
Chief Investigator
Prof Jane Blazeby
Jane Blazeby is the Chief Investigator of the By-Band-Sleeve study. She is Professor of Surgery at the University of Bristol and an Honorary Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
The Bristol Centre for Surgical Research
The MRC ConDuCT-II Hub for Trials Methodology Research
Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit
Dr Chris Rogers
Chris Rogers is co-Director of the Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit at the University of Bristol. The unit, which is fully registered under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is the coordination centre for the By-Band-Sleeve study. Chris is a reader in Medical statistics with over 25 years’ experience in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical studies. She has a particular interest in trials in surgery in general. She has been statistical lead for several multi-centre trials, including the CRISP and IVAN trials.
Her role in By-Band-Sleeve is to lead the methodological implementation and delivery of the study.
Prof Barney Reeves
Barney Reeves is a health services researcher and trialist, carrying out Health Technology Assessment primarily in hospital settings. He is one of the seven research area leaders in both the previous (2008-2012) and newly awarded (2012-2017) NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Units in Cardiovascular Disease, and co-Director of the UKCRC-registered Bristol Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit.
His role in By-Band-Sleeve is to provide methodological advice and expertise.
Dr Graziella Mazza
Graziella is the By-Band-Sleeve study manager. Her role is to manage and coordinate the study on a day-to-day basis. She is the first point of contact for By-Band-Sleeve at the coordinating centre.
David Hutton
David is a database manager. His role is to develop and maintain the By-Band-Sleeve study database used by participating centres to capture data on the study. The database is held within the NHS and is accessed via the secure NHS network.
Dr Clare Baqley
Clare is the assistant By-Band-Sleeve study coordinator. Her role is to assist Dr Mazza in managing and coordinating the study on a day-to-day basis.
Qualitative Research Team
Professor Jenny Donovan
Jenny Donovan is Professor of Social Medicine at the School of Social and Community Medicine based at the University of Bristol and the Qualitative Lead for By-Band-Sleeve. Jenny leads a wide range of Health Services Research projects/teams, including a team that specialises in optimising recruitment to randomised controlled trials such as the By-Band-Sleeve study. As the Qualitative Lead, she employs a range of research methods to identify and address any patient recruitment problems in the By-Band-Sleeve study.
Dr Paul Whybrow
Paul Whybrow is a qualitative researcher on the By-Band-Sleeve study. He works with Professor Jenny Donovan, listening to audio-recordings of patient consultations and interviewing patients/staff to help with recruitment to the By-Band-Sleeve study.
MD/PhD Students and Research Fellows
Dr Natalie Blencowe
Natalie is a surgical registrar who completed a PhD examining the complexity of surgical interventions in trials. One of the major problems with RCTs in surgery is that very little information is provided about how the surgical procedures should be performed, meaning that it is difficult for them to be replicated in routine practice. Conversely, when information about the surgical procedure is provided, there has often been no monitoring of whether the surgeons performed the operation according to this description, providing surgeons with the opportunity to disbelieve the results.
The PhD aimed to ascertain whether surgical interventions can be standardised within RCTs and more specifically, whether the key components can be identified and monitored. Case studies were conducted within the internal pilot phase of By-Band-Sleeve, involving video and audio recording operations, observations within the operating theatre and interviewing team members. A manual describing the expected standards of surgery for operations undertaken within the main By-Band-Sleeve study was developed.
The Bristol Centre for Surgical Research
Dr Karen Coulman
Karen is a registered dietitian with an interest in weight management, weight loss surgery, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. She is particularly interested in the psychosocial aspects of weight management and living with weight loss surgery, and in looking at how the patient’s perspective can be used to improve weight management interventions and other chronic diseases involving significant lifestyle change.
Since 2012, she has held a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship to investigate the patient's perspective of weight loss surgery, including developing a patient core outcome set and devising ways to improve follow-up care in the NHS. She is using both qualitative and quantitative research methods to undertake her PhD research. Her PhD work will feed into the development of a clinical core outcome set in the By-Band-Sleeve study. This is supervised by Dr Amanda Owen-Smith and Professor Jane M Blazeby.
Dr Noah Howes
Noah is a surgical trainee currently completing an MD examining the evalution of innovation of surgical interventions. The work focusses on evidence and reporting of outcomes in the evalution of innovation using sleeve gastrectomy as a case study. He has completed a systematic review summarising the evidence for sleeve gastrectomy. He is undertaking a review which is summaring the development of outcome reporting according to study design (IDEAL phase I to 3) for sleeve gastrectomy. He is also involved with the literature synthesis of the myriad of outcomes reported to inform a Core Outcome Set. The MD is funded by an MRC doctoral fellowship which is supervised by Professor Jane M Blazeby and Dr Jelena Savovic.