Steve Harris

Contact Details

OUCL
Wolfson Building
Parks Rd.
Oxford OX1 3QD
tel: 01865 273865
fax: 01865 283525
steve.harris@comlab.ox.ac.uk

Biog

Steve Harris graduated with a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1988, where he was the first (at Birmingham) to submit his thesis unbound and laser printed. After a spell in industry where he became a full time software engineer specialising in data-mining, CRM and warehouse management applications, he returned to the University of Birmingham in the late '90s to lead IT for two of the University's three clinical trials units. Here he overhauled information system provision in preparation for international collaboration, raised the capability-maturity of the department in anticipation of pharmaceutical collaboration, and developed systems to support multi-site warehousing for randomised double-blind study drug allocation. Steve also implemented a meta-data repository for the Birmingham Cancer Unit in support of continual process improvement in the management of clinical studies. In 2001 he moved down to Oxford to help establish the NTRAC Head Office.

Steve was seconded from NTRAC to the Computing Laboratory under Jim Davies to help develop Oxford University's contribution to clinical and bioinformatic e-Science, where he has made contributions to the e-Diamond project and the National Cancer Tissue Resource. It was on the latter project that Jim and Steve linked up with James Brenton and the scene was set for the Cambridge-Oxford collaboration in cancergrid.

Steve has a practical interest in clinical information systems for research, medical informatics, medical research system security, health care system integration, knowledge representation and very large relational databases. Recently he has become an evangelist of all things XML.

Outside of work, Steve devotes his time his two small children, his wife, a guitar collection and a band (in order of decreasing time availability).

Relevant Publications and Abstracts

A. Simpson, D. J. Power, E. Politou, M. A. Slaymaker, and S. Harris. An approach to the storage of DICOM files for grid-enabled medical imaging databases Proceedings of the Annual ACM Conference on Applied Computing (SAC '04), ACM Press, 2004.
Wilson A.S., Kitas G.D., Lewellyn P., Carruthers D.M., Cheseldine D. C., Harris S., Bacon P.A., Huisson A.P. and Young S.P. (2001). Provision of Internet Based Rheumatology Education. Rheumatology.
Ward L.C., Slegg G.P., Dunn J.A., Harvey P, Hallissey M.T., Hyde C., Begum G., Harris S., Kerr D.J. A systematic review of factors influencing the accrual of patients into cancer trials (including reasons why clinicians are reluctant to participate in national multicentre trials). NHS Health Technology Assessment report (In press, 2000)
Wilson A.S., Kitas G.D., Carruthers D.M., Reay C., Young S.P., Harris S. and Bacon P.A. (2000) Electronic Self Assessment Data Gathering in Rheumatology Clinics Rheumatology 39 (abstracts supplement 1): 77.
Carruthers D.M., Wilson A.S., Raza K., Kitas G.D., Reay C., Young S.P., Harris S. and Bacon P.A. (2000) Computerised data collection for disease assessment in a vasculits clinic. Arthritis and Rheumatism 43(9): S108.
Wilson A.S., Llewellyn P., Bowman S.J., Harris S.J., Nixon M., Bacon P.A. and Young S.P. (2001). A novel web based rheumatology educational resource: Interactive computerised case studies for undergraduate teaching. (http://webrheum.bham.ac.uk/casestudies). Rheumatology 49(1):59.
Ward L.C., Dunn J.A., Slegg G., Harvey P., Hallissey M.T., Hyde C., Begum G., Harris S.J., and Kerr D.J. Systematic review of factors influencing clinicians and patients participation in clinical trials. Proceedings - International Clinical Trials Symposium; 1999; Sydney: O6.3