Research

Epidemiology and public health research

The aim of our research programme is to improve population health and reduce health inequalities by informing policy and practice at the level of society, local communities and health care services. We achieve this through collaborative research with staff from the Sections of Public Health and Health Policy, General Practice and Primary Care (Division of Community Based Sciences, Faculty of Medicine), the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, together with staff from the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, part of the Faculty of Information and Mathematical Sciences, reflecting the strongly interdisciplinary approach that informs our research.

The group’s research is organised through the following themes:

• Health improvement through health care delivery (Leaders Pell and Watt)
  • Epidemiology relevant to health care
  • Health care evaluations of interventions, technology, and delivery
• Social and community health improvement (Leader Reid)

The themes draw on a wide range of disciplines and methods, including epidemiology, statistics, informatics, health economics, psychology, sociology, geography, and anthropology. Primary care research is an integral part, and brings a distinct content and setting to our research group.

We have progressively expanded the volume of research, value of research awards, and number of academics, with a period of sustained growth. External grant expenditure for the period 2001-July 2007 was £13.25M. Funding has been gained from Research Councils (e.g. MRC, ESRC), Charities (e.g. Wellcome, Nuffield Foundations, Birthright), Government Departments in Scotland and England e.g. Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Executive Health Department (CSO), SDO, DH, and NHS (NHS Health Scotland, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, NHS R&D).
 
Our output is expanding in quality and quantity, with a quarter of publications submitted to RAE2008 published in the 4 highest impact general medical journals – the BMJ, Lancet, NEJM and JAMA.  Over 60 PhD/MD students who have either graduated or are currently enrolled were submitted, and staff  gained a number of  competitive, nationally awarded research Fellowships (from MRC, Wellcome and CSO). Studentships have been won from the ESRC, MRC, and CSO.  We have consolidated our international reputation for research on the influence of socioeconomic factors on health, facilitated by the diverse population and Scotland’s routine data systems, which are among the best in the world. We demonstrate a proven track record of using novel record linkages to conduct large-scale population studies not otherwise feasible. 

Academic/research staff contributing to this theme