertations, where I provide my expertise in cancer registry data and working with large datasets.
  • 2024- current: I am a moderator for the data analysis project reports for the Health Statistics module on the MPH.


Dorcas has also conducted trainings, and given talks in research, programming and healthcare including:

  • 2024: "Routinely collected data in clinical trials: methods, opportunities and challenges." - The International Association of Statistical Computing (ISI/IASC) March speaker
  • 2023: A panellist at a side event at the 2023 annual International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) hosted by Utano Public Health Chats. The theme was "Creating a fit for purpose public health workforce in Africa: strategies for public health professionals growth and development"
  • 2023: “Leveraging routinely collected data in clinical trials: opportunities and challenges” at St George’s University of London methodology group in May
  • 2022: “Evolution of Data Analytics in Healthcare – Open Data in Healthcare” - Africa Digital Epidemiology and Innovation Network (ADEIN) May Speaker
  • 2022: Utano Public Health Chats July Guest
  • 2021: Moderator in #RMedicine 2021 Virtual Conference
  • 2020: "Introduction to Shiny App Development" - R-Ladies Nairobi December Guest Trainer
  • 2019-2021: Basics of research and R programming (CcHUB)
Publications