Prof Laurie TomlinsonAcademic

Biography

Professor Laurie Tomlinson is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she joined in 2013 after being awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship. She also holds an honorary appointment as Consultant Nephrologist at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. Before joining LSHTM, she trained as a specialist nephrologist and worked as a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Her research uses large-scale electronic health record data — including through the OpenSAFELY platform — to study kidney disease, hypertension, and the safety and effectiveness of medicines, and she leads the LSHTM Electronic Health Records (EHR) Research Group. She is known publicly for research challenging received wisdom on hypertension prescribing by ethnicity and age, and for leading the largest study to date on long-term kidney outcomes after COVID-19.

References

1. 1.Laurie Tomlinson | LSHTM staff profile — Current role as Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at LSHTM, departmental affiliation, and publication record
2. 2.Largest study to assess long-term impact of COVID-19 on kidneys | LSHTM — Identifies Tomlinson as Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and senior author of the 2025 OpenSAFELY COVID-19 kidney outcomes study in Lancet Regional Health Europe
3. 3.Laurie Tomlinson speaker profile | eMedEvents — Background as trained nephrologist, clinical lecturer at Cambridge, Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship, and joining LSHTM in 2013
4. 4.Blood pressure drug guidance based on age and ethnicity could be the wrong approach | LSHTM — Research on hypertension prescribing and ethnicity, Wellcome Trust funding, use of UK primary care records
5. 5.Laurie Tomlinson | LSHTM EHR Research Group

Expertise

Cited on

• Learning disability & autism

Stated areas of expertise

• Chronic kidney disease epidemiology
• Electronic health records research
• Hypertension treatment and ethnicity
• COVID-19 and renal outcomes
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Health inequalities

Notable achievements

• Senior author of a 2025 Lancet Regional Health Europe study of over 13 million people — the largest to date — finding no evidence that mild COVID-19 causes long-term kidney damage, but confirming high risk after hospitalisation. Source ↗
• Co-authored a 2020 Wellcome Trust-funded study using UK primary care records challenging NICE hypertension prescribing guidance based on age and ethnicity, published via LSHTM. Source ↗
• Joined LSHTM in 2013 after gaining a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship, progressing to Professor of Clinical Epidemiology. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “I urge those parents to focus on the countless number of reputable sources of evidence published to date that do not show a link between paracetamol and autism, and to seek medical advice from their own GP or health practitioner.”

  National Institute of Health Research professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine · Learning disability & autism · 27 Aug 2026 · Wes Streeting rejects Trump claim linking paracetamol and autism ↗

• “Lots of potential risk factors for autism have been investigated and when you are doing this kind of research, it can be very difficult to disentangle what is truly a cause. People taking paracetamol or not taking paracetamol in pregnancy may be different in many ways.”

  professor of clinical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine · Learning disability & autism · 27 Aug 2026 · Is Tylenol the same as paracetamol, and should you take it in pregnancy? Here’s why experts say Trump should be ignored ↗

Source references

1. Wes Streeting rejects Trump claim linking paracetamol and autismtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. Is Tylenol the same as paracetamol, and should you take it in pregnancy? Here’s why experts say Trump should be ignoredtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/tomlinson.laurie
• LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-tomlinson-b2373631/

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.