Alison Macfarlane is a perinatal epidemiologist and statistician who joined City in March 2001 to lead research in the Department of Midwifery. In October 2010, she stood down from her role as research lead, but has continued to research part time since retiring from full time work in March 2011. After studying statistics at UCL, Alison worked as a statistician in agricultural research, transport surveys and on the health effects of air pollution. She then went to London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1975 to work on analyses of data relevan to the health of babies and children. In 1978, she joined the newly formed National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in Oxford and worked there until 2001 on research related to maternity care and the health of women and babies. She has particular interests in the evaluation of settings for birth, inequalities in health and children from multiple births and their families. As a statistician, she is interested in the interpretation and use of official statistics and in their relationship with policy, in relation to health and health care in their widest sense as well as to maternity issues in particular. In October 2010, she stood down from her role as research lead, but has continued to research part time since retiring from full time work in March 2011.

Perinatal epidemiology; analysis and interpretation of routinely collected data.