Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon
Microsoft outage The University of Otago is impacted by the issues affecting Microsoft services globally. We are operating as usual, but be aware we are not receiving emails. Please call 0800 80 80 98 if you need to contact the University urgently. Find out more

James Stanley, UOW

PhD
Biostatistician, Research Professor

Contact details

Tel +64 4 918 6044
Fax +64 4 389 5319
Email james.stanley@otago.ac.nz

Research interests and activities

I joined the University of Otago, Wellington as a Research Fellow in April 2007. In 2024 I was promoted to Research Professor. I am also currently the Director of the Biostatistical Group at the University of Otago, Wellington.

Since joining Otago as a biostatistician, I have been a coinvestigator on over 20 large externally funded projects, including work with the C3 research group (led by Professor Diana Sarfati) on multimorbidity in New Zealand, and multiple projects on cancer-related outcomes. I also work with Research Professor Ricci Harris and Dr Donna Cormack on several projects on how racism influences health (including an HRC project for which I am the Principal Investigator, HRC 17/066), and with Professor Richard Edwards and Andrew Waa on several tobacco control projects through the ASPIRE research group. I am also a co-director of the Integrated Data Research Group.

I am currently Director of the Biostatistical Group for the Wellington campus, where my role includes coordinating colleagues and collaborating with researchers across the campus and the broader community. As well as these roles, I teach biostatistical and research methods in several formal courses at UOW (including co-convening the HASC417 Research Methods paper), as well as developing and running practical workshops on statistical methods for staff and students.

Prior to joining the University of Otago as a biostatistician, I trained and worked as an experimental psychologist, with a PhD from the University of Otago (graduated 2004) and post-doctoral experience in cognitive neuroscience (University of Birmingham in the UK, 2004-2006).

Research groups

Other research links

Our work on comorbidity and multimorbidity has included several indices for adjusting for morbidity load in epidemiological and population-level studies.
We have SAS code available for these indices (C3, PBCI, M3 and P3).

Google Scholar James Stanley
Publons James Stanley

Publications

Barthow, C., Stanley, J., Betty, B., Ranchhod, D., Coler, M., Kuiper, N., … McKinlay, E., & Krebs, J. (2026). Health complexity, metabolic health and service use in a high-need primary care population in Aotearoa New Zealand: A cross-sectional study. New Zealand Medical Journal/Te ara tika o te hauora hapori, 139(1644), 43-63. doi: 10.26635/6965.7540 Journal - Research Article

Darlow, B., Brown, M., Keenan, R., Hudson, B., Clark, J., Wilson, R., … Vincent, L., Simmonds, S., … O'Loughlin, E., … Grainger, R., Hood, F., McKinlay, E., … Abbott, J. H., & Stanley, J. (2026). Knee Care for Arthritis through Pharmacy Service (KneeCAPS) versus active control for knee osteoarthritis in Aotearoa New Zealand: A pragmatic community-based randomised controlled effectiveness trial. Lancet Regional Health: Western Pacific, 76, 102008. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2026.102008 Journal - Research Article

Keenan, N. F., Stanley, J., Stairmand, J. L., Ali, S., Andersen, E. W., Davis, S. L., & Sadleir, L. G. (2026). Differences in epilepsy etiology, type, syndrome, and severity between Māori and non-Māori-non-Pasifika children with epilepsy in New Zealand. Neurology, 107(10), e218746. doi: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000218688 Journal - Research Article

Gurney, J., Stanley, J., Davies, A., on behalf of the Cancer and Chronic Conditions (C3) Research Group. (2026). C3 Research Group Technical Report: Defining cancer treatment using New Zealand National Collections data. (pp. 1-62). Wellington, New Zealand: Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Poneke | University of Otago, Wellington. doi: 10.82348/our-archive.00375 Working Paper; Discussion Paper; Technical Report

Mansoor, Z., Fortune, S., Buchanan, M., Schaverien, P., Bell, E., & Stanley, J. (2026). Parental involvement in intervention for early adolescent anxiety and depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Early Adolescence. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/02724316261485879 Journal - Research Article

Back to top