Isla contributes to undergraduate, postgraduate and multidisciplinary teaching and examining.

Her research focuses on improving cardiovascular outcomes and drug safety and efficacy using a combination of clinical trials and pharmacoepidemiological approaches to answer important clinical research questions. She has a particular interest in decentralised clinical trials and was the academic lead of a work package in the European IMI Trials@Home project (2019-2025).

Fellowship of learned societies
• British and Irish Hypertension Society (Fellow)
• British Pharmacological Society (Fellow)
• Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh (Fellow)

Committee appointments
National:
Sports Resolutions Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators. Specialist Member of National Anti-Doping Panel (2018-present)
Vice-chair and trustee of Scottish Heart and Arterial disease Risk Prevention (SHARP) Group (2015-)
British and Irish Hypertension Society Collaborative Research Working Party (2014-present)

Trial Steering Committees:
Chair of SUPPORT steering committee, Trinity College Dublin.
Co-vice chair of ASCEND PLUS steering committee, University of Oxford.
Member of LENS steering committee, University of Oxford.
Member of Blood Donors Studies Steering Committee, University of Cambridge.
Member of OCCUR steering committee, University of Keele.

Data Monitoring Committees:
Chair of CARE-UK data monitoring committee, Imperial College, London.
Chair of WAVE data monitoring committee, Queen Mary University of London.
Member of AFFECT data monitoring committee, University of Newcastle.