I am a Reader in Health Sciences Research at Bangor University (BU), and an Associate Director of the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre, where I lead the evidence synthesis work programme and the methodology sub-group.

I have a sustained research output with more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in journals of international standing and won over 16.5M (4.5M to BU) in grant income, which includes over 7.8M as PI or co-PI. I am an Honorary Senior Research fellow at Cardiff University and a Fellow of Advance Higher Education. I have a PhD in Health economics (funded by an NIHR Doctoral fellowship) and MSc in Information Science.

My research interests include evidence synthesis to inform clinical and policy decision making. I have been responsible for developing and leading the evidence review projects for a range of funders including the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Welsh Government, Department of Health (England), Cancer Research UK, Wales Cancer Research, and Public Health Wales. I have led reviews that have directly informed NICE guidance and national cancer guidelines. More recently I have led on the evidence synthesis work programme for the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre (2021-2023) and the newly established Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre (2023-2028). The Evidence Centres have directly informed decision making in Welsh Government and the National Health Service (NHS) and Social Care in Wales and have assisted important policy and legislative decisions.

As a systematic review methodologist for over 25 years, I have extensive experience in the methodology and conduct of systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. My research work covers a wide range of disciplines including primary care, palliative care, health services research, health technologies, population screening, public health, social care, environment, and education. My work includes methodological development in evaluating large bodies of evidence, the assessment of treatment sequences, synthesising and appraising evidence from diverse study designs, and the development of a rapid evidence review programme to inform decision making. I have extensive experience in a variety of review types covering a wide range of methods, including intervention studies, diagnostic studies, prognostic research, behavioural research, service delivery research, decision analytic modelling, economic evaluations, and clinical audits. This includes synthesising both qualitative and quantitative studies and performing pairwise and network meta-analysis within both frequentist and Bayesian frameworks.

Ruth welcomes the opportunity to supervise PhD work in the methodology and application of systematic review and evidence synthesis methods.