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News

Featured:

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh OBE starts as new Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

Awards & appointments

Meeting Minds 2024

Digital health & innovation Research methods & EBM Students

Department's Centre for Research Equity launches historic partnership to advance health equity in Northern Ireland

A large group of prescription medication bottles sit on a table in front of a man who is holding and looking at one of the pill bottles out of focus in the background. The image is photographed with a very shallow depth of field with the focus being on the pill bottles in the foreground.

OpenSAFELY provides vital real-time data to support NHS ambition for safer opioid use

Big data

Older woman checking prescription with cell phone

Common heart medication ineffective for kidney disease patients, new study finds

Researchers from NDPCHS have found that a widely used heart medication, spironolactone, does not help prevent heart problems in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The study, published in Nature Medicine, found no significant benefit from the drug and highlighted safety concerns that led many patients to stop the treatment.

Shedding light on menopause products on BBC Panorama

Dr. Anne-Marie Boylan, Senior Researcher in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, featured in a BBC Panorama investigation examining menopause products and their scientific backing.

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh OBE starts as new Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

Awards & appointments

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh takes over the role of Head of Department from Professor Richard Hobbs CBE from 1 October 2024

Meeting Minds 2024

Digital health & innovation Research methods & EBM Students

For over a decade, The University of Oxford's Alumni Weekend, Meeting Minds, has been bringing alumni back from all corners of the globe to inspire, entertain and delight through lectures, tours and music. This year Meeting Minds was held on the weekend of 20-22 September, in many venues across Oxford.

MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student Gurpreet Singh Kalra addresses women’s reproductive health in the workplace

MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student Gurpreet Singh Kalra recently spoke at the Saïd Business School, addressing women’s reproductive health in the workplace.

Healthcare specialist holding pills, tablets or vitamin in hand. Prescription of doctor concept. Pharmacy, drug store, medicine. Medic in white clothes show medication. Health care vector illustration

Antiviral molnupiravir offers only modest longer-term benefits for COVID-19, finds new paper from the PANORAMIC trial

COVID-19 Clinical trials

Can the long-term consequences of COVID 19 be reduced through the use of novel antiviral medicines? New research from the PANORAMIC trial, run in NDPCHS Clinical Trial Unit and funded and delivered by the NIHR, has found that treating vaccinated, higher-risk adults with COVID-19 with the antiviral drug molnupiravir offers only modest benefits when it comes to reducing long term effects of the acute illness.

Student collage

NDPCHS postgraduate programmes open for application for 2025

Students

We are now inviting applications for all of our postgraduate programmes based within the department for 2025.

A broken cigarette lies next to scattered tobacco, spelling out the word 'STOP' on a light blue background. The image symbolises the act of quitting smoking.

Three top strategies for quitting smoking

Health behaviours

Top three strategies for quitting smoking: e-cigarettes, varenicline, and cytisine. New review summarises data from fourteen Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Reviews of over 150,000 participants, providing evidence-based guidance for smokers seeking to quit.

Celebrating the success of our 2024 UNIQ+ interns

The Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences congratulates its 2024 UNIQ+ interns for completing their summer research projects, contributing valuable insights in health care and gaining vital experience for their future careers.

Logo for PANORAMIC (Platform Adaptive trial of NOvel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of COVID-19 In the Community). The logo features a stylized representation of a panoramic view, with three rectangles containing partial circular shapes with spikes, resembling a coronavirus. Below is the project name and full title in dark blue text.

PANORAMIC Trial Learnings: Shaping Future Pandemic Research

NIHR report highlights PANORAMIC trial's global impact on primary care pandemic research, offering key learnings and recommendations for future studies to enhance preparedness and patient outcomes.

The image depicts a tiny human figure attempting to restrain an enormous red coronavirus particle with teal strings against a stark, gray backdrop, symbolizing humanity's struggle against the pandemic.

The scale of Long COVID: New study highlights the widespread impact

COVID-19

A comprehensive state-of-the-art review published today in The Lancet has revealed the widespread impact of Long COVID, providing crucial insights into the condition's biological mechanisms and outlining key areas for future research.

