Research

We are particularly interested in developing innovative design for clinical trials so that treatments can be targeted for subgroup efficiently or sample size can be optimised in environments with limited resources. We are also interested in the outbreak detection of syndromes and surveillance for genome sequence organisms.

Innovation extends to developing outcome measures which improve public health. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale has been very widely adopted across all sectors and in many different countries. We are also interested in evidence synthesis in non-pharmacological interventions, in particular for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease, developing research on the health risks and impacts from environmental changes (eg heatwaves, cold weather) and investigating relationships between socio-economic and health.

Teaching

We are actively involved in teaching, with some of us taking on the role of personal tutor for MB ChB students, director of postgraduate taught (PGT) programmes and course director for the Masters in Public Health (MPH). We lead or co-lead various modules within the MPH programme: Health Improvement and Management for Public Health, Social Determinants of Health, Disease Prevention and Health Protection and Epidemiology and Statistics; and also Co-lead for the Social and Population Perspectives theme of the MB ChB graduate-entry medicine course. Some of the courses we teach in are Design, Analysis and Interpretation of Epidemiological Research and Understanding Research and Critical Appraisal in Health Care, and we provide seminars to the MSc Dentistry and Integrated Academic Training (IAT) at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW). We also run regular WMS Postgraduate Research (PGR) Students Statistics Help-desk.

In addition to supervising MSc and PhD students in our core research areas, we also co-supervise MSc and PhD students working on interdisciplinary areas. Some of us also act as mentors for other WMS staff.

Research Design Service

We host the Warwick Hub of West Midlands Research Design Service (WM RDS). It is a support service funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to support researchers in the West Midlands area preparing research proposals for submission to peer-reviewed funding programmes in applied health and social care. This includes support for fellowship applications.

Collaboration

We collaborate extensively both internally (e.g. Divisional of Health Sciences, Warwick CTU, Warwick Systems Biology, Warwick Cancer Research Centre, etc.) and externally (e.g. other universities, NHS Trusts, Cochrane review groups, the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Royal Society, governments, World Health Organization, etc.). We are also involved actively in external engagement such as STEM ambassador collaborating with schools in the West Midlands.