Dr Darsy Darssan is an Accredited Professional Statistician® (PStat®) and a Fellow of Advance Higher Education (FHEA). He obtained three degrees in Statistics at mathematical sciences schools of three different universities: a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2005 at University of Jaffna, a Master of Applied Science in 2008 at RMIT University and a Doctor of Philosophy in 2014 at Queensland University of Technology.
While doing his two years full time traditional face-to-face master degree, Darsy worked as a part-time Statistician at Australian Council for Educational Research for a year.
Between the two bouts of postgraduate studies, Darsy worked for two years: as a Statistician at the University of New South Wales for a year and another year as an Associate Research Fellow in Applied Statistics at the University of Wollongong.
While doing the highest degree in Statistics Darsy worked as a sessional academic, contributed to teaching introductory statistics to various cohorts of first-year undergraduate students. Upon completion of the doctoral degree, Darsy moved to the University of Liverpool in the UK to do his Postdoctoral research in Biostatistics. Darsy returned home in late 2015 and worked as a Biostatistician at The University of Queensland for three years before taking the current position.
Career Statistician:
As a career statistician, Darsy is interested in developing or extending statistical methodologies to solve problems that arise in real-world data analysis and data collection in Biomedical research.
Service Statistician:
Darsy has experience working as a service statistician. He mainly worked on clinical trials where he was involved in study designs, randomisation, protocols development, statistical analysis plans, final statistical reports. He actively participated in data safety monitoring boards. Darsy provided statistical service to Biologists, Rheumatologists, Ophthalmologists, Nephrologist, Endocrinologist and Health Service Researchers.
Teaching @ UQ:
Post-graduate teaching
Introduction to Biostatistics (PUBH7630)
Under-graduate teaching
Health Data Analysis (PUBH2007)
I conduct research in statistical methodologies that has straightforward application in health research. My research provides steps and guidelines on advanced statistical methods for health researchers to conduct quality research.
Journal Article: Dietary patterns and the risk of abnormal blood lipids among young adults: a prospective cohort study
Ushula, Tolassa W., Mamun, Abdullah, Darssan, Darsy, Wang, William Y.S., Williams, Gail M., Whiting, Susan J. and Najman, Jake M. (2022). Dietary patterns and the risk of abnormal blood lipids among young adults: a prospective cohort study. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 32 (5), 1165-1174. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2022.01.030
Journal Article: Dietary patterns and the risks of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance among young adults: Evidence from a longitudinal study
Ushula, Tolassa W., Mamun, Abdullah, Darssan, Darsy, Wang, William Y.S., Williams, Gail M., Whiting, Susan J. and Najman, Jake M. (2022). Dietary patterns and the risks of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance among young adults: Evidence from a longitudinal study. Clinical Nutrition. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.05.006
Journal Article: Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs
Darssan, Darsy, Thompson, Mery H. and Pettitt, Anthony N. (2014). Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs. Statistics in Medicine, 33 (7), 1146-1161. doi: 10.1002/sim.6011
Modelling spatiotemporal patterns of environmental exposures and related health outcomes
(2021–2022) U21 Health Sciences Group Early Career Research Fund
The effects of maternal exposure to heatwaves on adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes in Queensland, Australia.
Master Philosophy
Epidemiology of atopy and inflammation in Paediatric Cohorts.
Doctor Philosophy
Dietary Patterns and Markers of Cardiometabolic Health among Young Adults in Australia: A Longitudinal Study
Doctor Philosophy
Model-based disease mapping
In public health and epidemiology, understanding population-based human diseases on counts of observed cases at different residential areas with relevant characteristics such as age distribution, socioeconomic status, and level of environmental exposure are essential to provide better patient care and support. Such understanding involves estimating the disease risk at a small geographic area on a spatial domain of interest. Often too low observed cases at some small geographical areas will provide unreliable disease risk estimation. Unreliable estimates raise the question of whether the underlying disease risk of a geographical location is much higher or lower than the rest? This project will answer the question above through rigorous statistical modelling. The models will use the information from the neighbouring observations at various dimensions to better predict disease risk. The underlying philosophy is well known as the first low of geostatistics – “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related”.
For this research, based on individual research interest, the potential future PhD student has the opportunity to choose a data set from Australian children, overall health survey, women health, birth cohort, kidney disease, the study of health and aging, large-scale biomedical databases or mortality data from overseas. The above-mentioned datasets are available to conduct research, but some of those will need permission to access. Based on the individual student interest in a particular disease and data set, we will submit an expression of interest to the data custodians.
An early career academic as a principal advisor provides many benefits to new PhD students. For example, an early career academic is readily available to listen more, care more, closely observe student progress and act quickly as necessary. The advisory team will also have a professor level co-advisor who will bring disease-specific knowledge to the research. Once established, possibly from the second year of the candidature, the student will have the opportunity to lead the project.
