Population Health Sciences

We draw together researchers, clinicians and practitioners from public health, primary care, biomedical and social sciences - with roots going back to the first Chair of Public Health in the UK, established in 1898.

Leadership and people

The Centre for Population Health Sciences (CPHS) is led by Heads of Centre Professor Linda Bauld and Professor David Weller.

Full list of Centre for Population Health Sciences staff

Usher PhD and MD students listed by programme

Research groups

Current key research groups based in the Centre for Population Health Sciences include:

Ageing and HealthGillian Mead, Alasdair MacLullich and Susan Shenkin

Ageing and Health at the University of Edinburgh is committed to improving the health of older people by original research, by the dissemination of knowledge, and as an exemplar of excellent clinical practice.

Ageing and Health website

Anaesthesia, Critical Care and PainTim Walsh and Nazir Lone

This research group is vibrant, multidisciplinary and takes the broadest possible approach to improving patient outcomes. Their research spans a wide range of clinical specialties, disciplines, departments and research institutes and benefits from being embedded in the world class biomedical research environment provided by The University of Edinburgh.

Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain website

Chronic Disease EpidemiologySarah Wild and Caroline Jackson 
Edinburgh Applied Qualitative HealthJulia Lawton 
Edinburgh Migration Ethnicity HealthGwentta Curry 
Global Health Governance ProgrammeDevi Sridhar 
Interdisciplinary Research Group in eHealthClaudia Pagliari 
Molecular Epidemiology and Precision MedicinePaul McKeigue and Athina Spiliopolou 
Primary Care and CancerChristine Campbell and David Weller 
Primary Care and MultimorbidityStewart Mercer and Bruce Guthrie

People with multiple health problems (multimorbidity) often find healthcare difficult to navigate and coordinate, and we need to find new ways of organising care to improve quality of life while minimising treatment burden. General practice and primary care have a central role in health and social care and particularly in the care of people with multimorbidity. This is a growing area of research interest and we have a number of projects under way studying multimorbidity, particularly within the older population.

Primary Care Multimorbidity Research Group website

Primary Palliative CareKirsty Boyd

A multi-disciplinary team of clinical academics and researchers with primary care, hospital, hospice, and social science background; based at the University of Edinburgh with strong international links.

PPCRG website

Public Health Policy and Behavioural ResearchLinda Bauld and Fiona Dobbie

Including:

Behavioural Research UK

Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) is a research consortium funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The consortium serves as a leadership hub that is part of a wider ESRC programme to build national capability for behavioural research. BR-UK has been awarded funding over five years from November 2023 to conduct interdisciplinary behavioural research to contribute to addressing societal challenges.

BR-UK is led by Professor Linda Bauld from the University of Edinburgh and Professor Susan Michie from University College London.

Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) website

Respiratory ResearchHilary Pinnock

Including:

Implementing Improved Asthma Self-Management as Routine (IMP2ART)

IMP²ART aims to help general practices embed supported self-management into routine asthma care. It is funded by an NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research. The programme is led by Professor Hilary Pinnock.

IMP2ART webpage on the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research website

Resuscitation Research Group / EMERGEGareth Clegg

The Resuscitation Research Group at the University of Edinburgh is committed to research and clinical improvement with a focus on saving lives, having fun and being awesome.

The group has a range of interests themed around optimising the management of critically ill patients which includes the physiology and clinical management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, non-technical skills in time-critical resuscitation, the physiology of fluid resuscitation and the psychology of critical human interactions during the chain of survival.

Resuscitation Research Group website

Projects and Programmes

Highlighted projects and programmes from within the Centre for Population Health Sciences:

Acute Care Edinburgh (Lead: Tim Walsh)

Acute Care Edinburgh is a cross cutting initiative, hosted in the Usher Institute, within the Centre for Population Health Sciences. The group aims to bring together clinicians and researchers across multiple specialties and disciplines to generate novel clinical, health services, and translational research in relation to any acute illness.

Acute Care Edinburgh website

Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC)

The ACRC is an interdisciplinary research collaboration, combining a complementary programme of research and development to deliver innovation and change to later life care.

All Diseases of Vascular origin: International Collaboration for Evidence (ADVICE)

A group of international researchers and clinicians with expertise in evidence synthesis across a range of vascular disorders, including heart disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, vascular dementia and hypertension.

Artificial Intelligence and Multimorbidity: Clustering in Individuals, Space and Clinical Context

AIM-CISC is a research programme that aims to produce a detailed picture of multiple long-term health conditions (MLTCs) in the UK, and use the results of this research to inform future strategies in dealing with this issue.

Bowel-Star-UK

Bowel Star UK | BOWEL cancer screening STrAtified by Risk

Bowel Cancer Screening Stratified by Risk

Covid-19 and Tobacco

Generating evidence to support policy and practice to address tobacco use during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.

DASHES

Drugs and Alcohol Service users Help to Exit Smoking

Development of a Vaping Prevention Intervention in Adolescents

The aim is to develop a co-created, evidence based vaping prevention programme to be delivered in the secondary schools setting.

Homes, Heat and Healthy Kids Study

Joining up detailed health and housing data across Scotland to ensure both our homes and our children are as healthy as they can be.

PRoGRAM-A (PReventing Gambling RelAted Harm in Adolescents): a pilot cluster ranomised control trial to prevent gambling harm in young people

PRoGRAM-A logo - preventing gambling related harm in adolescents

PRoGRAM-A is peer-led, social network intervention to protect young people, their friends and family members from gambling related harm.

Shaping public health polices to reduce inequalities and harm (SPECTRUM)

We are a multi-university, multi-agency research consortium focused on the commercial determinants of health and health inequalities funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership.

Tobacco Control Capacity Programme: building capacity for applied research to reduce tobacco-related harm in low and middle income countries

Improving research capacity in Low and Middle Income Countries to conduct high quality studies that will generate evidence on how to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use, and to advance key development priorities.

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