Mr Tao Chen

Biography

Tao Chen is a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics at the Global Health Trials Unit at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM).

He gained his first degree in Medicine in 2006, an MSc in 2009, and completed a PhD in 2012 in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Peking Union Medical College and Tsinghua University.

Tao has worked extensively in clinical trials for more than 15 years across industry and academic initiatives, and a wide range of medical specialties including cardiovascular disease, cancer, surgery, HIV, malaria, and diabetes.

Prior to his role at LSTM, Tao worked at the University of Liverpool and the University of York as a Research Fellow in Health Economics, primarily on trial-based and model-based health economics evaluation. His insights stemmed from understanding how health economics plays a crucial role throughout the life cycle of clinical trials.

Tao has a strong commitment and background in peer review activities. He conducts regular statistical reviews for journals and is an editor board member at BMC Medicine and Aging Medicine. He is also on the data and safety monitoring committees of several national and international trials and the LSTM Research Ethnics Committee.

Research interests

Tao’s research focuses on three main areas. Statistical – including health economic – issues in design, analysis, and reporting in clinical trials for medical and public health problems. Synthesising existing evidence using IPD or study-level trial data to inform policy and practice decisions. Mathematical modelling to project future impact of interventions on clinical outcome, equity, and health cost.

Tao has published more than 100 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Infectious Diseases, and JAMA Internal Medicine.

Teaching

Tao primarily teaches quantitative methods as applied in clinical and public health research. He enjoys supervising PhD students who want to pursue doctoral research in his areas of expertise.

Selected research publications

Patient-Reported Outcome scale for Bronchiectasis (BE-PRO): development and validation in China – Journal: Annals of Medicine – Published: 6th October 2026

Novel Transvalvular Flow Criteria Reduce Indeterminate Stress Echocardiography and Refine Risk Stratification in Low-Gradient Aortic Stenosis – Journal: Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging – Published: 23rd September 2026

Delivery strategies for malaria chemoprevention in the post-discharge management of children hospitalised with severe anaemia or severe malaria: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled implementation trial in Benin – Journal: BMJ Open – Published: 28th August 2026

Development of a database for investigating characteristics and quality of published clinical trials in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: design, implementation, and application – Journal: Trials – Published: 27th July 2026

Individual participant-level analysis of four randomized clinical trials examined therapeutic effects of blood pressure lowering on hierarchical kidney outcome using win statistics – Journal: Kidney International – Published: 1st July 2026

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