Academic Training Programme Placements for Public Health Registrar Training

The School of medicine holds an Academic Contract with Public Health England, providing expert advice and research against priority areas of musculoskeletal health and health inequalities, work and musculoskeletal health, primary care data and prescribing, musculoskeletal and mental health comorbidity, and healthy ageing.

Our epidemiologic research draws on a combination of population surveys with individual consent to linkage to anonymised electronic health record data, Clinical Practice Research Datalink (nationally representative primary care data covering approximately 4.5m population), and CiPCA databases (covering approx. 120,000 local residents in North Staffordshire from 2000-present), and other secondary data sources (e.g. government-sponsored surveys and longitudinal studies).

Projects will be aligned with the priorities agreed with Public Health England in their Academic Contract with staff in the School of Medicine. A number of research projects will be outlined and can provide the basis for discussion with potential supervisors (please contact Dr Ross Wilkie) for further information or to arrange an informal discussion). Projects based on the analysis of already collected data will be favoured over those requiring the collection of new data due to time constraints in obtaining Health Research Authority approval. Students will be able to negotiate the specific nature of their research project within these priority areas and constraints. We would expect that the findings from the research project would be presented to PHE and submitted as an original article to a peer-reviewed journal*.

Students will be encouraged to develop a personal learning and development plan and to take advantage of the range of training opportunities available in the School of Medicine, notably:

  • Monthly epidemiologic methods tutorials, based on guided reading and group discussion
  • Systematic review workshop programme
  • On-the-job support and training in the analysis of primary care EHR big data
  • Journal clubs (Statistics & Epidemiology, Trials and Implementation)
  • Methodology Seminar Series (past topics are available to view)
  • Workshops on academic research development offered by the Academic Development (AD) team based within the Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence (KIITE)
  • External seminars and internal seminar series
  • Informal opportunities to meet and discuss the workings of Clinical Trials Units, to visit an academic general practice, to sit in on Patient & Public Involvement and Engagement stakeholder meetings, meetings with national PHE representatives, shadow reviewing of grant applications and research articles
  • Teaching public health sessions to undergraduate students on the MBChB Medicine

Formal training opportunities that would require additional funding * includes:

  • Enrolment on taught M-level modules, e.g. Statistics & Epidemiology
  • Registration for MPhil

The HEE code for the academic placement for PH SpR is: ALCLF7 

Students will be based in the School of Medicine in the David Weatherall Building on Keele Campus and be provided with desk, computer, login and keypass.