Primary Health Care DPhil

University of Oxford

The Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science (NDPCHS) has been one of the world’s most important primary care centres for over 20 years, leading world-class research and training to rethink the way healthcare is delivered in general practice and other primary care settings, both across the UK and globally.

Integrating evidence and innovation, the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences' main research focus is on the prevention, early diagnosis and management of common illnesses, health services research and digital health.

The department has methodological strengths in qualitative and applied research; randomised trials; analysis of big data; and evidence synthesis. Much of its research is interdisciplinary and strongly focused on producing benefits for healthcare systems, for the population and for patients.

The department has research groups that are involved in developing and testing complex interventions to prevent non-communicable disease, enhancing self-management of chronic conditions, changing practitioner behaviour and testing interventions for the optimal management of infectious disease and digital health.

You can find a list of potential projects on the department's website (see Further Information and Enquiries). If you are interested in one of the listed projects please contact the supervisor directly. You are welcome to come up with your own research project. If this is the case, the department's website also provides an overview of the research conducted and the researchers in the department (see Further Information and Enquiries). Contact the supervisor(s) that you identify as being most suitable for your proposed project.

Admission to the DPhil is highly competitive. The DPhil programme provides you with a strong training environment and a broad range of research areas and supervisor expertise. Previous research topics (student background in brackets) include:

• The evaluation and expansion of methodologies relating to the reporting and analyses of intermediate test results: improving the clinical utility of diagnostic research (statistician)
• Targeted prevention and management of cardiovascular risk in low and middle income countries; an implementation intervention for cardiovascular risk scoring in Kenya (nurse/midwife)
• Antibiotic prescribing and resistance in primary care: implications for intervention (GP)
• Optimising the management of hypertension in pharmacies (pharmacist)
• Management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in the postpartum period (obstetrician)
• Using conversation analysis to evaluate and design a brief weight loss intervention in primary care (anthropologist)
• Self-management of weight in adults with overweight and obesity: characterising and evaluating cognitive and behavioural strategies (behavioural scientist)
• Weight loss as a predictor of cancer in primary care (GP)
• The optimisation of HbA1c testing in UK primary care (statistician)
• An exploration of the information and decision support needs of people with multiple sclerosis (social scientist)
• Developing and evaluating behavioural interventions to reduce meat consumption (psychologist)
• Supporting successful self-management strategies for people living with chronic pain who have been excluded from pain programmes (physiotherapist)
• Developing and testing an intervention to reduce salt intake (public health)
• Biostatistical and meta-research approaches to assessing diagnostic test use (physician).