Dr Katherine E Walesby

Biography

I am a Specialist Registrar in Geriatric Medicine based in South-East Scotland and an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh. My sub-specialist interests lie in cognition, dementia, and movement disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease.

I graduated in Medicine with distinction from Newcastle University in 2007, having previously completed a Master of Research in Medical and Biomolecular Sciences, also with distinction, in 2006. As part of my MRes, I undertook field work at the MRC Unit in The Gambia. I went on to complete my Foundation Training in Newcastle, Core Medical Training in Edinburgh and Fife, and Specialty Training in Geriatric and Internal Medicine in Tayside. During this time, I also completed my postgraduate qualifications, including the MRCP and the Specialty Certificate Examination (SCE) in Geriatric Medicine.

I later undertook an out-of-programme clinical research fellowship at the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, where I completed my PhD in 2025. My thesis, titled “Dementia and location: lessons from geography and data linkage to routinely collected data,” explored the relationship between geography and dementia diagnosis.

During my PhD, I was awarded an MRC PhD Studentship travel grant to visit New Zealand. While there, I collaborated with researchers to explore dementia and geographical variation using their national Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) system. In 2020, we published a study on dementia prevalence using New Zealand’s secondary care health data. Our methodology has since been adopted and expanded by other researchers investigating dementia prevalence in New Zealand.

In Scotland, my PhD research focused on dementia diagnosis in relation to urban or rural living. Using the Scottish Mental Survey 1947 (SMS1947) linked with routinely collected health data, I found that living in urban areas was associated with a higher likelihood of dementia diagnosis compared to rural areas.

After completing my PhD, I returned to clinical training in South-East Scotland to complete my Specialty Training in Geriatric Medicine. I continue to be actively involved in research, particularly in the use of routinely collected data to inform care for older adults.

I have a strong interest in data science and ageing and was part of the founding team of the Ageing Data Research Collaborative (ADRC), in partnership with the British Geriatrics Society. Through this group, we have co-authored articles advocating for the advancement of big data research in ageing and organised workshops at national and international meetings to promote knowledge-sharing and collaboration. I am also a founding member of the Special Interest Group (SIG) in Big Data within the European Geriatric Medicine Society.

Currently, I am completing work from my PhD for publication and am involved in the NIHR Associate Principal Investigator training programme for the COBALT clinical trial (Memantine versus cholinesterase inhibitors for treating Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia). Alongside this, I am engaged in audits and quality improvement projects, with a continued focus on dementia and Parkinson’s disease. I also sit on the Technical Advisory Group with Public Health Scotland, contributing to the Dementia Index for the Scottish Government.