Dennis Thomas

CAREER SUMMARY: Dr Thomas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), University of Newcastle (UoN). He is a mid-career researcher and an experienced clinical trialist with over 14 years of experience in designing and managing clinical trials. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Pharmacy from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, India. He worked in the pharmaceutical industry for almost five years as a Clinical Research Manager and acquired extensive skills and experience in clinical research (involved in 8 industry RCTs) in designing, conducting, evaluating, and communicating clinical trials. Then, he enrolled and completed a PhD program on ‘System change interventions for smoking cessation in hospitalised patients’ at Monash University, Australia, which comprised a Cochrane review, a large multi-centre RCT and development and psychometric validation of Challenges to Stopping Smoking (CSS-21) scale. Additionally, he also completed a Health Economic Analysis module from Monash University and a Professional Diploma in Clinical Research from Catalyst Clinical Service Pvt Ltd, India. He also obtained a Certified Clinical Research Associate credential (in 2010) from the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, USA. After submitting PhD, he joined as a Clinical Trial Coordinator on an NHMRC-funded smoking cessation RCT (n=1,452) comparing cytisine vs varenicline at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the University of New South Wales. After completing the RCT, he joined UoN. CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD OF REASERCH: Dr Thomas has published >40 peer-reviewed articles and some in high-impact journals including, the Lancet, JAMA, ERJ, Chest, Cochrane Database Syst Rev and Addition. He has completed 5 Australian-based RCTs from inception to completion. He is currently involved in 3 other RCTs. Dr Thomas led the study design and implementation of Australia’s largest phase 3 smoking cessation tele-trial. Dr Thomas also contributed to multiple Cochrane reviews in the area of tobacco smoking and COPD. His recent work includes exploring remission as a new therapeutic goal for the treatment of asthma and developing and evaluating digital asthma care interventions. He is currently leading a large tele-trial aimed at developing and evaluating a comprehensive national digital asthma care program in collaboration with Asthma Australia. Dr Thomas also worked and published in the area of oral corticosteroid and antibiotic stewardship in severe asthma. Dr Thomas attracted $7.5 million NHMRC research funding as a chief investigator and $2 million as an associate investigator. He also attracted more than $2 million in other research grants. RESEARCH TRANSLATION & PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT: Recently, asthma remission, digital asthma care and oral corticosteroid stewardship have gained much attention among the research community, and Dr Thomas’s work enlightened these important therapeutical concepts. Dr Thomas was instrumental in conceptualising and advancing the remission concept in severe asthma, and led the pioneering review in this area, which provided insights into how remission can be achieved in the current scenario. He also published the possibility of achieving remission using mepolizumab, omalizumab and azithromycin. His cytisine RCT showed the potential of cytisine in smoking cessation therapy, and now the drug is under consideration by the TGA and the US FDA. Dr Thomas is a member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, European Respiratory Society, Australian CT Alliance, Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco, Cochrane Tobacco Addition Group, Cochrane Airways Group and Indian Pharmaceutical Association. He also contributes to the TGA guideline development panel. SUPERVISION/MENTORING: Dr Thomas has supervised many research staff during his previous appointments, and is currently supervising three research staff, two respiratory physicians, a statistician, a post-doctoral research fellow and a PhD scholar.