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Overview

Professor Joan Morris

Professor of Medical Statistics
Conducting research on the surveillance and prevention of congenital anomalies
Population Health Research Institute
jmorris@sgul.ac.uk
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Overview

My research focuses on the epidemiology of congenital anomalies and the safety of medications in pregnancy. I am the  primary investigator on the EUROlinkCAT study which involves supporting 22 registries in 14 countries in Europe to link their data on births with congenital anomalies to hospital episode statistics, national mortality data, prescription data bases, GP data and education data. The aim is to obtain more information about the lives of children children with congenital anomalies up to 10 years of age. I also work on the ConcePTION study which aims to improve safety of medications used in pregnancy.

Professor Morris received her MSc. in medical Statistics from Oxford University in 1985 and her PhD in Epidemiology from London University in 1992. She became a Chartered Statistician in 1994. Since then she has worked extensively with Professors Nicholas Wald and Malcolm Law in the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. She was appointed Professor of Medical Statistics in 2008. Professor Morris was the director of the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register from 1999 to 2014.

In 2018 she joined the Population Health Research Institute at St George's University of London.

Professor Morris is currently scientific leader of EUROCAT and PI of the EUROlinkCAT study

Professor Joan Morris is a statistician/epidemiologist who focuses on the epidemiology of congenital anomalies. She is

  • The scientific leader of EUROCAT - the European network of congenital anomaly registries and is responsible for the statistical methodology used by EUROCAT to provide surveillance of congenital anomalies. She has particular interest in the prevention of Neural Tube Defects by folic acid fortification and in Down syndrome (as Director of the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register)
  • A member of the EUROmediCAT consortium, which includes all EUROCAT registries who collect data on first trimester medications. Her work focuses on the routine detection of potential new teratogens.
  • PI of the Horizon 2020 project EUROlinkCAT which involves supporting 22 registries in 14 countries in Europe to link their data on births with congenital anomalies to hospital episode statistics, national mortality data, prescription data bases, GP data and education data. The aim is to obtain more information about the lives of children children with congenital anomalies up to 10 years of age.
  • Lead statistician on the EPICure project at UCL. EPICure is a series of studies of survival and later health among babies and young people who were born at extremely low gestations – from 22 to 26 weeks in the UK.
  • Collaborator with Professor Sir Nicholas Wald and Professor Law in their work on cardio-vascular prevention at QMUL. She is the lead statistician involved with the H Pylori Screening study which screened and treated 56,000 people for H Pylori infection and is following them up for over 20 years to determine if this will reduce their risk of stomach cancer.

ORCID : 0000-0002-7164-612X

 

Publications January 2021 to October 2022:

