Dr Alice Sitch PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), PCAP, CStat, FHEA

• PhD in Medical Statistics, University of Birmingham, 2019
• Post-graduate certificate in Academic Practice, University of Birmingham, 2017
• MSc in Statistics, University of Sheffield, 2009
• BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, University of Sheffield, 2008
• Royal Statistical Society Chartered Statistician
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Alice completed a BSc in Mathematics at the University of Sheffield in 2008, and then an MSc in Statistics in 2009 also from the University of Sheffield. Alice went on to complete a PGCert in Academic Practice at the University of Birmingham in 2017. She undertook a part-time PhD in Biostatistics at the University of Birmingham which she completed in 2019; her thesis title was ‘Modelling optimal use of tests for monitoring disease progression and recurrence’.

Alice began working with the BESTEAM team at the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in October 2009. Alice became a Lecturer in 2015 and then an Associate Professor in 2020. Alice took on the role of Team Lead for BESTEAM in 2025.

Alice's work is diverse, covering methodological problems, test research and a variety of public health issues.  The focus of her research is test evaluation, specifically the use of tests to monitor progressive and recurrent disease and studies of biological variability. Alice is the deputy theme lead for the Data, Diagnostics and Decision Tools theme of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Alice has been the co-lead for Education in the Department of Applied Health Sciences since 2022. She is involved with teaching and delivering programmes to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

• Public Health MPH —Epidemiology, Statistics and Research Methods (ESRM), Practical Epidemiology and Statistics (PEaS), and  Advanced Statistical Methods.
• Medicine and Surgery (MBChB)—Medical Statistics module module.
• Undergraduate Mathematics: Medical Statistics

Alice is interested in supervising students in the following areas:
• Methods for test evaluation
• Early-stage test evaluation
• Monitoring of progressive and recurrent conditions
• Test variation

Alice’s research focus is early test evaluation, specifically estimating the variability of tests and biomarkers (how reliable a test or biomarker is and how much difference to expect when using the test or biomarker repeatedly in a patient with stable disease) so that this information can be used to identify the best use of test, especially when used to monitor patients. Alice has developed a portfolio of studies looking at this issue. This work builds on her PhD studies where she focused on the methodological issues in studies to evaluate test variability.

Alice is the lead statistician for the mTBI predict study (funded by US Department of Defence $15,500,000, 2023-2028). mTBI predict is a prospective study evaluating multiple biomarkers to predict clinical outcomes for military and civilian participants with mild traumatic brain injury.

Since 2022, Alice has been the deputy lead for the Data, Diagnostics and Decision Tools theme (funded by NIHR £1,886,479, 2022-2027) of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).  She was formerly the deputy lead for the Diagnostics and Biomarkers Theme in the previous BRC (2019-2022).

Additionally, Alice is the study statistician for the CHAPTER study (funded by NIHR £1,200,690, 2021-2025) looking to optimise the care of women after childbirth perineal trauma by developing an assessment tool; The BOSS-2 study (funded by The Scar Free Foundation £389,000, 2020-2022) looking to prospectively evaluate the validity and reliability of a panel of burn scar measurement tools; and the eGFR-C study (funded by NIHR £2,477,657, 2013-2022) was also developed to include an assessment of biological variability.

Alice provides expertise in the wider field of test evaluation, with many of the studies of variation (described above) also including evaluation of test accuracy or ability to predict. The Athena-M study (funded by NIHR £846,930, 2021-2023) looked at mammography for screening of breast cancer.

Alice is involved in many Global Health Studies. She is a co-applicant on a study looking to improve primary healthcare for patients with non-communicable diseases during severe flooding in India (funded by NIHR, £3,021,694, 2024-2029); the Equi-injury study (funded by NIHR, £2,955,703, 2022-2026) which is a study carried out in four Low- or Middle-Income Countries; and was previously a co-applicant on the BreatheWell project (funded by NIHR £1,918,217, 2017-2020).

Alice also provides statistical support to Public Health research. She is the lead statistician on the SMART study (funded by NIHR £745,655, 2022-2024) and the FUEL study (funded by NIHR £815,889, 2019-2021).

Previously Alice was the study statistician for the NIHR HTA study Prognostic Value of Interferon Gamma Release Assays in predicting active tuberculosis among individuals with, or at risk of, latent tuberculosis infection (PREDICT); the EURINE-ACT study which was a large prospective test evaluation study in adrenal carcinoma; and the Wellcome Trust Innovation Challenge Fund supported study Real-time Adaptive Predictive Indicator of Deterioration (RAPID) which used Formula One technology to monitor children in intensive care in real time.

Alice is a West Midlands NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funding panel member and a panel member for MRC DPFS. Alice is an associate editor for the Journals Trials and the European Journal of Endocrinology. Alice is a statistical editor for Thorax.