Potential future PhD students will need to contact via email, attend a meeting, write a proposal, and apply to the subsequent UQGSS scholarship round.
Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs
Darssan, Darsy, Thompson, Mery H. and Pettitt, Anthony N. (2014). Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs. Statistics in Medicine, 33 (7), 1146-1161. doi: 10.1002/sim.6011
Ushula, Tolassa W., Mamun, Abdullah, Darssan, Darsy, Wang, William Y.S., Williams, Gail M., Whiting, Susan J. and Najman, Jake M. (2022). Dietary patterns and the risk of abnormal blood lipids among young adults: a prospective cohort study. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 32 (5), 1165-1174. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2022.01.030
Ushula, Tolassa W., Mamun, Abdullah, Darssan, Darsy, Wang, William Y.S., Williams, Gail M., Whiting, Susan J. and Najman, Jake M. (2022). Dietary patterns and the risks of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance among young adults: Evidence from a longitudinal study. Clinical Nutrition. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.05.006
Meta-analysis for individual participant data with a continuous exposure: a case study
Darssan, Darsy, Mishra, Gita D., Greenwood, Darren C., Sandin, Sven, Brunner, Eric J., Crawford, Sybil L., Khoudary, Samar R. El, Brooks, Maria Mori, Gold, Ellen B., Simonsen, Mette Kildevæld, Chung, Hsin-Fang, Weiderpass, Elisabete and Dobson, Annette J. (2021). Meta-analysis for individual participant data with a continuous exposure: a case study. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 140, 79-92. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.08.033
Association of pesticides and kidney function among adults in the US population 2001–2010
Wan, En-Tzu, Darssan, Darsy, Karatela, Shamshad, Reid, Simon A. and Osborne, Nicholas John (2021). Association of pesticides and kidney function among adults in the US population 2001–2010. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (19) 10249, 1-9. doi: 10.3390/ijerph181910249
Menon, Anish, Gray, Leonard, Fatehi, Farhad, Bird, Dominique, Darssan, Darsy, Karunanithi, Mohan and Russell, Anthony (2019). Mobile-based insulin dose adjustment for type 2 diabetes in community and rural populations: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial. Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism, 10, 204201881983664. doi: 10.1177/2042018819836647
Menon, Anish, Fatehi, Farhad, Bird, Dominique, Darssan, Darsy, Karunanithi, Mohan, Russell, Anthony and Gray, Leonard (2019). Rethinking models of outpatient specialist care in type 2 diabetes using eHealth: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16 (6) 959, 959. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16060959
Nataatmadja, Melissa S., Johnson, David W., Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Hawley, Carmel M., Cho, Yeoungjee and on behalf of the balANZ Trial Investigators (2018). Associations Between Peritoneal Glucose Exposure, Glucose Degradation Product Exposure, and Peritoneal Membrane Transport Characteristics in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients: Secondary Analysis of the balANZ Trial. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 38 (5), 349-355. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2017.00223
The relationship between body mass index and organism-specific peritonitis
Jegatheesan, Dev, Johnson, David W., Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Htay, Htay, Hawley, Carmel, Clayton, Philip A., Borlace, Monique, Badve, Sunil V., Sud, Kamal, Boudville, Neil, McDonald, Stephen P. and Nadeau-Fredette, Annie-Claire (2018). The relationship between body mass index and organism-specific peritonitis. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 38 (3), 206-214. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2017.00188
Krishnasamy, R., Hawley, C. M., Jardine, M. J., Roberts, M. A., Cho, Y. J., Wong, M. G., Heath, A., Nelson, C. L., Sen, S., Mount, P. F., Pascoe, E. M., Darssan, D., Vergara, L. A., Paul-Brent, P. A., Toussaint, N. D., Johnson, D. W. and Hutchison, C. A. (2018). Design and methods of the REMOVAL-HD study: a tRial evaluating mid cut-off value membrane clearance of albumin and light chains in HaemoDialysis patients. BMC Nephrology, 19 (1) 89, 89. doi: 10.1186/s12882-018-0883-8
Zhang, Yuhui, Darssan, Darsy, Pascoe, Elaine M., Johnson, David W., Pi, Haichen and Dong, Jie (2018). Vitamin D status and mortality risk among patients on dialysis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation, 33 (10), 1742-1751. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfy016
Center Effects and Peritoneal Dialysis Peritonitis Outcomes: Analysis of a National Registry
