Dr Katie Harron’s research aims to exploit the rich data that is collected about populations as we interact with health, social care, and educational services throughout our lives, in order to improve our understanding of the health of individuals from birth to young adulthood. She is particularly interested in gaining a clearer picture of the factors that influence maternal and childhood health service use and outcomes.

Her ongoing work aims to understand the early maternal exposures that affect outcomes following preterm birth, and the effect of intensive home visiting services for vulnerable or young mothers. She aims to maximise the potential of data linkage by developing methods that address bias due to linkage errors. By developing and applying advanced statistical techniques to multiple sources of linked data, she aims to inform policy on how to improve services for families.

Katie holds a Wellcome Trust postdoctoral fellowship, which has involved spending time at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto.