Staff Team | The Institute of Applied Health Sciences

Staff Team

The Epidemiology PPI staff team are responsible for coordinating group work and acting as a bridge between patients and researchers. Drawing on a variety of research interests and specialities, the team are on hand to make sure the voices of our Core PPI Group, PPI Pool and study-specific patient partners are represented within the research agenda of the group.

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Expand the panels below to find out more about our staff team.

Stuart Anderson: Stuart joined the Epidemiology group as a Project Assistant in February 2018, working on the MAmMOTH project. Since then he has worked on a number of studies providing administrative support, including PACFiND , CONTAIN and FRESKO. He is currently the Centre Manager for the Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work (CMHW) , and also works as a Project Coordinator on several associated studies involving musculoskeletal conditions and their impact on work .

He holds degrees in Law from the University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde, and in his spare time he enjoys cooking and music.
Karen Keenan: K aren joined the Epidemiology Group as a Study Coordinator in November 2015.

During this time she has co-ordinated two MRI studies; one exploring fatigue in Lupus disease and one looking at whether NSAIDs mask inflammation on MRI in Axial Spondyloarthritis ( DyNAMISM ), before embarking in her current role as Study Coordinator of the British Society for Rheumatology Psoriatic Arthritis Register ( BSR-PsA ). Prior to joining the group Karen worked as a Research Fellow in the Health Services Research Unit and Medical Genetics Group. Karen also has experience of working in the voluntary sector where she managed a National Youth Service for young people at risk of Huntington's disease.

In her spare time, Karen enjoys hill walking and watching movies with her family.
Rebecca Parr: Rebecca joined the Epidemiology Group as an Assistant Study Coordinator in January 2022.

Rebecca spends most of her time working on the UK Antimicrobial Registry, capturing data on the use of last-line antibiotics used to treat infections like MRSA and C. difficile. She also had the opportunity to interview participants of the FRESKO study about their experience of early onset knee osteoarthritis. More recently, Rebecca looked into how effectively participants are recruited to local rheumatology studies. Currently, Rebecca is working as a Study Coordinator on a Europe-wide initiative looking at the perception of the work of patient partners in rheumatology research.

Before joining the Epi Group, Rebecca worked as a lab-based scientist within antibody drug discovery. Most recently, whilst working as a Principal Scientist for a Biotech company, Rebecca undertook a part-time PhD, looking for a way to detect toxic levels of local anaesthetics in the blood.

In her spare time, Rebecca loves being outdoors with her family, hiking, biking and gardening. Rebecca also loves to eat cuisines from around the world.