Htay, Htay, Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Nadeau-Fredette, Annie-Claire, Hawley, Carmel, Clayton, Philip A., Borlace, Monique, Badve, Sunil V., Sud, Kamal, Boudville, Neil, McDonald, Stephen P. and Johnson, David W. (2017). Center Effects and Peritoneal Dialysis Peritonitis Outcomes: Analysis of a National Registry. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 71 (6), 814-821. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2017.10.017
Roberts, Matthew A., Darssan, Darsy, Badve, Sunil V., Carroll, Robert P., Fahim, Magid A., Haluska, Brian A., Hawley, Carmel M., Isbel, Nicole M., Marshall, Mark R., Pascoe, Elaine M., Pedagogos, Eugenie, Pilmore, Helen L., Snelling, Paul, Stanton, Tony, Tan, Ken-Soon, Tonkin, Andrew M., Vergara, Liza A. and Ierino, Francesco L. (2017). Carvedilol and cardiac biomarkers in dialysis patients: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Kidney and Blood Pressure Research, 42 (6), 1033-1044. doi: 10.1159/000485589
Outcomes of corynebacterium peritonitis: a multicenter registry analysis
Htay, Htay, Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Hawley, Carmel, Clayton, Philip A., Borlace, Monique, Badve, Sunil V., Sud, Kamal, Boudville, Neil, McDonald, Stephen P. and Johnson, David W. (2017). Outcomes of corynebacterium peritonitis: a multicenter registry analysis. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 37 (6), 619-626. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2017.00028
Nataatmadja, Melissa, Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Hawley, Carmel M. and Johnson, David W. (2017). Association between peritoneal glucose exposure and peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients: the balANZ trial. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 37 (4), 407-413. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2016.00263
Nataatmadja, M., Cho, Y., Pascoe, E. M., Darssan, D., Hawley, C. M. and Johnson, D. W. (2017). Association between peritoneal glucose exposure and peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients: the balANZ trial (vol 37, pg 407, 2017). Peritoneal Dialysis International, 37 (4), 486-486. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2017.00085
Htay, Htay, Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Nadeau-Fredette, Annie-Claire, Hawley, Carmel, Clayton, Philip A., Borlace, Monique, Badve, Sunil V., Sud, Kamal, Boudville, Neil, McDonald, Stephen P. and Johnson, David W. (2017). Multicenter registry analysis of center characteristics associated with technique failure in patients on incident peritoneal dialysis. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 12 (7), 1090-1099. doi: 10.2215/CJN.12321216
Early peritonitis and its outcome in incident peritoneal dialysis patients
See, Emily J., Johnson, David W., Hawley, Carmel M., Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Clayton, Philip A., Borlace, Monique, Badve, Sunil V., Sud, Kamal, Boudville, Neil C. and Cho, Yeoungjee (2017). Early peritonitis and its outcome in incident peritoneal dialysis patients. Peritoneal Dialysis International, pdi.2017.00029. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2017.00029
Predictors of residual renal function decline in peritoneal dialysis patients: the balANZ trial
Htay, Htay, Cho, Yeoungjee, Pascoe, Elaine M., Darssan, Darsy, Hawley, Carmel and Johnson, David W. (2017). Predictors of residual renal function decline in peritoneal dialysis patients: the balANZ trial. Peritoneal Dialysis International, 37 (3), 283-289. doi: 10.3747/pdi.2016.00206
Scarfe, Lauren, Rak-Raszewska, Aleksandra, Geraci, Stefania, Darssan, Darsy, Sharkey, Jack, Huang, Jiaguo, Burton, Neal C., Mason, David, Ranjzad, Parisa, Kenny, Simon, Gretz, Norbert, Lévy, Raphaël, Park, B. Kevin, García-Fiñana, Marta, Woolf, Adrian S., Murray, Patricia and Wilm, Bettina (2015). Measures of kidney function by minimally invasive techniques correlate with histological glomerular damage in SCID mice with adriamycin-induced nephropathy. Scientific Reports, 5 (1) 13601. doi: 10.1038/srep13601
Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs
Darssan, Darsy, Thompson, Mery H. and Pettitt, Anthony N. (2014). Incorporating adverse event relatedness into dose‐finding clinical trial designs. Statistics in Medicine, 33 (7), 1146-1161. doi: 10.1002/sim.6011
Menon, A., Darssan, D., Fatehi, F., Bird, D., Russell, A. and Gray, L. (2018). Comparison of clinical characteristics of a diabetes telehealth service with specialist face-to-face outpatients: a cross-sectional survey. The Official Journal of ATTD Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes Conference, Vienna, Austria, 14–17 February 2018. New Rochelle, NY, United States: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers.
Use of minimization in multi- center clinical trials - when to not add randomization
Pascoe, Elaine, Darssan, Darsy and Vergara, Liza A. (2017). Use of minimization in multi- center clinical trials - when to not add randomization. 4th International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference (ICTMC), Liverpool, United Kingdom, 7-10 May 2017. London, United Kingdom: BioMed Central.
