Macey is a senior researcher within the Conduct Methodology Programme at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. She is funded by Health Data Research UK to develop ways to enhance the conduct of clinical trials with routinely collected healthcare data, and is currently seconded with NHS DigiTrials (NHS Digital & NHSX) to improve data access for trialists.

Initially trained as a medical biochemist, Macey has worked in different roles within clinical trials (phase 1-4) in industry and academia, beginning in data management, then to trial management, spending five years coordinating large international breast cancer trials at Imperial College London.

Between 2003 and 2015, Macey conducted research in pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, latterly as a Teaching and Research Fellow at the Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research based at the School of Pharmacy, University of London (now UCL School of Pharmacy). The Centre began in 2002 as a fruitful collaboration between the School, the Institute of Child Health, and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, to focus research activities specifically in paediatric pharmacy. Macey undertook doctoral studies in the use and safety of antidepressants in young people using routinely collected primary care data, and was awarded her PhD in September 2009. Macey participated in four European Consortia to investigate paediatric medicines use and safety, and represented the School in the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP), participating in the Working Group on Guidance for Data Integration; the guidance was later incorporated into the ENCePP’s guide on methodological standards.

In 2015, Macey joined the Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit (CCTU) to manage a large UK multicentre trial in sexual health (HIPvac) in collaboration with the Mortimer Market Centre. Following the successful completion of HIPvac in 2018, Macey moved teams to set up the CCTU’s largest ever trial to date (OPTIMAS) which aims to recruit approx. 3500 patients with acute ischaemic stroke and atrial fibrillation from >100 hyperacute and acute stroke units in the UK.

Macey moved to the MRC Clinical Trials Unit in September 2019. Her research role within the Trial Conduct Methodology team enables Macey to bring together her extensive experience to develop ways to improve access, quality and use of routinely collected healthcare systems data to enhance the conduct of clinical trials. 

As of Oct 2021, Macey is the primary supervisor of an MRC-funded PhD student, working closely with the UKCTOCS trial team to develop an algorithm to determine ovarian cancer recurrence using routinely-collected health data.