Research Groups
Alex Walker
Director of Research
Coordinator of epidemiology research for OpenSAFELY and OpenPrescribing
I am a non-clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, with a particular interest in electronic healthcare record tools, time course analysis, risk stratification, prognosis modelling and novel computational methods in epidemiology.
I work at the Bennett institute for Applied Data Science in Oxford, primarily on OpenSAFELY and OpenPrescribing. My current activities include coordinating and conducting research within the OpenSAFELY platform, and working to build tools to make electronic health record research more transparent, reproducible and reusable.
Before coming to Oxford I was a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Nottingham, where I worked on a variety of projects relating to several disease areas, including; hepatitis C, cancer and venous thromboembolism. My work to date has mostly focused on using routinely collected data –data sources such as the CPRD, HES and ONS data– to answer pragmatic and clinically relevant questions. I completed my PhD in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at Nottingham, which involved pharmacoepidemiology, commonly prescribed drugs and cancer. Before that I completed a MSc in Oncology and a BSc in Biochemistry and Genetics.
Recent publications
Ethnic differences in Long COVID diagnosed in primary care in England (2020–2022): an observational cohort study using OpenSAFELY
Journal article
Mallinson PA. et al, (2026), Lancet Regional Health Europe, 63
Outpatient hospital attendances in people with rheumatoid arthritis during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: a cohort study in three nations of the UK
Journal article
Costello RE. et al, (2026), Rheumatology, 65
OpenSAFELY: Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination in Children and Adolescents
Journal article
Andrews CD. et al, (2026), Epidemiology Cambridge Mass, 37, 141 - 151
Patient characteristics associated with clinically coded long COVID: an OpenSAFELY study using electronic health records
Journal article
Wei Y. et al, (2025), Bjgp Open, 9