Dr Munya Dimairo

I am mainly interested in the application of innovative and efficient trial designs and statistical methods to evaluate therapeutic benefits and harms of medical treatments to inform practice, as well as facilitating the uptake of these methods in practice.

The aim is for patients to receive effective and safe treatments as quickly as possible and for the research community to avoid unnecessary use of resources when conducting clinical trials.  I hope to contribute positively to the quality of life of patients and the public.

I am involved in the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials. I hope to contribute positively to the lives of patients and the community.

I was born in Zimbabwe where I studied a BSc (Hons) in Statistics at the University of Zimbabwe. I then studied an MSc in Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as part of my Wellcome Trust Fellowship. 

In 2009, I joined the University of Sheffield, Clinical Trials Research Unit within the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) department, where I also studied my NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship investigating the use of adaptive designs in publicly funded confirmatory trials.

I am proud of my current international work developing practical resources for the appropriate use of adaptive trial designs. Some highlights include:

• Leading the development of an Adaptive designs Consort Extension (ACE), a practical educational toolkit to empower multidisciplinary trialists, PANDA, and the APT-SAP guidance for trial designs.
• Collaborating and developing practical guidance for adaptive trials, including protocol/reporting guidelines (DEFINE project) and resources for planning, interim analysis, and statistical inference.
• Championing and supporting the use of adaptive and platform trials in Sheffield, for example, TRICEPS and serving on trial monitoring committees for studies like Octopus.
• Contributing on funding panels such as  NIHR HTA CET to aid research funding decisions.

I also mentor early career researchers and supervise PhD and MSc students on methodological research projects, especially around efficient trial designs and related methods. 

For the future, I am interested in building capacity to support the implementation of efficient and innovative trial designs and statistical methods.

Dr Munya Dimairo

Senior Research Fellow/Statistician in the School of Medicine and Population Health