QRESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Professor of Medical Statistics
Carol Coupland is a Professor of Medical Statistics in Primary Care at the University of Nottingham and works one day a week as a senior researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. She has conducted many research projects using QResearch data which have been published in high impact journals such as the BMJ. Her key research interests are in the development and validation of algorithms for predicting risk of disease and evaluating safety of commonly prescribed medications.
Dr Brian McMillan is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research, a practising GP, and a Registered Health Psychologist. His research interests include the application of digital technology and psychological theory to improving patients' experiences of primary care. He is currently exploring how patients' online access to their primary care health record could enhance patient activation.
Brian is funded by the NIHR as an NIHR Advanced Fellow. After qualifying with a BSSc in Psychology from Queen's University Belfast, he completed a PhD at the University of Leeds and worked there as a Research Fellow before returning to student life to study Medicine. He completed his medical academic foundation training in York, was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Sheffield during his GP training, and then moved to Manchester to take up a post as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care in 2016.
I have have been a GP partner for over 30 years. In addition to part time clinical practice, I joined the Academic Unit of Primary Medical Care at the University of Sheffield in 1993, initially as an undergraduate teacher and later as a Senior Clinical Lecturer. I lead the ‘Under-served populations' research theme in the department and my research and clinical practice focuses on inclusion health.
Dr Hui Guo is Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics and Lead of the Centre for Biostatistics at The University of Manchester. Hui has been a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute since 2018. Her research focuses on causal inference (in particular, Bayesian Mendelian randomization) and multimorbidity from observational studies. She is also interested in exploring biological causal pathways/networks of certain diseases by using large-scale multi-omics data.
Ian is an NHS GP in Berkshire and Clinical Director at EMIS Group, where his work focuses on General Practice, Research and Population Health and has overseen the introduction of new clinical applications in these domains.
He is also the UK Medical Director for Big Health who make digital treatments for mental health disorders. He is a current board member of RCGP Thames Valley and past First5 Chair for the college.
Jennifer is a Senior Researcher working as part of the QResearch team as Senior Researcher and Epidemiologist. She is currently leading a study to determine the uptake, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in people living with blood cancer using the QResearch database.
She has expertise in quantitative methods, meta-analysis, managing UK-based and international multicentre clinical studies, clinical epidemiology and qualitative data collection and analysis. She is also module coordinator for the Meta-analysis module which is part of the University of Oxford's Evidence Based Health Care, Medical Statistics and Systematic Review Masters programme
Jennifer is a deputy chair of the QResearch Advisory Board.
Kate Best is a senior research fellow based in the Academic Unit of Ageing and Stroke Research at the University of Leeds. Kate is a medical statistician interested in applying statistics to routinely collected health data in order to improve the health and social wellbeing of the population. She has experience developing and validating prognostic models using large linked primary, secondary and social care data. Previously, Kate was based at Newcastle University where she developed predictive models to estimate prevalence and survival of rare congenital conditions using linked population-based register data.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher at the Health Economics Research Centre
Koen Pouwels is a senior researcher at the Health Economics Research Centre in the Nuffield Department of Population Health. He holds a PhD in pharmacoepidemiology and an MSc in Medical Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Groningen). Having previously held posts at Public Health England (2015-2018), he came to Oxford in January 2019. His research focuses on causal inference, spatiotemporal modelling, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, economic evaluations, and Bayesian statistics.
Job Titles:
- Patient Representative
- Social Scientist
Patricia Wilkie is a social scientist particularly interested in the patient perspective. She is Chair and honorary president of the National Association for Patient Participation. She has spent much of her working life as a researcher in academic departments of medicine. Research topics included the ethical, social and psychological implications of genetic disease, of HIV and Aids and aspects of changes in prescribing. Patricia helped establish the National Childbirth Trust in Scotland and has worked with many voluntary organisations including the Huntington Chorea Association and the Patients Association.
Patricia established patient groups in several Medical Royal Colleges and was the first lay co-opted member on the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and chairman of their lay committee. She has chaired a research ethics committee and has been a lay associate at the GMC. She was one of the first of two lay members of the Committee on Safety for Medicines and chaired the working group on patient reporting of adverse drug reactions.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- NDORMS Senior Research Fellow
Dr Paula Dhiman is an NDORMS Senior Research Fellow in Medical Statistics. She is the Nigel James Junior Research Fellow in Medical Statistics at Pembroke College. She is a member of the UK EQUATOR Centre based in the Centre for Statistics in Medicine at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. Paula is motivated to improve the design, quality, and integrity of future medical research by advancing statistical methodology research, reviewing medical research and educating the next generation of researchers.
Paula is funded by Cancer Research UK Prevention and Population Research Committee for a project to develop sample size guidance for prediction models developed using machine learning. She is also the cross-cutting statistical lead for the NIHR Blood Transfusion Research Unit in Data Driven Transfusion Practice. Her research interests lie in three areas, statistical methodology, applied statistics and meta-research, linked by a focus on prediction modelling for medical research.
Paula was awarded a PhD in Medical Statistics (Primary Care) from the University of Nottingham in 2015. She investigated the methodology behind how new risk factors are assessed and incorporated into established risk prediction models, which led her to combine statistical and health economic methodologies to assess new risk factors by means of their cost effectiveness. She has extensive experience in working with very large and routinely collected datasets, including QResearch, CPRD and THIN, and advising clinicians and researchers regarding their research proposals.
