Editor

Sophie Cook

Sophie is a doctor who trained and worked in the UK as a general practitioner. She has 12 years’ editorial experience at The BMJ. She joined The BMJ as editorial registrar in 2009 before moving on to work initially as clinical editor on The BMJ’s education section, eventually becoming the head of education running clinical reviews and helping to devise and implement the stricter conflicts of interest policy for education content.

In 2017, Sophie became UK research editor, working with an international team to encourage and process research submissions. In 2019 she moved to head of scholarly comment, where she ran the analysis section of The BMJ and provided senior oversight for editorials, rapid responses management, and letters.

Coming from a general practice background, Sophie’s clinical interests are broad. However, she is particularly passionate about improving the health of women and children, the effects of climate on health, promoting sustainable healthcare, and the impact of social determinants of health. Editorially, Sophie advocates equality and diversity in research and publication, minimising conflicts of interest, and promoting partnership with patients and the public.

Clinical Editor

Emma Rourke

Emma is a UK-trained doctor working in primary care, where consulting with patients, practicing evidence-based medicine and facilitating shared decision making are central to her role. She has previously been involved with clinical and pre-clinical research in areas of oncology and psychiatry, and has experienced the process of peer review and publication from the author’s perspective. In 2012, Emma was a Clegg Scholar at The BMJ where she developed a real passion for medical writing, editing and publishing. She went on to work for The BMJ’s Analysis section for five years alongside clinical training, before coming to BMJ Medicine as Clinical Editor. Emma is delighted to be working on BMJ Medicine and is particularly excited about identifying and commissioning articles with the potential to stimulate discussion, empower clinicians to drive advances in clinical practice, and improve patient experience and outcomes.

Statisticians

Richard Riley

Richard Riley is a Professor of Biostatistics at Keele University, having previously held posts at the Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Leicester. His research focuses on the application and development of methods for meta-analysis, risk prediction and prognosis research, and he is the senior statistician on various research grants from funders including the MRC and NIHR. He has published over 200 research articles, and is lead Editor of the books ‘Prognosis Research in Healthcare: Concepts, Methods and Impact’, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and “Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis: A Handbook for Healthcare Research”, published by Wiley in 2021. He leads various training courses and hosts the websites www.prognosisresearch.com and www.ipdma.co.uk. He is also a Statistics Editor for The BMJ and a co-convenor of the Cochrane Prognosis Methods Group.

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8699-0735

Rafael Perera-Salazar

Rafael Perera, Turing Fellow (2020-21) and Professor of Medical Statistics in the University of Oxford. He is Director of the Medical Statistics group in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. Has a longstanding research interest in the use of tests to support clinical decision making (mainly monitoring long-term conditions). He has been one of the Statistical Editors for The BMJ since 2011 and has held similar roles for the EBM-BMJ, Colorectal Disease and several of the Cochrane Review groups.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2418-2091

Patient Advisors

Sophia Walker

Sophia Walker has built on her experience of living with type 1 diabetes since the age of six to now advocating for the increased role of the patient perspective in treatment development, healthcare delivery, and outcomes research. She has a background in clinical trial management, pharmaceutical market access, and commercialisation and communication strategies. She is currently the Accelerated Access Lead at JDRF UK, the type 1 diabetes medical research charity. She holds an MSc in Health, Community, and Development from the LSE.

Clare Stacey

Clare qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2001. During her career she worked in a variety of acute and community based clinical settings. Prior to retiring from the profession in 2017, she specialised in the support of adults with long term conditions in the community, end of life care and admission avoidance.

As a patient with Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (VEDS) Clare works with charities, patient experience groups and professionals to raise awareness of VEDS, and the challenges faced by people living with a rare disease. Clare’s aim is to use her experience as both patient and professional to encourage positive learning and change.