UCL Department of Epidemiology

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UCL Department of Epidemiology Public Health

• Helen Barratt
• Academic Clinical Fellow StR in Public Health
• Health Care Evaluation Group, UCL

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Research Groups

• Clinical Epidemiology
• Prof Harry Hemingway
• Central and Eastern Europe Research
• Prof Martin Bobak
• Health and Social Surveys Research (ELSA and HSE)
• Dr Jenny Mindell
• Health Care Evaluation
• Prof Rosalind Raine
• MRC National Survey of Health and Development
• Prof Di Kuh
• Psychobiology
• Prof Andrew Steptoe
• Whitehall II Study

www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology
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Health Care Evaluation Group (HCEG)

• Examining the quality of health care
• Including methodological aspects of evaluation
• Main areas of interest
• (i) health care inequalities
• (ii) health care evaluation
• (iii) clinical decision making in areas of
  uncertainty.
• Multidisciplinary group

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Recent Trainee Projects

• Implications of the Gatekeeper role of the GP for
  equity
• of access to secondary care in the NHS (Dulcie
  McBride)
• Cohort study - referrals for PMB, hip pain and
  dyspepsia
• More deprived patients with hip pain and
  dyspepsia (lt 55) less likely to be referred
• No social gradient for PMB
• ? Inequalities most likely in absence of
  explicit guidance and potentially
  life-threatening condition
• Paper under review with BMJ

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Recent Trainee Projects

• Non-clinical critical care transfers (Helen
  Barratt)
• Some ITUs transfer 1/10 patients to another unit
  because of a lack of beds, others transfer none
• Why does this happen? What impact does it have?
• PhD proposal submitted to Wellcome Trust NIHR
• Quantitative analysis of ICNARC data plus staff
  interviews
• Supplementary paper in preparation
• Also time support to write up MSc project

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Recent Trainee Projects

• Tackling healthcare inequalities in bowel cancer
  screening
• Disadvantaged patients have worse survival than
  affluent patients
• Across England, screening uptake falls with
  increasing deprivation
• Project aim to devise interventions to reduce
  the socioeconomic gradient in screening uptake,
  to improve survival in all SE groups

• Socioeconomic inequalities in chlamydia screening
  and
• disease in young people (Jessica Sheringham)
• National evaluation of equity of uptake of
  screening
• Methodological research into development of
  appropriate indicators of deprivation amongst
  young adults

Chlamydia positivity by deprivation quintile
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Recent Trainee Projects

• Health Survey for England (Amina Aitsi-Selmi)
• 2 of Bangladeshi women smoke
• 18 chew tobacco, but
• 36 have cotinine levels indicating personal use.
  Why?
• Published in J Public Health
• Impact of different thresholds for the elderly on
  prevalence of anaemia
• Published in Age Ageing
• National Diet and Nutrition Survey (Ayesha Ali)
• What factors affect parents willingness to allow
  blood samples to be taken from their children for
  research?
• Paper submitted to JECH

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What will you get out of a placement?

• High quality publishable work
• Teaching experience
• Transferable skills
• Different slant on the world of public health
• FPH Competency Framework Area 9

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What do you need?

• Adequate time to undertake placement
• Established project (or at least an idea!)
• Colorectal cancer screening data
• Systematic review inequalities in use of
  secondary care
• Commitment and desire to see project through
• Supervisor you can work with
• Environment where you feel supported
• Self-motivation

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Contact Details

• Placement opportunities with HCEG
• Prof Rosalind Raine (r.raine_at_ucl.ac.uk)
• Other opportunities with UCL Dept Epi PH
• Dr Jenny Mindell (j.mindell_at_ucl.ac.uk)
• Trainee perspective
• Helen Barratt (helen_at_helenbarratt.com)

www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology