Helen McDonald

Dr. Helen McDonald is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath. She serves as Honorary Consultant in Public Health at the UK Health Security Agency and Honorary Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her career bridges clinical practice and epidemiological research.

• NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation (2020-2023)
• OpenSAFELY platform lead for vaccine effectiveness analyses

Research Focus: Utilizes electronic health records for real-world evidence generation across clinical epidemiology, vaccine safety, and public health policy. Key contributions include:

• Quantifying vaccine effectiveness during pandemic responses
• Addressing confounding factors in observational research
• Developing data validation frameworks for immunization tracking

Publication Trends: 15 most recent works (2021-2025) demonstrate expertise in observational study design, vaccine effectiveness assessment, and health data analytics, with significant impact on UK public health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodological Contributions: Pioneered approaches to adjust for health-seeking behavior confounding and developed validated codelists for vaccine-related studies. Her work informs SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) through data-driven policy recommendations.