Professor William Whiteley (BM BCh MA MSc PhD MRCP)
Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics
Contact details
Background
William Whiteley is a Scottish Senior Clinical Fellow (funded by CSO) in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
He is also an International Fellow at the Population Health Research Institute, University of McMaster (Canada); and a consultant neurologist in NHS Lothian, working with patients with TIA, stroke and dementia. He is the Clinical lead for the Scottish Stroke Research Network.
Qualifications
Master of Science, University of London, Epidemiology Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Edinburgh, Biomarkers in Stroke Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Oxford Bachelor of Arts, University of Cambridge, Neurophysiology
Responsibilities & affiliations
Clinical lead - Scottish Stroke Research Network
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I have a track record of supporting interested clinicians gain independent funding, and have mentored several fellows through academic clinical fellowships. If you would like to join me to investigate clinical epidemiology, clinical trials, cerebrovascular disease, or use of 'big data' please contact me by email: william.whiteley@ed.ac.uk
Current PhD students supervised
Dr. Emma Davidson, PhD: Identifying brain imaging phenotypes in radiology records (Alzheimer's Society)
Dr. Jakub Kaczynski, PhD: Novel methods to identify high risk carotid plaque (BHF)
Laura Sherlock, PhD: Effect of different analytic techniques on cognitive outcomes in prevention of vascular cognitive impairment (CSO)
Past PhD students supervised
Dr. Yvonne Chun Efficient trials and anxiety after stroke (CSO)
Dr Akila Visvanathan Communication of prognosis after stroke (CSO)
Dr. Douglas Turnbull Predictive models after stroke (MRC)
Research summary
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His work seeks to elucidate the mechanisms for prevention of disability due to stroke and dementia through the design, delivery and analysis of epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Of particular interest are: the contribution of vascular risk factors to dementia; the very long term follow-up of randomized trials; clinical diagnosis; and the better use of large electronic health record datasets for more efficient clinical trials and cohort studies.
He founded the Edinburgh Clinical Natural Language Processing Group with Dr Honghang Wu and Dr Bea Alex, a multidisciplinary team at the University of Edinburgh who apply natural language processing to clinical text.
He has founded and run the Edinburgh Stroke Winter School and clinical PhD research training programs in stroke (funded by the Stroke Association) and dementia (funded by the Alzheimer's Society and University of Edinburgh). He has been supported by personal fellowships from the UK MRC (Clinician Scientist fellowship 2010-2015), the Chief Scientist’s Office (2006-2009, 2018-2025), and his work by the Alzheimer's Society, the Stroke Association and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland
Research activities
- Bayer (External organisation)
- UK Stroke Forum 2020 to
- European Stroke Conference 2020 to
- British Heart Foundation (External organisation)
- NIHR (External organisation)
- The University of Manchester (External organisation)
- PHRI, Population Health Research Institute, Canada (External organisation)
- NIHR (External organisation)
- World Stroke Organisation (External organisation)
- PhD examination
- PHRI, Population Health Research Institute, Canada (External organisation)
- European Course in Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ECMINT)
- UK Stroke Forum
- European Stroke Organisation Conference to
- American Heart Association (External organisation) to
- Stroke Association (External organisation) to
- Swiss National Science Foundation (External organisation)
- NIHR (External organisation) to
- PhD examination
- AHA Stroke Journal (External organisation)
-
Ontology-driven and weakly supervised rare disease identification from clinical notes
In:
Bmc medical informatics and decision making, vol. 23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-023-02181-9
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
C-Reactive Protein, Interleukin-6, and Vascular Recurrence After Stroke: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis
In:
Stroke
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.040529
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
New Insights into Stroke from Continuous Passively Collected Temperature and Sleep Data Using Wrist-Worn Wearables
In:
Sensors, vol. 23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031069
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Harmonising electronic health records for reproducible research: challenges, solutions and recommendations from a UK-wide COVID-19 research collaboration
In:
Bmc medical informatics and decision making, vol. 23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-022-02093-0
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Automated clinical coding: What, why, and where we are?
(8 pages)
In:
npj Digital Medicine, vol. 5, pp. 1-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00705-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (Published) -
Association of COVID-19 With Major Arterial and Venous Thrombotic Diseases: A Population-Wide Cohort Study of 48 Million Adults in England and Wales
(15 pages)
In:
Circulation, vol. 146, pp. 892-906
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060785
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Weight loss in a cardiovascular trial population identifies people at future risk of dementia
In:
Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, vol. 14
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.v14.1
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Clinical Diagnosis and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Transient and Minor Neurological Symptoms: A Prospective Cohort Study
In:
Stroke
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.039082
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
COVID-19 trajectories among 57 million adults in England: a cohort study using electronic health records
In:
The Lancet Digital Health, vol. 4, pp. e542-e557
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00091-7
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
18F-NaF PET-MRI for detection of Carotid Atheroma in acute neurovascular syndrome
In:
Radiology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.212283
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)