Professor Jane Hutton works in medical statistics, with special interests in survival analysis, meta-analysis and non-random data. Her methodological research largely focuses on developing models to answer questions raised by health care colleagues, and patients. For example, collaborations with epilepsy specialists in meta-analyses led to papers on biases due to within study selection of outcomes and sub-groups, and to joint models for pre-randomisation seizure counts and post-randomised trials. Collaboration on a trial of ankle sprains has led to models for recovery rates with skew, bounded scores, with missing data.

Professor Hutton’s research has had impact through clinical guidelines and in legal cases. Work in epilepsy is cited in National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), SIGN and WHO guidance. Medico-legal cases have addressed life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, and adverse effects of drugs. Expert witness reports have been provided for cases in Australia, Canada, Eire, Hong Kong, South Africa and the four countries of the United Kingdom. The total impact is at least £100 million.

Professor Hutton has written extensively on ethics and philosophy of statistics, in response to challenges arising from medical research and discussions with international statistical colleagues and philosophers. She has contributed to Research Council ethics guidelines. She co-funded Ethics in Mathematics 2, the second Cambridge meeting on Ethics in Mathematics.