Matthew Barclay

Dr. Matthew Barclay is a Principal Research Fellow (Statistician) in Cancer Healthcare Epidemiology at University College London's Behavioural Science and Health department. With expertise spanning medical statistics, epidemiology, and health services research, his work focuses on analyzing cancer registry data, primary care electronic health records, and healthcare claims data to improve understanding of cancer diagnosis and treatment pathways.

Dr. Barclay's educational background includes:

• PhD in "The design of composite indicators of healthcare quality: a multi-method analysis" from University of Cambridge (2021)
• MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications from University of Sheffield (2015)
• MMath in Mathematics from Durham University (2011)

Dr. Barclay's research spans the entire cancer diagnostic and management pathway, with particular focus on risk of cancer in primary care patients, cancer characteristics at diagnosis (including socio-demographic variations in staging), treatment patterns, and short-term outcomes. His methodological expertise lies in applied statistics, particularly in cohort design within electronic health record datasets and developing consistent data resources for research. His work frequently employs cancer registry data, primary care records, and healthcare claims to address critical questions in cancer epidemiology and healthcare quality.

Analysis of Dr. Barclay's recent publications reveals a strong focus on cancer diagnosis pathways, particularly how symptoms present in primary care lead to cancer diagnosis. His work spans multiple cancer types but has particular emphasis on lung, colorectal, and breast cancers. Methodologically, his research combines epidemiological approaches with advanced statistical techniques applied to large-scale datasets including UK Biobank, cancer registries, and primary care records. International comparative studies through the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership represent another significant strand of his recent work.

Dr. Barclay advises postgraduate and PhD students on topics related to his research interests in cancer epidemiology and health services research. His collaborative network spans multiple institutions and countries, reflecting the international nature of his research on cancer diagnosis and treatment pathways.