Nuria Mercade Besora

I am a DPhil student in Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at NDORMS. My research interests are on evaluating the accuracy, robustness, and limitations of statistical and epidemiological methods to enhance the quality of real-world evidence in healthcare. Through my DPhil, I aim to use the target trial emulation framework to replicate clinical trials, test and refine methodologies, and expand trial results to more diverse populations with longer follow-up periods.

I hold a BSc in Engineering Physics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and an MSc in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). My academic journey began during my BSc in the Computational Biology and Complex Systems research group at UPC, where I contributed in in silico experiments on ischemic stroke and tuberculosis, and modelled COVID-19 spread across Europe. I later joined NDORMS’ Health Data Sciences group to study the effectiveness of COVID-19 for my bachelor’s thesis, which solidified my desire to pursue a research career in epidemiology. While completing my master’s online, I also worked as a data scientist in the Real-World Cancer Epidemiology group at IDIAP Jordi Gol.

In addition to my DPhil, I work as a research assistant in the Health Data Sciences group at NDORMS, where I contribute to the development of R packages for the OMOP Common Data Model for healthcare data analysis.