Since COVID arrived in December, researchers around the world have been working at pace in an attempt to define and to deliver a therapy – either a novel therapy or an existing drug – that can effectively treat patients suffering from the effects of the virus.
Given so little was known about COVID-19 at the outset, how has the research community set about designing trials to explore what, if any, drugs might work as a treatment? And how can data science be applied to better understand the disease caused by COVID-19 and its implications for patients?
To help shed light on these questions, I was delighted for this episode to joined today by Jonathan Sterne, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology within the Bristol Medical School.
During the conversation, we talk about the involvement of Jonathan’s team in the establishment of the WHO multi-centre international trial of COVID-19 antivirals, his interests in health-related big data, and his team’s local and national efforts to assemble and analyse large COVID-19 datasets to inform public policy and healthcare responses.
Thank you to Jonathan for taking the time to talk, and his team for all their fantastic work.