Penny Whiting

I am an Associate Professor in Clinical Epidemiology based in Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School. My research interests focus on diagnostic test evaluation, systematic reviews and developing tools to assess risk of bias in epidemiological studies.I also lead the MSc Epidemiology at University of Bristol.

I have conducted systematic reviews across a broad range of topics incorporating studies of various designs including randomised trials, observational/non-randomized studies, diagnostic test accuracy studies and prognostic studies. My methodological research has covered the full spectrum of systematic reviews including literature searching, quality assessment, synthesising results and communicating findings to improve understanding and implementation. I led the development of risk of bias tools including the original QUADAS tool, its replacement QUADAS-2, and the ROBIS tool for assessing risk of bias in systematic reviews.

I am currently leading a programme of work to develop evidence-based testing strategies to monitor people with high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney disease in general practice. I am also working on developing guidance on who should be tested for coeliac disease and what tests they should receive.

I have a particular interest in communicating information on test accuracy. I led the development of Cochrane guidance for writing plain language summaries of diagnostic test accuracy review and have conducted a methodological review on wow well health professionals interpret diagnostic information.