Ross Wilkie

Biography

Ross is a Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at Keele University. Ross qualified as a physiotherapist in 1992 from the Queens’ College, Glasgow and completed a post-graduate diploma in Biomechanics at Strathclyde University in 1994. Ross completed his PhD in Epidemiology in 2006 and was awarded a RCUK post-doctoral fellowship to continue with his research in health surveillance and the impact of musculoskeletal conditions and pain. In his role as Professor, he leads research and education programmes that focus on reducing health inequalities.

Ross has an international reputation in, and leads on, two themes of research. The first is health surveillance and includes projects that focus on measuring the impact of musculoskeletal conditions and pain on individuals and populations and the relationship with the wider determinants of health. Ross was chief investigator for the PRELIM and MIDAS studies which outlined the impact of musculoskeletal pain in the general population and identified methods to routinely collect information for surveillance at a population level, including in underserved populations. In 2019, Ross received an EULAR Health Professionals in Rheumatology Award in recognition of his work on osteoarthritis and mortality.

The second theme is health and work. Ross leads a programme of work that describes the extent and reasons for lost work participation linked to musculoskeletal conditions and another on healthy working life expectancy (HWLE). The HWLE projects focuses on how to extend working life and are funded by NIHR and Nuffield Foundation/Versus Arthritis.

Ross is Director of Public Health programmes at Keele, which includes Global health grand challenge pathway, Master of Public Health (online and face-to-face), and Professional doctorate in public health. Ross was awarded a Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health (by distinction) for his work combining research, education and working with local and national public health practitioners. Ross is also Deputy Director of the Keele Institute for Social Inclusion which focuses on working to reduce inequalities.

Research and scholarship

Ross’ research investigates the burden of musculoskeletal conditions at an individual and population level. He has an international reputation in measuring and identifying targets to reduce the impact of musculoskelatal conditions and pain, particularly with regards to physical activity, healthy ageing, social participation and work disability. In June 2019, Ross received an EULAR Health Professionals in Rheumatology Award in in recognition of his work on osteoarthritis and mortality.

Ross in internationally recognised for his work in two areas: Health surveillance and work.

Ross was the chief investigator for the PRELIM study (funded by Versus Arthritis) and MIDAS (funded by Nuffield Oliver Bird Foundation) and described levels of musculoskeletal health in local and national populations ( Health of the population - Keele University). The work has also developed approaches to collecting self-report data to combine with routinely collected data (including electronic health records) to describe health at a population level.
Ross leads a programme of work (funded by NIHR and Nuffield Foundation) which examines how to increase healthy working life expectancy; a population metric that estimates the number of years that people are healthy and in work. This work involves the development of datasets that include data from different domains (e.g. health, socio-demographic, work) to examine how real-life scenarios impact on extensions to working life.

Teaching

Ross is the Director of the Public Health programme at Keele; these include courses across academic levels 4 to 8). In this role he has developed and leads the online and face-to-face Master of Public Health programmes. He also developed the Global health Grand Challenge Pathway programme which is an opportunity for undergraduate students from across the university to develop knowledge and skills linked to reducing health inequalities. Ross also leads the Professional Doctorate programme in Public Health. Ross was awarded a Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health (by distinction) for his work combining research, education and working with local and national public health practitioners.

Further information

Previous committee membership includes:

• British Society for Rheumatology Heberden Committee
• British Health Professionals in Rheumatology
• Editorial board member for Arthritis Care and Research