Professor Tansy Edwards

Research interests

Tansy’s research is focussed on the design and analysis of trials to evaluate therapeutics, vaccines and other global health interventions, for diseases and health outcomes affecting vulnerable populations across Africa and Asia.

Tansy has extensive experience in the design, analysis, implementation and reporting of a variety of trial designs (phase 2, 3, 4, superiority, non-inferiority, factorial, group sequential, individually randomised, cluster randomised) and rigorous epidemiological studies to address global health research questions.

Tansy is particularly interested in identifying solutions to the challenges of trial design and implementation for therapeutics and vaccines for rare infectious diseases, including neglected tropical diseases and those with outbreak potential.

As the Deputy Director and Head of Statistics for the Global Health Trials Unit, Tansy leads a team of statisticians providing end-to-end input into a broad portfolio of trials in GHTU.

Tansy is also the statistical lead of the Evidence Synthesis Unit and statistical advisor to the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Thematic Group.

Biography

Tansy has a degree in Mathematics from The University of Leeds, a MSc in Medical Statistics from The University of Leicester and a PhD in Applied Statistics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

Tansy began her career in global health research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2003. Tansy was based overseas as a visiting scientist in Kenya from 2010-2013.

PhD and DrPH Supervision:

Amna Abdulsalam. Digital health interventions to improve access to quality ANC services for pregnant women in Nigeria. (2025 – ).

Nathaniel Lee. Improving the evidence base for therapeutic interventions for Leptospirosis (2022 – ).

Lauren Hashiguchi. Longitudinal modelling of glucose control and TB treatment outcomes in persons with TB and Diabetes in the Philippines (2022)

Jacqueline Lim. The burden of dengue in Africa (2019)

Tansy holds and has held several statistical advisory panel roles for PhD students, including projects relating to epidemiology of tuberculosis, diphtheria, malaria, trachoma.

Selected research publications

Leptospirosis—clinical review and updates on therapeutics – Journal: The Lancet Infectious Diseases – Published: 17th April 2026

Performance of diagnostic procedures for bubonic plague in endemic settings in Madagascar: a prospective test accuracy sub-study within the IMASOY trial – Journal: Clinical Microbiology and Infection – Published: 1st April 2026

Practical inference for a complier average causal effect in cluster randomised trials with a binary outcome – Journal: Clinical Trials – Published: 16th October 2025

Ciprofloxacin versus Aminoglycoside-Ciprofloxacin for Bubonic Plague. – Journal: New England Journal of Medicine – Published: 6th August 2025

Corticosteroids for treatment of leptospirosis – Journal: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – Published: 24th July 2025

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