"All models are wrong, but some are useful." - George Box

Public

Name:

Dr. Daniel Weiand

Job title:

Consultant Microbiologist

Qualifications:

MBChB, FRCPath, MMedEd, RCPathME

Background:

Daniel joined Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation as a Consultant Medical Microbiologist in 2015, and has a special interest in nephrology, urology, solid organ transplantation (kidney and pancreas), vascular surgery, medical education, clinical informatics (#RStats @NHSrCommunity) and quality improvement. Before moving to the North East, Daniel trained in Aberdeen, Sheffield, York, Hull and Leeds. Additional responsibilities include: Associate Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University; Medical Examiner for Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath); “Q” fellow at The Health Foundation. Daniel is enrolled in the 2024/25 PG Cert in Clinical Data Science at Manchester University.

Website:

https://www.newcastlelaboratories.com

Twitter:

@send2dan

GitHub:

https://github.com/send2dan/public/

ORCiD

ORCiD iD 0000-0001-5854-3452

Information for anyone in the NHS who is interested in learning how to code and/or keen to check out what colleagues across the NHS are doing with code:

R is one of the most commonly used languages for data science, together with Python.

It is a powerful, entirely free open source data science and statistics environment, used in industry, academia and major corporations (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Facebook).

It benefits from a worldwide community that freely shares learning and resources, through e.g. GitHub

The Goldacre report actively promotes the use of R in the NHS.

To learn how to code in R:

• NHS-R delivers free-to-NHS-staff online introductory training on R and RStudio/Posit. It’s free to register. These courses are really popular and spaces are limited to about 20 per session. Sessions are scheduled once a month. For further information, please contact: [email protected].

• Also see NHS-R community blog: https://nhsrcommunity.com/blog/

• There are also many (!) excellent, free textbooks (e.g. R4DS)

• NHS-R supports a thriving Slack community, which is an excellent resource for when you get stuck (most useful if you are able to share a reproducible example of the problem you're encountering)

To see what colleagues across the NHS are doing with code:

• NHS-R and NHS.pycom run the premier data science conference in the NHS, along with regular skill-based webinars

• The free-to-NHS conference is really of excellent quality, very well organised, and well attended: Book your ticket to avoid disappointment!

• You’re welcome to check out my public GitHub code repository, which includes presentations I’ve delivered (and the code used to deliver them), e.g. an online workshop on Producing Parameterised Reports using purrr and Quarto; and a plenary talk on Predicting Antimicrobial Resistance Rates (AMR) using R and Sharing the Results in the form of Parameterised Reports produced using Quarto.

NUTH now actively supports the use of R at scale, and it can be installed on any work PC (simply call IT and ask to be added the “SCCM-R” group)