Research agenda

Pharmaco-Epidemiology

  • Determining the characteristics of patients that received a COX II inhibitor as opposed to a traditional NSAID.   Investigating how these patients have switched treatment following the withdrawal of Rofecoxib
  • Investigating which treatments patients diagnosed with heart failure receive in primary care
  • GPRD analysis includes surveillance of prescribing related with public health issues.   This currently includes an analysis of the use of antibiotics for cough colds and sore throats as well as the change in length of antibiotic treatments
  • Prevalence estimation of population obesity using Synthetic Prevalence Estimation Modelling for PCTs across England
  • Mapping the relationship between population morbidity and primary care treatment by PCT across England .  Models currently include a) asthma prescribing and asthma morbidity and b) depression prescribing and morbidity patterns

Medicines Policy

  • Service level agreements for strategic prescribing audits
  • Evaluation of the implementation of pharmacist prescribing in primary care and in hospitals
  • Technology Assessment Reviews for NICE (joint project with Birmingham University)
  • Development of a decision aid for GPs and non-physician prescribers
  • Providing an Outcomes Guarantee for a lipid lowering agent - a novel approach to clinical audit
  • Implications of M category generics
  • Public health and prioritisation
  • Academic detailing and education outreach  
  • The production of reports which map health information for small geographic areas within primary care trusts across the West Midlands .  Previous reports have detailed a) The Index of Material Deprivation (IMD 2004), b) population ethnicity, c) self reported general morbidity and d) long term limiting illness

Concordance

  • Concordance in medical consultations
  • Patient and professional models of depression and its treatment
  • Treatment information needs of inpatients on acute psychiatric hospital wards
  • Mental health service users' experience of treatment information within a complex system of health care
  • Nested qualitative study within a clinical trial of a pharmacist enabling patients taking pain killers for arthritis to optimise pain control according to patient defined goals and needs. (Joint work with Primary Care Sciences)
  • Systematic review of qualitative research on the role and value of written medicines information for patients. (Joint project with Leeds University)

Drug Misuse

  • National epidemiological study of dually diagnosed substance misuse and psychiatric disorders using the GPRD
  • Modelling the hierarchy of risk and protective factors among adolescent drug users in England
  • Estimating the prevalence of drug misuse for drug Action Teams across England
  • Review of abstracts of addiction research in the UK
  • Further information on this theme