One of Europe’s leading university departments of population health sciences, the Department of Public Health and Primary Care has as its mission to generate evidence to inform the prevention of premature death and disability, the promotion of health, and health policy.
Comprising over 450 members, the Department is distinctive for its multidisciplinary character and research strengths across quantitative and qualitative methods, cohort studies, genetic epidemiology, public health, primary care, and social and behavioural sciences. This diverse expertise is cross-linked in “team science” efforts that tackle grand challenges in the understanding, prediction, prevention and control of common chronic diseases. Patient and public involvement and engagement are prioritised throughout.
The Department is home to enviable population research resources, including global consortia (such as the 2.5 million-participant Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration), multi-centre cohort studies (for example, the world’s largest cardiovascular disease case-cohort study, EPIC-CVD, which is embedded in the 520,000-participant pan-European EPIC cohort), unusually deeply-characterised cohorts (for example, the 50,000-participant INTERVAL study), and a variety of community-based randomised trials.
A further notable feature of the Department is its strategic partnerships with external organisations, including NHS Blood and Transplant, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, RAND Europe, Health Foundation, industry, and policy-makers at local, national and international levels. These partnerships facilitate multidisciplinary research projects, ensure relevance to population and health service need, and accelerate translation of findings into policy and practice.
We have highlighted some research themes that cut across the Department’s multiple groups and units:
- Biological Basis of Disease
- Early Detection of Disease, Risk Prediction and Screening
- Behaviour and Health
- Health Services Research
- Global Health