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Staff Profile

Professor Miles Witham

Professor of Trials for Older People

  • Telephone: 0191 208 1317
  • Address: Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre
    3rd Floor Biomedical Research Building
    Campus for Ageing and Vitality
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE4 5PL
Background

I am an academic geriatrician with a particular focus on clinical trials for older people. Older people are underrepresented in clinical research, and many clinical trials are not designed in a way that either facilitates participation for older people, or that provides outcomes relevant to older people, policymakers or health and social care professionals caring for older people.


I am a member of the AGE Research Group at Newcastle University, led by Professor Avan Sayer; the Group conducts interdisciplinary research to improve health using a lifecourse approach with a particular focus on ageing, sarcopenia and multiple long-term conditions (multimorbidity), I am co-lead for the Ageing, Sarcopenia and Multimorbidity Theme within the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, the only BRC with a major focus on translational ageing research, and Theme Lead for the Ageing and Long-term conditions Theme of the NIHR Newcastle MIC (Med-tech and In-vitro diagnostics Cooperative).


I have longstanding interests in improving inclusion of underserved groups including older people into clinical research and was a member of the NIHR INCLUDE project, and In all of these activities, I seek to ensure that patients, carers and the public are at the centre of our work, whether that be in study design, management, or disseminating results. I am also committed to building capacity to create and deliver research with older people in the UK and globally. As National Speciality Lead for the NIHR Ageing CRN until October 2022, I led national work on increasing capacity for clinical research with older people, and I co-lead the UKRI-funded ART of Healthy Ageing Network (www.artofhealthyageing.net) which builds capacity for interdisciplinary, translational ageing research, taking advances in ageing biology and epidemiology into human studies. I have recently taken up the role of co-lead for the Interventions and Prevention workstream of the new Cross-NIHR Collaborative (CNC) on multiple long-term conditions, which seeks to build cross-NIHR infrastructure capacity to deliver research on MLTC.


In addition, I have interests in using routinely-collected clinical data ("Big Data") to improve our understanding of ageing and multiple long-term conditions. I lead work packages on big data and on pathways of care with the UKRI-funded ADMISSION Collaborative (www.admissioncollab.org) which seeks to transform care for people with MLTC admitted to hospital. I also retain interests in global health, working with collaborators in a number of countries to better understand ageing and multiple long-term conditions in lower and middle income settings.



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Research

My current areas of research activity are:


- Designing and conducting randomised controlled trials for older people, particularly focussing on improving physical function and quality of life for older people. My activity encompasses several disease areas, but has a central focus on sarcopenia (the age-related loss of muscle mass that affects function for many older people). Current projects include leading the NIHR Newcastle BRC funded MET-PREVENT trial of metformin for frailty and sarcopenia, an MRC-funded experimental medicine proof of concept study examining the effect of Acipimox on sarcopenia, and development of novel early-phase experimental medicine studies of sarcopenia interventions as part of the NIHR Newcastle BRC Ageing, Sarcopenia and Multimorbidity Theme.


- Understanding the risk factors, mechanisms and consequences of clusters of multimorbidity in patients admitted to hospital as a co-applicant on the UKRI/NIHR funded ADMISSION programme. The ADMISSION collaborative uses routinely-collected data and cohort data to answer key questions about how conditions cluster, underlying biological mechanisms that underpin these clusters, the impact of inequalities on multiple long-term conditions, and the consequences for trajectories of care through health systems.


- Contributing to RCT design and delivery to boost content and capacity for age-related trials in the UK. Currently a co-applicant on the NIHR funded CONFORM-OH (midodrine and fludrocortisone for orthostatic hypotension), COBALT (memantine for lewy-body dementia) and CHARMER (deprescribing in hospitals) trials


-Developing infrastructure, tools and capacity to deliver early-phase translational ageing research across the UK, as co-lead of the UKRI-funded ART of Healthy Ageing Network





Teaching

I deliver teaching on sarcopenia for the Masters of Research in Ageing at Newcastle University

I co-direct the Introduction to Research with Older People course run by the NIHR Newcastle BRC

I supervise a wide range of undergraduate, Masters, PhD students and higher specialist clinical trainee research projects

Publications