Miles Witham

Personal profile

Biography

Dr Witham graduated from Oxford University and worked in a number of hospitals in the south of England and Australia before discovering the delights of Scotland. He undertook his PhD in Dundee running a randomised controlled trial of exercise training for older chronic heart failure patients, before taking up post as Clinical Lecturer in Ageing and Health in 2003.

In October 2007, he commenced an NES / CSO Clinician Scientist award, with a duration of 5 years; he completed clinical training in geriatrics and general medicine in late 2009 before taking up post as Clinical Senior Lecturer in Ageing and Health, becoming Clinical Reader in Ageing and Health in July 2013.

Dr Witham works as an honorary consultant geriatrician with NHS Tayside, undertaking community geriatrics work, general older people’s outpatients and helps to run the Dundee Memory Clinic service. He is a member of the Health Services and Population research Committee (Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government) and contributes to the Scottish polypharmacy guideline working group.

Research

Pleiotropic interventions to improve the health of older people:

Multimorbidity is the norm in older people, but most interventions are tested in younger people without comorbid disease, who take few other medications. Conducting trials in typical frail older people is therefore critical if we are to build the evidence base we need to treat older people, and this forms a major focus of work in our department. Recent trials have included extensive work on the cardiovascular effects of vitamin D in different populations, the effects of exercise training in older heart failure patients, interventions for muscle weakness in older people, and a large, ongoing trial of bicarbonate for older patients with advanced CKD.

Finding interventions with multiple beneficial effects in older people (e.g. on cardiovascular disease, bone health, sarcopenia) is a key goal – such interventions could circumvent the hazard and inconvenience of polypharmacy –i.e. having to take multiple medications for each illness an older person has. By using routinely collected health, functional and social care data, we aim to find potential candidate interventions that might provide overall benefit to the health and function of older people, and use this observational data as a platform for future trials.

Teaching

Dr Witham runs the third year Ageing and Health teaching and examining, and contributes to administering, marking and examining fourth year undergraduate geriatric medicine teaching. He also contributes to medical postgraduate and nursing staff teaching, and runs the Tayside StR Research training course for higher specialist medical trainee doctors. He is an associate member of the Higher Education Academy.

Education/Academic qualification

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Dundee

Award Date: 1 Jan 2005

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Oxford

Award Date: 1 Jan 1995

Bachelor of Arts, University of Oxford

Award Date: 1 Jan 1992

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Projects

1 Active
19 Finished

Leucine and ACE Inhibitors as Therapies for Sarcopenia; a Two by Two Factorial Randomised Placebo Controlled Trial (Joint with NHS Tayside, Imperial College London and University of Aberdeen)

Donnan, P., George, J., McMurdo, M., Struthers, A., Sumukadas, D. & Witham, M.

1/11/15 → 30/06/20

Project: Research

Oral Iron, Intravenous Iron or Discontinuation of Therapy for Older Adults with Treatment-unresponsive Iron Deficiency Anaemia A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial - RAINDroP

Hands, K., Smith, B. & Witham, M.

1/01/18 → 31/12/19

Project: Research

Developing Theory Based Interventions to Minimise Drop-out in Randomised Trials (Joint with Universities of Aberdeen, Manchester, Liverpool and City University of London)

Witham, M.

1/08/17 → 31/03/19

Project: Research

Podiatry Interventions to Reduce Falls in Older people - A Systematic Review (Joint with Glasgow Caledonian University and University of Stirling)

Morris, J. & Witham, M.

1/03/17 → 1/09/17

Project: Research

How Does Medication Use Affect Levels of Physical Activity in Older People?

Clarke, C. & Witham, M.

1/03/16 → 28/02/17

Project: Research

Research Output

4024 Citations
28 h-Index
120 Article
24 Meeting abstract
22 Letter
10 Editorial
18 More

Effect of multiple episodes of Acute Kidney Injury on mortality: an observational study

Walker, H., De Souza, N., Hapca, S., Witham, M. D. & Bell, S., 10 Feb 2020, In : Clinical Kidney Journal. 8 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

4 Downloads (Pure)

Ability of verbal autopsy data to detect deaths due to uncontrolled hyperglycaemia: testing existing methods and development and validation of a novel weighted score

Blackstock, S., Witham, M. D., Wade, A. N., Crampin, A., Beran, D., Ogle, G. D. & Davies, J. I., 18 Oct 2019, In : BMJ Open. 9, 10, p. 1-8 8 p., e026331.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

53 Downloads (Pure)

Effect of vitamin K2 on postural sway in older people who fall: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Witham, M. D., Price, R. J. G., Band, M. M., Hannah, M. S., Fulton, R. L., Clarke, C. L., Donnan, P. T., McNamee, P., Cvoro, V. & Soiza, R. L., 18 Jun 2019, In : Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 6 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File