Primary Care & Health Sciences

I graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1997 and subsequently undertook training in general medicine in Nottingham and Western Australia. On my return to the UK in 2001, I embarked upon specialist training in rheumatology in the East Midlands. During this period, I undertook my doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Michael Doherty at the University of Nottingham, researching the epidemiology and treatment of gout in primary care. I came to Keele in 2007 as a Clinical Lecturer in Rheumatology at the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at the Haywood Hospital. I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

My research interests embrace epidemiological studies and trials across three main areas: (1) the prognosis and optimal treatment of patients referred with musculoskeletal disease from primary to secondary care (“interface studies”), (2) foot pain and osteoarthritis, and (3) gout. This work has been funded by Arthritis Research UK, and the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme and the National School for Primary Care Research. I supervise medical students, Academic Foundation trainee, Academic Clinical Fellows, and Masters and PhD students across these areas. Current active research collaborators include researchers in Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and the USA.

I lead a 4-week “Quantitative Research Methods” Student Selected Component for Module III undergraduate medical students, and teach and examine throughout the five years of the undergraduate medical curriculum. I teach on the MSc Rheumatology Nursing, M level module “Musculoskeletal Management at the Interface”, and the Centre’s external course “Practical introduction to running randomised clinical trials”. I undertake clinical teaching for GPs, hospital physicians, podiatrists, physiotherapists, and Rheumatology specialist trainees. I also provide clinical educational supervision for Specialist Registrars in Rheumatology, and Core Medical and Foundation trainees.  

I currently serve on the British Society for Rheumatology’s Heberden Committee and the Development Committee for the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA) Standards of Care for Gout.