Lesley Ann Stewart (born 27 May 1963) is a Scottish academic whose research interests are in the development and application of evidence synthesis methods, particularly systematic reviews and individual participant data meta-analysis. She is head of department for th
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
at the University of York and director for the

She was one of the founders of the

Cochrane Collaboration Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to synthesize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes ...

in 1993. Stewart served as president of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology (2013-2016) and was a founding co-editor in chief of the academic journal ''Systematic Reviews'' (2010–2021).

Education

Stewart attended a state comprehensive school, leaving in 1980 to attend university. She graduated with a BSc in Zoology from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1984, an MSc in Biological Computation (mathematics, statistics and computing relating to biological science) from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in 1985 and a PhD in ecology from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

in 1988.

Career

Stewart joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Trials Office in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in 1988 to carry out an "overview" synthesizing individual participant data from randomized trials of chemotherapy in advanced ovarian cancer. She was therefore fortunate enough to be part of the early development of

systematic review A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on ...

methods. In particular, with colleagues including Mike Clarke and later Jayne Tierney, she helped establish the methods and practical approaches of systematic reviews and

meta-analyses Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...

of individual participant data (IPD). Stewart and Clarke were amongst the founding members of the Cochrane Collaboration and in 1993 Stewart, Clarke and Tierney established the Cochrane IPD meta-analysis methods group. Stewart worked for the MRC for 17 years establishing a research programme in the Cancer Trials Office in Cambridge and subsequently (following a merger of two groups) in the MRC Clinical Trials Unit under the Directorship of Professor Janet Darbyshire. During this time with her research team she published many systematic reviews and IPD meta-analyses. In 2006 she was appointed as professor and Director and Head of Department of the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, a research department at the University of York, where alongside her role as Director she has maintained her research interests in systematic review methods and IPD. Stewart has long standing interest in transparency and data sharing. For example, she has contributed to reporting standards for protocols and IPD meta-analysis. Whilst at the MRC she was responsible for launching the first completely open web based register of clinical trials, the UKCCCR of cancer trials. At CRD she instigated the development of PROSPERO the open access international prospective register of systematic reviews. She was able to bring these research strands together and be part of the YODA initiative’s first project to provide independent re-analysis and synthesis of industry data. Stewart was Co-editor in chief of the BioMed Central (BMC) journal Systematic Reviews (2010-2021). She also served on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Highly Specialised Technologies Committee (2014-2022). Stewart was one of the first cohort of

National Institute for Health Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improv ...

(NIHR) Senior Investigators (2008 – 2013). In 2013, she was elected to serve as president of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology.

Personal

Stewart lives in York with her husband Simon Thornton. They have two grown-up daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Lesley 1963 births Living people Academics from Dundee Alumni of the University of East Anglia Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of York Scottish medical researchers 21st-century Scottish women scientists 21st-century Scottish scientists NIHR Senior Investigators