Mrs Ediri O’Brien

Biography

Ediri O’Brien is a Trial Manager at the Global Health Trials Unit, based in the Department of Clinical Sciences of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM).

After earning a BSc (Hons) in Applied Psychology, Ediri worked in health and education for 10 years before transitioning into health research with a midwifery research role at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2005, delivering trials on gestational diabetes, preterm birth, infant skincare, and postpartum haemorrhage. In 2014, she completed an MPhil at the University of Manchester, focusing on ethnic differences in babies’ skincare.

She joined the University of Liverpool’s Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit in 2015, coordinating trials on preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, and breast cancer treatments, until her passion for maternal and infant health led her back to this field and her current role at LSTM.

Now with over 20 years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research, Ediri is committed to improving women and infants’ health through clinical trials and supporting capacity strengthening for partners in Low- and Middle-income Countries.

Research interests

Since joining LSTM in 2019 Ediri has undertaken trial management of two EDCTP funded projects including a cluster-RCT trial to improve hand hygiene in rural Uganda with the aim of reducing neonatal illness and currently manages an adaptive platform RCT of antimalarial treatment in first trimester pregnancy in Mali, Burkina Faso and Kenya.

She has collaborated with the Centre for Childbirth, Women’s, and Newborn Health, managing two NIHR funded cluster randomised controlled trials in Sub-Saharan Africa – one increasing antenatal care contacts in rural Tanzania and another improving perinatal bereavement support in Kenya and Uganda.

Ediri is a member of the LSTM Research Ethics Committee and a Research Integrity Champion.