Menon, Anish, Gray, Leonard C., Fatehi, Farhad, Darssan, Darsy, Bird, Dominique, Bennett, Denise and Russell, Anthony W. (2017). A comparison of characteristics of patients seen in a tertiary hospital diabetes telehealth service versus specialist face-to-face outpatients. 17th International Conference on Successes and Failures in Telehealth (SFT-17), Brisbane, Australia, 30-31 October 2017. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications. doi: 10.1177/1357633X17733295
Regional differences in arteriovenous fistula failure observed in the favoured trial
Viecelli, Andrea, Pascoe, Elaine, Polkinghorne, Kevan, Darssan, Darsy, Mori, Trevor, Hawley, Carmel, Johnson, David and Irish, Ashley (2017). Regional differences in arteriovenous fistula failure observed in the favoured trial. 54th ERA-EDTA Congress, Madrid, Spain, 3-6 June 2017. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfx153.sp593
Viecelli, A., Pascoe, E., Polkinghorne, K., Paul-Brent, P., Darssan, D., Hooi, L., Ong, L., Mori, T., Badve, S., Cass, A., Kerr, P., Voss, D., Hawley, C., Johnson, D. and Irish, A. (2016). A comparison of arteriovenous fistula failure between Malaysian and Australian and New Zealand participants enrolled in the favoured trial. The 15th Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology (APCN) and 52nd ANZSN ASM, Perth, WA, Australia, 17–21 September 2016. Richmond, VIC, Australia: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia. doi: 10.1111/nep.12887
Roberts, M., Badve, S., Carroll, R., Darssan, D., Fahim, M., Hawley, C., Isbel, N., Marshall, M., Pascoe, E., Pedagogos, E., Pilmore, H., Snelling, P., Tan, K., Tonkin, A., Vergara, L. and Ierino, F. (2016). Cardiovascular Biomarkers, Global Left Ventricular Strain, and Tolerability of the Beta-Blocker Carvedilol in Patients Receiving Dialysis. The 15th Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology (APCN) and 52nd ANZSN ASM, Perth, WA, Australia, 17–21 September 2016. Richmond, VIC, Australia: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia.
Roberts, M., Badve, S., Carroll, R., Darssan, D., Fahim, M., Hawley, C., Isbel, N., Marshall, M., Pascoe, E., Pedagogos, E., Pilmore, H., Snelling, P., Tan, K., Tonkin, A., Vergara, L. and Ierino, F. (2016). Effect of the Beta-Blocker Carvedilol On Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease in Patients Receiving Dialysis. The 15th Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology (APCN) and 52nd ANZSN ASM, Perth, WA Australia, 17–21 September 2016. Richmond, VIC Australia: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia.
Modelling spatiotemporal patterns of environmental exposures and related health outcomes
(2021–2022) U21 Health Sciences Group Early Career Research Fund
The effects of maternal exposure to heatwaves on adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes in Queensland, Australia.
Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Epidemiology of atopy and inflammation in Paediatric Cohorts.
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Dietary Patterns and Markers of Cardiometabolic Health among Young Adults in Australia: A Longitudinal Study
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Rethinking the Model of Specialist Outpatient Diabetes Care using eHealth
(2021) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.
Model-based disease mapping
In public health and epidemiology, understanding population-based human diseases on counts of observed cases at different residential areas with relevant characteristics such as age distribution, socioeconomic status, and level of environmental exposure are essential to provide better patient care and support. Such understanding involves estimating the disease risk at a small geographic area on a spatial domain of interest. Often too low observed cases at some small geographical areas will provide unreliable disease risk estimation. Unreliable estimates raise the question of whether the underlying disease risk of a geographical location is much higher or lower than the rest? This project will answer the question above through rigorous statistical modelling. The models will use the information from the neighbouring observations at various dimensions to better predict disease risk. The underlying philosophy is well known as the first low of geostatistics – “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related”.
For this research, based on individual research interest, the potential future PhD student has the opportunity to choose a data set from Australian children, overall health survey, women health, birth cohort, kidney disease, the study of health and aging, large-scale biomedical databases or mortality data from overseas. The above-mentioned datasets are available to conduct research, but some of those will need permission to access. Based on the individual student interest in a particular disease and data set, we will submit an expression of interest to the data custodians.
An early career academic as a principal advisor provides many benefits to new PhD students. For example, an early career academic is readily available to listen more, care more, closely observe student progress and act quickly as necessary. The advisory team will also have a professor level co-advisor who will bring disease-specific knowledge to the research. Once established, possibly from the second year of the candidature, the student will have the opportunity to lead the project.
Potential future PhD students will need to contact via email, attend a meeting, write a proposal, and apply to the subsequent UQGSS scholarship round.