We are delighted to share this guest blog from Kieren Egan, a Research Associate from the University of Strathclyde. Read below about Kieren’s own PhD experience and life beyond in various research posts around the world.

Kieren’s blog is part of an entire series of guest blogs written by PhD students and early career researchers, which you can read here

 I’m Kieren: a Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde where my focus is on non-communicable disease including dementia, ageing populations and mental health, where I’m exploring the role of digital technologies for health and wellbeing. My own PhD work was a bit different- it involved asking questions about trials and study designs in dementia- working with the CAMARADES group at the University of Edinburgh. At the end of this work, we identified a number of evidence-based reasons as to why candidate interventions do not always succeed in clinical trials. 

 When my PhD was concluded, I was seconded for a temporary position with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where I stayed for almost 2 years. During this time, my main task was based on the design of an Internet-based intervention to connect and empower caregivers of people with dementia- you can read more about this work here. I also worked on focus group studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses across mental health and substance abuse disorders. After a research fellow post at the University of Surrey which provided substantial epidemiological field and publishing experience through an admixed cohort study in Brazil my subsequent fellowship position continued his research interest in technology and dementia through the, ‘Technology Integrated Healthcare Management’ study. 

Returning to Scotland- only recently after many years away- I am so happy to enjoy the vibrant, forward-looking dementia research community we have and I’m keen to contribute towards it. In particular, I am looking forward to building strong, long term collaborations with colleagues both here and abroad so that we can share ongoing work and knowledge: real, and sustainable impacts on health and wellbeing are achievable, but only through working together. Please do reach out if you’d like to learn more about ongoing projects or discuss your own work- my twitter is @drkjegan.