2003: Rory Collins, London Storbritannien

”Cholestorol-lowering trials in their epidemiological contex”

Rory Collins qualified in medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, University of London, in 1981 and obtained BSc in statistics from George Washington University, Washington DC in 1977 and MSc in statistics from the University of Oxford in 1983. In 1981 he joined the University of Oxford's Clinical Trial Service Unit, under Professor Richard Peto, and Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, under Professor Peter Sleight, primarily to coordinate large-scale clinical trials of the treatment of heart attacks with Professor Salim Yusuf. In 1985 he became co-director of the ClinicalTrial Service Unit and was awarded a British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellowship. In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, supported by the British Heart Foundation. Professor Collins' work has been in the establishment of large-scale randomised controlled trials of the treatment of heart attacks, of other vascular disease, and of cancer, whilealso being closely involved in developing approaches to the combination of results from related randomised controlled trials ("systematic overviews" or "meta-analyses") that allow the more reliable assessment of treatment effects.