At the Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Paula investigates how medical research is done, which is known as meta-research or ‘research on research'. She focuses on the methodological conduct and reporting of non-randomised research, with a view to help improve the quality and integrity of future research. Her work is funded by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and will include a methodological audit of studies funded under any NIHR BRC.
Much of her work experience has been as a medical statistician within Primary Care at the University of Nottingham. More recently, she worked as an advisor for the Research Design Service (East Midlands), helping researchers and clinicians apply for funding for their research through study design, and grant writing.
She was awarded a PhD in Medical Statistics (Primary Care) from the University of Nottingham in 2015. She investigated the methodology behind how new risk factors are assessed and incorporated into established risk prediction models. Her research led me to combine statistical and health economic methodologies to assess new risk factors by means of their cost effectiveness.
Rebecca is a research scientist and has worked at both Cancer Research UK and The University of Cambridge. She holds a B.Sc (Hons), M.Res, and Ph.D in molecular biology and the life sciences. Rebecca has been working in patient involvement in research as a patient representative for nearly eight years. Rebecca is an active member of a number of health research panels including a NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Committee and the NICE Health Technology Assessment Committee D. She has a wealth of experience including writing patient facing documents, ethics, reviewing grant applications and experience as a research co-applicant.
Rebecca is living with a number of long term health conditions and a hidden disability. She is the main carer for a child with special education needs. She hopes to bring a patient perspective to the committee and make sure that research is relevant and important to patients, carers, and their families.
Job Titles:
- GP Researcher
- Trustee of Oxford Against Cutting
Sharon has been a GP for 25 years, and a part time GP partner since 2010. She is involved in medical student teaching, including on health inequalities and the social determinants of health, and in supporting medical student advocacy for refugees and asylum seekers.
Sharon also works as a GP researcher. She has been involved in qualitative research on primary care perspectives on pathways to care across a range of service needs (including using diagnostic tests, safeguarding, domestic violence and abuse, endometriosis, and Female Genital Mutilation), research on understanding and improving equity in research, and research on partnership priority setting for technology development in women's health. She is currently an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow, undertaking a mixed-methods research study seeking to improve the evidence base for managing adolescent period pain in primary care.
Sharon is a trustee of Oxford Against Cutting, a rights based advocacy charity working to end harmful cultural practices suffered by girls and women living in the Thames Valley. She has acted (acts) as a college representative for the RCGP at FGM and safeguarding meetings.
Job Titles:
- Chief
- Professor in Clinical Epidemiology and General Practice at the University of Oxford
Julia Hippisley-Cox is the Chief Investigator for QResearch and is responsible for ensuring that data access is provided in accordance with the protocol, ethics approval for the research database and following the advice of the Advisory and Scientific Committees.
Julia Hippisley-Cox is the Chief Investigator for QResearch and Professor in Clinical Epidemiology and General Practice at the University of Oxford. She is a Professorial Fellow and a Trustee of St Anne's College Oxford and an NHS GP, an Honorary Consultant with NHS England and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Until Aug 2023 JHC had a 50% shareholding in ClinRisk Ltd, co-owning it with her husband who is a director. The company licences software both to the private sector and to NHS bodies or bodies that provide services to the NHS (through GP electronic health record providers until Aug 2023, pharmacies, hospital providers and other NHS providers). This software implements algorithms developed from access to the QResearch database during her time at the University of Nottingham. in August 2023, 100% of the shareholding for ClinRisk Ltd was donated to Endeavour Health Care Charitable Trust. JHC is a consultant for the company which has been renamed to Endeavour Predict Ltd.
A ‘family carer' with over 35 years' experience; hence has extensive experience of dealing with NHS health professionals particularly GPs, pharmacists, and community mental health care staff. He has over 12 years experience of involvement in health education, training and research, a co-applicant on many research studies and has assisted in successfully obtaining funding on a number of occasions. He sits on 2 NHS England committees and 7 Health Education England Boards in London. He is a Public Reviewer for the N.I.H.R and sits on a Pre-Submission Panel for the Research Design Service (Northwest).
Antony Chuter is passionate about improving healthcare for all in the UK. He has lived with chronic pain for over 22 years and he is especially interested in patient safety and also E-Health. He chairs the Patient Liaison Committee at the British Pain Society, is chair of Pain UK; a charity which works to improve the support and care of people who live with pain and he is a past chair of the Patient Partnership Group at the RCGP.
Antony is an experienced lay co applicant - having worked on more than 6 national projects. He believes that healthcare research is the way to make substantial change in patient safety, care and experience of healthcare in the UK and beyond.
Antony is a deputy chair of the QResearch Advisory Board.
Job Titles:
- BMA Representative
- Retired Economist
Jonathan (Jon) Ford is a retired economist. He was educated at Colfe's School and the University of Kent. After working in econometrics in the electricity supply industry, he joined the British Medical Association (BMA) in 1976 as an Economic Research Officer and retired as head of its Health Policy and Economic Research Unit (HPERU) in 2013. A specialist in Labour Economics originally, his interests now include Health Economics, Resource Allocation and Health and Social Policy.
Job Titles:
- Patient and Public Involvement ( PPI ) Manager
Polly is Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Manager for the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. She has a background in health communication and supports researchers in the department in integrating patient and public experience and expertise into their projects. She works closely with PPI colleagues across the Medical Sciences Division to deliver training and establish consistent PPI policies, and is also leading on national work to develop accreditation for PPI staff. She has a keen interest in promoting the relevance and importance of health research to a wider audience, and in ensuring that such research is appropriate and accessible to patients and the general public.