Our People
John Parkinson
John is the GPRD Director. He joined in September 2005 with 10 years experience of pharmacoepidemiology and healthcare databases gained working for the University of Dundee. Prior to that he worked within the pharmaceutical industry and as a consultant to pharma, biotech and food companies.
Tjeerd-Pieter van Staa, MD PhD MSc MA (medical law)
Tjeerd van Staa, Head of GPRD Research, is a physician with a MSc in Pharmaco-epidemiology from McGill University and PhD from Utrecht University. He has more than 15 years of significant research and industry experience in pharmaco-vigilance, epidemiology and pharmacoeconomics and was European Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance. He has published over 50 epidemiology papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2005, he was awarded the Iain I Boyle Award by the European Calcified Tissue Society for significant contributions to bone disease research.
Jon Ford
Jon is the GPRD Head of Operations. He is responsible for the business and administrative functions, in particular for licensing access to the data. Jon has a wide range of experience working in the public and private sector, most recently at the GMC and National Clinical Assessment Authority.
Tim Williams PhD, MSc
Tim Williams obtained a PhD from the University of Leeds in 1995 before working within the Post Graduate Medical School at the University of Surrey as a Research Fellow where he undertook technical and research aspects of UK primary care database pharmacoepidemiology. In 2001 he moved to his current position, as an epidemiologist within the General Practice Research Database division within the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (formerly the Medicines Control Agency). He currently manages the Research Services Team at GPRD. In 2003 he completed his MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he is also an Honorary Research Fellow with the London School of Pharmacy.
Susan Eaton
Susan Eaton, M.S.P.H, M.T. (A.S.C.P.) is the Head of GPRD Customer Services, North America based in the U.S. She has a background in epidemiology, statistical programming and medical technology with more than 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has been involved in the use of large observational databases for clinical, epidemiology, and outcome studies, population projection models, disease natural history studies, and prospective naturalistic studies.
Frank de Vries PhD
Frank is a licensed pharmacist who has worked with healthcare databases -including GPRD- for more than 7 years. He has a specific interest in respiratory disease, osteoporosis and methodological topics. He has received awards from the International Society of Pharmaco-epidemiology, the European Calcified Tissue Society and the UK National Osteoporosis Society.
Bill Zhang PhD
Bill provides statistical and mathematical methodology input and advice to the GPRD research team. He has over 10 years of statistical analysis, study design, and SAS programming experience in both academic and applied settings. He has worked within the pharmaceuticals, disease management, and health plan industries in the US.