Rate My Professor Stephen Bremner

Professor Stephen Bremner BSc, MSc, PhD, FHEA is Professor of Statistics & Epidemiology in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London, where he is based in the Division of Methodologies within the Florence Nightingale Faculty. He joined King’s on 22 September 2025 from his previous role as Professor of Medical Statistics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (2019–2025), during which time he played a key role in developing the Brighton & Sussex Clinical Trials Unit. Bremner’s research centres on improving healthcare in community settings through the design, analysis, and reporting of pragmatic randomised controlled trials of complex interventions. He also conducts rigorous pilot and feasibility studies to assess viability for larger trials, alongside health services research and epidemiological analyses using linked routine patient data from primary and secondary care. His work examines health effects of air pollution, causes of childhood allergy, and risk factors for severe mental illness and associated health service use. As co-investigator, he has contributed to multiple NIHR- and MRC-funded trials in mental health, palliative care, and public health.

A prominent example is the NIHR Health Technology Assessment-funded REDUCe 2 Study, evaluating palliative long-term abdominal drains versus repeated drainage in untreatable ascites due to advanced cirrhosis, featuring community nurse/carer-led drainage, prophylactic antibiotics, home visits, and referrals to community palliative care. Bremner holds editorial and leadership positions as co-Editor-in-Chief of the BioMed Central journal Pilot & Feasibility Studies and co-Chair of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration Registered Clinical Trials Units Statistics Operations Group, influencing standards in clinical trial methodology. He teaches Advanced Quantitative Research Methods and delivered his inaugural lecture in April 2026. Key publications include 'Peer support for discharge from inpatient mental health care: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial' (The Lancet Psychiatry, 2022), 'Effectiveness of an unguided modular online intervention for high anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic' (2024), and 'Evidence for peripheral neuroinflammation after acute whiplash' (2025).