Jennifer Hirst

I am a senior researcher on the NewKI study (formerly OxRen) which has recruited over 3000 patients from primary care in the Thames Valley region of the UK. Chronic kidney disease is largely asymptomatic in the early stages meaning that people may remain undiagnosed. The aims of this study are to collect data on the prevalence, incidence and progression of chronic kidney disease in a primary care population and identify predictors of those who go on to develop end stage renal disease.

Prior to this I worked primarily in diabetes. I spent four months in 2016-2017 working in South Africa in a primary care clinic in a low resource setting in the suburbs of Cape Town. There, I led a study on implementing point-of-care testing for glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) in a diabetes clinic. During my doctoral fellowship I worked on monitoring of HbA1c in diabetes, specifically looking at whether use of point-of-care testing could improve the patient-clinician encounter and diabetes control.

I have extensive experience in systematic reviews and meta-analysis and am module coordinator for a Meta-analysis module https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/meta-analysis; part of the Evidence Based Health Care, Medical Statistics and Systematic Review Masters programmes.