Kate Wilson

Kate Wilson is a post-doctoral researcher at the Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), which is part of the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH). Kate was awarded a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1997, and worked at the University’s Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology developing viral insecticides before joining CTSU 15 years ago.

Kate is principally involved in the CTSU’s Vascular Overviews Group (VOG) which carries out large-scale, collaborative meta-analyses of randomised trials of vascular disease, and she has a particular interest in developing methodology for such overviews. VOG projects have included: the Anti-Thrombotic Trialists’ (ATT) Collaboration which demonstrated that antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of vascular events by about one quarter in a wide range of patients; the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) Collaboration which showed that statin therapy reduces the risk of a heart attack, stroke or the need for arterial surgery by about one fifth for every 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL-cholesterol achieved; and the Coxib and traditional NSAID Trialists’ (CNT) Collaboration which demonstrated reliably that cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors (coxibs), high-dose diclofenac and high-dose ibuprofen are associated with an increased risk of coronary events whereas high-dose naproxen  is associated with less vascular risk than other NSAIDs. The results of the VOG group’s meta-analyses have been very heavily cited, and are frequently used by regulatory authorities and government bodies such as NICE to inform health policy and guidelines. Kate also teaches on the NDPH’s MSc in Global Health Science.