Profile

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Kathryn Howells

    • About Me:

      I live in Portishead (close to Bristol) with my husband and 2 sons, aged 16 and 13, although originally I’m from Swansea. I’m a Pharmaceutical statistician but did work for a period of time in the marketing department  of a Bank. I love yoga, ski-ing and watching rugby (however I’m not enjoying watching Wales play rugby at the moment) and surfing… it usually stems around what my sons are interested in doing really!

    • My pronouns are:

      She/her

    • My Work:

      As a statistician I am part of a team of scientists that plan and set up clinical trials to test if the drug we are developing is safe to use and improves the patients illness/life.

    • Read more

      One of my responsibilities is to advise on the number of patients a clinical trial needs to recruit, in order to test whether the drug provides a clinical benefit when compared with a control treatment. I also determine the type of analysis to be performed based on the data being collected and at specified timepoints in the trial, produce summaries and statistical analyses of the data collected to check the drug we are developing is safe to use and improves the patients illness and quality of life. After the clinical trial data is analysed, I work with a team to apply for a drug licence in numerous countries so that health professionals are able to prescribe the drug to as many patients as possible.

    • My Typical Day:

      My typical day would be to start work at 8:30 (I work from home so don’t have far to go). Firstly I check my emails, I work with colleagues in the US and China so there are often emails to read from colleagues located there due to the different time zones.

      I usually have 3 to 4 meetings a day, some will be 1:1 catch up’s with people I manage as well as meetings to catch up on the status of the clinical trial or maybe the current analysis being performed.

      In between my meetings and catching up on emails, I may have documents that needs reviewing, possibly a Statistical Analysis Plan if I’m working on setting up a study, or a Clinical Study Report, after the data has been analysed, which interprets the results of the study.

      I then finish around 5-5:30 pm

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      I went to School at Penyrheol Comprehensive school, followed by Gorseinon College to study A levels, then Swansea University to study for my degree and then to Reading University to study for my masters

    • Qualifications:

      9 GCSEs – 4 A’s, 2B’s and 3 Cs’

      3 A-Levels in Pure Maths and Stats (B), Law (B), RE (B)

      1st class Hons degree in Pure Mathematics with Statistics

      MSc in Biometry

    • Work History:

      Global Product Statistican, AZ, September 2023 to current.

      Consultant Statistician, Veramed Ltd, August 2023 to September 2023

      Senior Statistician II, Phastar, April 2015 to August 2023

      Senior Modeller, Lloyds Banking Group, April 2004 to April 2015

      Primary Care Statistician, NHS, November 2003 to April 2004

      Senior Statistician, GSK, September 1999 to November 2003

       

    • Current Job:

      Global Product Statistician at AZ. Currently working on the development of a drug for cancer.

    • Employer:

      Astra Zeneca

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        When I was at Secondary school, I wanted to be a Maths teacher

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        Architect

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Ed Sheeran

        What's your favourite food?

        I love all food but if I had to pick, seafood

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        Be healthy, see my eldest son play rugby for Wales and see my youngest son ski slalom in the Winter Olympics