Dr Rima K. Dhillon-Smith

Dr Rima K. Dhillon-Smith

Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research
Clinical Lecturer in Early Pregnancy and Reproductive Medicine

Contact details

Address
Academic Department, 3rd floor
Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust
Mindelsohn Way
Birmingham
B15 2TG

Dr Rima Dhillon-Smith is a clinical lecturer based at the  Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She combines her academic work with clinical duties as a registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.  Rima’s main research interests lie in reproductive endocrinology, subfertility, paediatric gynaecology and early pregnancy.  She is a key member of the Birmingham Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage team.

Rima has had several high impact journal publications including the publication of the TABLET (Thyroid Antibodies and LEvoThyroxine) trial (£1.7million NIHR EME funded) in the New England Journal of Medicine. She has been invited to speak at international conferences and is an invited author for national guidelines in the field of thyroid and fertility. Furthermore, she has formed a collaboration with the Consortium of Thyroid and Pregnancy and has submitted national grant applications for projects within the collaboration.

Rima is currently the national clinical lead for the LOCI trial, a multi-centre £1.9million NIHR HTA funded project investigating letrozole vs clomifene for ovulation induction in women with PCOS.

Qualifications

Member of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists - June 2017

PhD – University of Birmingham 2015

MBChB – University of Birmingham 2009 

Biography

Rima qualified MBChB from the University of Birmingham in 2009 and began her specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2011. She was awarded her PhD titled “Risk stratification for women undergoing in-vitro fertilisation” in 2015 and achieved multiple high-quality publications from this work. During her PhD years, Rima was also the lead research fellow for the TABLET (Thyroid AntiBodies and LEvoThyroxine) trial. She completed the trial and wrote the final paper which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April 2019.

Rima is currently undertaking combined clinical training and academic work as a Clinical Lecturer.

Teaching

  • 2nd year MBChB RED module
  • 2nd year PIP module lead for Paediatric Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine
  • 5th year Obstetrics and Gynaecology module
  • Endocrinology for Part 1 MRCOG – ACE courses lecturer (http://www.acecourses.co.uk/dr-rima-smith/)

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Yealin Chung, PhD student. Project title “Optimising the luteal phase”

Research

Rima’s research interests lie in reproductive endocrinology and early pregnancy and specifically in setting up and managing clinical trials.

Reproductive endocrinology:

Rima was the lead researcher and first author for TABLET trial (£1.7million NIHR EME funded trial). She is leading a £150,000 NIHR RfPB grant for an individual patient data meta-analysis investigating levothyroxine in mild thyroid dysfunction to reduce miscarriage. She has submitted for an Academy of Medical Sciences grant (£30,000) for exploring fertility and pregnancy outcomes in women who had preconception thyroid function testing.

Rima has been appointed as lead clinical co-ordinator for LOCI trial (£1.9million NIHR HTA funded) investigating the use of Letrozole vs Clomifene for ovulation induction in women with PCOS.

Rima is the lead author for an RCOG scientific impact paper on thyroid and subfertility and early pregnancy. She is also an invited RCOG Green-top guideline author for Thyroid and pregnancy. 

Research Groups and centres:

Rima is a member of the Birmingham Tommy’s National centre for miscarriage team.

Other activities

Cochrane Clinical advisor

Committee member for organisation of RCOG National Trainees Conference, Birmingham 2018

Fundraising activities for Ammalife charity (charity which supports global womens health): Kilimanjaro climb, 2mile swim across Lake Windermere.

Publications

Vitamin D and assisted reproductive treatment outcome: a prospective cohort study. Chu J, Gallos I, Tobias A, Robinson L, Kirkman-Brown J, Dhillon-Smith R, Harb H, Eapen A, Rajkhowa M, Coomarasamy A. Reprod Health. 2019 Jul 15;16(1):106

Levothyroxine in women with thyroid peroxidase antibodies before conception. R.K. Dhillon-Smith, L.J. Middleton, K.K. Sunner, V. Cheed, K. Baker, S. Farrell-Carver, R. Bender-Atik, R. Agrawal, K. Bhatia, E. Edi-Osagie, T. Ghobara, P. Gupta, D. Jurkovic, Y. Khalaf, M. Maclean, K. Mulbagal, N. Nunes, C. Overton, S. Quenby, R. Rai, N. Raine-Fenning, L. Robinson, J. Ross, A. Sizer, R. Small, A. Tan, M. Underwood, M.D. Kilby, K. Boelaert,  J. Daniels, S. Thangaratinam, S. Chan, A. Coomarasamy. N Engl J Med 2019; 380:1316-1325

Outcomes reported in prevention and management of miscarriage trials: a systematic review. Smith PP, Dhillon-Smith RK, O’Toole E, Cooper N, Coomarasamy A, Clark TJ. BJOG. 2019 Jan; 126(2):176-189

Core Outcome Sets in Miscarriage Trials (COSMisT) study: a study protocol. Smith P, Cooper N, Dhillon-Smith R, O’Toole E, Clark TJ, Coomarasamy A. BMJ Open 2017;7:e018535

The effect of peri-implantation administration of uterine relaxing agents in assisted reproduction treatment cycles: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Khairy M, Dhillon RK, Chu J, Rajkhowa M, Coomarasamy A.  Reprod Biomed Online. 2016 Apr;32(4):362-76. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2016.01.004. Epub 2016 Jan 2

Predicting the chance of live birth for women undergoing IVF: a novel pre-treatment counselling tool.  Dhillon RK, McLernon DJ, Smith PP, Fishel S, Dowell K, Deeks JJ, Bhattacharya S, Coomarasamy A.  Hum Reprod. 2016 Jan;31(1):84-92. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dev268. Epub 2015 Oct 25.

Salpingostomy in the treatment of hydrosalpinx: a systematic review and meta-analysis.  Chu J, Harb HM, Gallos ID, Dhillon R, Al-Rshoud FM, Robinson L, Coomarasamy A. Hum Reprod. 2015 Aug;30(8):1882-95. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dev135. Epub 2015 Jun 16. 

Investigating the effect of ethnicity on IVF outcome.  RK Dhillon, PP Smith, R Malhas, H Harb, ID Gallos, K.Dowell, S Fishel, JJ Deeks, A Coomarasamy  Reprod Biomed Online. 2015 2015 Sep;31(3):356-63

A comparison of Solomon technique versus standard technique for treatment of twin-twin transfusion syndrome: a systematic review.  Dhillon RK, Hillman SC, Pounds R, Morris RK, Kilby M.  Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Nov;46(5):526-33. doi: 10.1002/uog.14813.

Additional information from chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) over conventional karyotyping when diagnosing chromosomal abnormalities in miscarriage: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Dhillon RK; Hillman S; Morris R; McMullan D; Williams D; Coomarasamy A; Kilby M. BJOG. 2014 Jan;121(1):11-21

View all publications in research portal