Home healthcare nurse with disabled teenage boy

Identifying early symptoms associated with a diagnosis of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancers

QResearch

Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences have conducted the largest ever study examining symptoms of cancer in children, teenagers and young adults (CTYA) presenting to GPs. The research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, provides crucial new insights that could help improve early diagnosis of cancer in young people.

Nurse visiting senior patient at home. She is talking with senior woman about his condition and getting personal information.

Potential in deprescribing: reducing blood pressure drugs shows promise for improving older patients' care

In the largest study of its kind to date, new research from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford has found that reducing blood pressure medication in older adults with well-controlled blood pressure is likely to be safe in the long term, allowing doctors to simplify medication regimes.

A group of twelve people from the event posing for a photo in a room with a high ceiling and stained glass windows. They are standing and sitting around a table covered with a blue cloth featuring the University of Oxford logo. Behind them is a large screen displaying the title "Digital Health Equity Workshop: Designing Inclusive Health Technologies, Thoughtfully." The screen also shows logos of the University of Melbourne and Cogniss.

Congratulations to Hackathon Prize winners: Highlights from Centre for Digital Transformation of Health workshop

Congratulations to our students who participated in the Hackathon Prize competition as part of a workshop for the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health. DPhil student Gina Wren's team came in first-place and MSc in Applied Digital Health student Anton Elepaño's team took second-place.

MEdIC's Medical Education Masterclass Series 2024

Exciting Opportunity: MEdIC's Medical Education Masterclass Series 2024

Students Teaching

Medical Education Masterclass Series 2024: Open for Registration! Imperial College London's Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC) is offering its annual medical education masterclass series.

Junaid Hameed (left) and Clare Hornby (right) stand side by side, smiling, while holding an award. Behind them is a screen displaying the logo and name of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)

Junaid Hameed and Clare Hornby win Best Student Presentation Award at the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) Research and Publishing Conference

Congratulations to students Junaid Hameed and Clare Hornby on their Best Student Presentation Award! Junaid and Clare are final-year medical students (now about to graduate) in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. They were taking part in a project supervised by Dr Sharon Dixon. Read Junaid and Clare's reflections on their experience attending the conference and receiving the award below.

A large group of prescription medication bottles sit on a table in front of a man who is holding and looking at one of the pill bottles out of focus in the background. The image is photographed with a very shallow depth of field with the focus being on the pill bottles in the foreground.

OpenSAFELY provides vital real-time data to support NHS ambition for safer opioid use

Big data

Amid concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic might have led to increases in opioid prescribing, a new study from researchers at the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, demonstrates how the OpenSAFELY database can be used to conduct detailed analyses of opioid prescribing practices, in line with key recommendations from recent NHS England guidance aimed at preventing and reducing opioid harm.

Department's Centre for Research Equity launches historic partnership to advance health equity in Northern Ireland

Department's Centre for Research Equity partners with Northern Ireland to advance health equity. This groundbreaking collaboration aims to improve health outcomes, reduce disparities, and ensure research benefits all communities through inclusive, community-driven approaches.

A crowd of people in summer clothes stand in the garden of Rhodes House under cream sunshades in front of trees and the Rhodes House building.

A toast to Primary Care: Celebrating growth and Professor Richard Hobbs' leadership at NDPCHS summer party

Awards & appointments Internal

On Friday 21 June, more than 200 members of our department gathered for our summer party, held this year in honour of Professor Richard Hobbs, our outgoing Head of Department. The party was a perfect blend of celebration and reflection, marking the end of Richard’s 13-year tenure at the helm.

A woman wearing a red headscarf receives a vaccine injection from a healthcare professional wearing a face covering.

Study shows disparity in COVID-19 vaccines uptake for immunocompromised individuals, despite evidence of vaccine effectiveness and safety

COVID-19 QResearch

A new study by researchers at NDPCHS has shown disparities in vaccine uptake in immunocompromised individuals across ethnic and socioeconomic groups, despite evidence that vaccines are safe and effective for patients with weakened immune systems.

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