  1. Coi, A., Santoro, M., Pierini, A., Rankin, J., Glinianaia, S. V., Tan, J., . . . Morris, J. K. (2022). Survival of children with rare structural congenital anomalies: a multi-registry cohort study.. Orphanet J Rare Dis, 17(1), 142. doi:10.1186/s13023-022-02292-y
  2. Tan, J., & Morris, J. K. (n.d.). Preterm birth and prescriptions for cardiovascular, antiseizure, antibiotics and anti-asthmatic medicine in children up to ten years of age: A population-based data linkage cohort study across six European regions. BMJ Open.
  3. Rissmann, A., Tan, J. W. L., Glinianaia, S. V., Rankin, J., Pierini, A., Santoro, M., . . . Morris, J. K. (n.d.). Causes of death in children with congenital anomalies up to age 10 in 8 European countries. BMJ Paediatrics Open.
  4. Morris, J. K., & Wald, N. J. (2022). Importance of getting the right UK folic acid fortification policy.. Arch Dis Child. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2022-324437
  5. Urhoj, S. K., Tan, J., Morris, J. K., Given, J., Astolfi, G., Baldacci, S., . . . Garne, E. (2022). Hospital length of stay among children with and without congenital anomalies across 11 European regions-A population-based data linkage study.. PLoS One, 17(7), e0269874. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269874
  6. Latos-Bielenska, A., Marcus, E., Jamry-Dziurla, A., Rankin, J., Barisic, I., Cavero-Carbonell, C., . . . Morris, J. K. (2022). COVID-19 and children with congenital anomalies: a European survey of parents' experiences of healthcare services. BMJ OPEN, 12(7). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061428
  7. Garne, E., Tan, J., Loane, M., Baldacci, S., Ballardini, E., Brigden, J., . . . Morris, J. (2022). Gastrostomy and congenital anomalies: a European population-based study.. BMJ Paediatr Open, 6(1). doi:10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001526
  8. Wald, N. J., Bestwick, J. P., & Morris, J. K. (2022). Multi-marker risk-based screening for prostate cancer.. J Med Screen, 29(2), 123-133. doi:10.1177/09691413221076415
  9. Damkjaer, M., Urhoj, S. K., Tan, J., Briggs, G., Loane, M., Given, J. E., . . . Morris, J. K. (2022). Prescription of cardiovascular medication in children with congenital heart defects across six European Regions from 2000 to 2014: data from the EUROlinkCAT population-based cohort study.. BMJ Open, 12(4), e057400. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057400
  10. Santoro, M., Coi, A., Pierini, A., Rankin, J., Glinianaia, S. V., Tan, J., . . . Morris, J. K. (2022). Temporal and geographical variations in survival of children born with congenital anomalies in Europe: A multi-registry cohort study.. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. doi:10.1111/ppe.12884
  11. Dolk, H., Damase-Michel, C., Morris, J. K., & Loane, M. (2022). COVID-19 in pregnancy-what study designs can we use to assess the risk of congenital anomalies in relation to COVID-19 disease, treatment and vaccination?. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol, 36(4), 493-507. doi:10.1111/ppe.12840
  12. Glinianaia, S. V., Rankin, J., Pierini, A., Coi, A., Santoro, M., Tan, J., . . . Morris, J. K. (2022). Ten-Year Survival of Children With Congenital Anomalies: A European Cohort Study.. Pediatrics, 149(3). doi:10.1542/peds.2021-053793
  13. Howarth, C. N., Leung, T. S., Banerjee, J., Eaton, S., Morris, J. K., & Aladangady, N. (2022). Regional cerebral and splanchnic tissue oxygen saturation in preterm infants - Longitudinal normative measurements.. Early Hum Dev, 165, 105540. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2022.105540
  14. Wald, N., Bestwick, J., & Morris, J. (2022). Risk or chance.. J Med Screen, 29(2), 68. doi:10.1177/09691413211068296
  15. Morris, J., Orioli, I. M., Benavides-Lara, A., de la Paz Barboza-Arguello, M., Tapia, M. A. C., de França, G. V. A., . . . Dolk, H. (2021). Prevalence of microcephaly: the Latin American Network of Congenital Malformations 2010-2017.. BMJ Paediatr Open, 5(1), e001235. doi:10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001235
  16. Orr, J., Freer, J., Morris, J. K., Hancock, C., Walton, R., Dunkel, L., . . . Prendergast, A. J. (2021). Regional differences in short stature in England between 2006 and 2019: A cross-sectional analysis from the National Child Measurement Programme.. PLoS Med, 18(9), e1003760. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003760
  17. Loane, M., Given, J. E., Tan, J., Reid, A., Akhmedzhanova, D., Astolfi, G., . . . Morris, J. K. (2021). Linking a European cohort of children born with congenital anomalies to vital statistics and mortality records: A EUROlinkCAT study.. PLoS One, 16(8), e0256535. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256535
  18. Pitt, M. J., & Morris, J. K. (2021). European trends in mortality in children with congenital anomalies: 2000-2015.. Birth Defects Res, 113(12), 958-967. doi:10.1002/bdr2.1892
  19. Cavadino, A., Sandberg, L., Öhman, I., Bergvall, T., Star, K., Dolk, H., . . . Morris, J. K. (2021). Signal Detection in EUROmediCAT: Identification and Evaluation of Medication-Congenital Anomaly Associations and Use of VigiBase as a Complementary Source of Reference.. Drug Saf, 44(7), 765-785. doi:10.1007/s40264-021-01073-z
  20. Morris, J. K., Garne, E., Loane, M., Barisic, I., Densem, J., Latos-Bieleńska, A., . . . EUROlinkCAT Consortium. (2021). EUROlinkCAT protocol for a European population-based data linkage study investigating the survival, morbidity and education of children with congenital anomalies.. BMJ Open, 11(6), e047859. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047859
  21. Morris, J. K., Addor, M. -C., Ballardini, E., Barisic, I., Barrachina-Bonet, L., Braz, P., . . . Bermejo-Sanchez, E. (2021). Prevention of Neural Tube Defects in Europe: A Public Health Failure.. Front Pediatr, 9, 647038. doi:10.3389/fped.2021.647038
  22. Marlow, N., Ni, Y., Lancaster, R., Suonpera, E., Bernardi, M., Fahy, A., . . . Johnson, S. (2021). No change in neurodevelopment at 11 years after extremely preterm birth.. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed, 106(4), 418-424. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2020-320650
  23. Cuckle, H., & Morris, J. (2021). Maternal age in the epidemiology of common autosomal trisomies.. Prenat Diagn, 41(5), 573-583. doi:10.1002/pd.5840
  24. Ni, Y., Beckmann, J., Hurst, J. R., Morris, J. K., & Marlow, N. (2021). Size at birth, growth trajectory in early life, and cardiovascular and metabolic risks in early adulthood: EPICure study.. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed, 106(2), 149-155. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2020-319328
  25. Tan, J., MacCallum, P., Curry, N., Stanworth, S., Tait, C., Morris, J. K., & Green, L. (2021). Correction of international normalised ratio in major bleeding related to vitamin K antagonists is associated with better survival: A UK study.. Thromb Res, 197, 153-159. doi:10.1016/j.thromres.2020.11.011

Research Group

High Claridge : Project Manager EUROlinkCAT

Joachim Tan : Statistician

Elena Marcus : Research Assistant

Jo Brigden : Statistician

 

Collaborations

Professor Morris is a member of the Population Health Research Institute.

 

External collaborations

Queen Mary University of London                                                   

Professor Malcolm Law, Professor Narendra Aladengady

Ulster University                                                                                   

Professor Helen Dolk, Dr Maria Loane

Leicester University

Professor Liz Draper

Oxford University

Professor Jennifer Kurinczuk

UCL

Professor Nicholas Wald, Professor Neil Marlowe

Newcastle University                                                                           

Professor Judith Rankin

University Hospitals, Southampton                                                  

Dr Diana Wellesley

University of Bristol                                                                             

Dr Karen Luyt

Public Health Wales National Health Service Trust                       

Mr David Tucker

Hospital Lillebaelt, Denmark                                                              

Dr Ester Garne

Medical School University of Zagreb                                                

Professor Ingeborg Barisic

Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland                             

Professor Ana Latos-Bielenska

Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen,Netherlands               

Dr Hermien de Walle

CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Italy                                        

Dr Anna Pierini

Università Degli Studi Di Ferrara, Italy                                             

Dr Amanda Neville

Otto-Von-Guericke-Universitaet Magdeburg, Germany               

Dr Anke Rissmann

University Hospital Center of Toulouse, France                              

Dr Christine Damase-Michel

Associação Técnica–Científica de Estudo Colaborativo

Latino, Brazil                                                                                         

Professor Ieda Orioli

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