Health of the Public – Using Population Data for Better Health

UCL and Birkbeck have a critical mass of population health and data science resources, combining world-leading expertise to curate, access and interpret myriad data sources and leads/partners in a number of high-profile initiatives such as Health Data Research (HDR-UK), UCL Partners and the Alan Turing Institute. CALIBER, in the UCL Institute for Health Informatics, is a research platform that includes electronic health records on 10 million patients. The ECHILD and PICNIC studies at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health link health, education, social care and environmental data for the whole population in England. UCL hosts CLOSER, which brings together UK longitudinal population studies (e.g. 1946/1958/1970 and Millennium Cohorts, ELSA), the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing and leads a number of serial cross-sectional surveys (e.g. the National Survey for Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) and the Health Survey for England). With our strengths in clinical trials methodology (including MRC Clinical Trials Unit and CRUK Cancer Trials Centre) these represent an unrivalled training environment.

UCL has a long history of leading world-class public health research, including on social determinants, and more recently has been at the vanguard of transdisciplinary research. Across UCL Faculties, there are Research Centres which hold a vast array of health, administrative and environmental datasets. The Department of Computer Science is at the forefront of using unstructured data (e.g. from social media, Twitter feeds, unique Google API, wearables and apps) and has abundant computational resource, which is in addition to UCL’s extensive centrally-funded compute cluster facilities. UCL leads major flagship programmes, providing opportunities for students to embed their research in world-leading research teams (e.g. Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH), AHRI (African Health Research Institute) population intervention platform, and i-sense, EPSRC-funded IRC in Early-Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Diseases.

Likewise, at Birkbeck we explore the experiences of individuals across all ages of the lifespan both individually, and in relation to family membership and cultural diversity. We have experts in the fields of health and wellbeing, trauma, conflict and addiction, migration, homelessness and family relationships, diversity and neurodiversity. We have wide-ranging expertise in the use of diverse scientific methods: including data synthesis (such as meta-analysis, and qualitative synthesis); intervention design; randomized controlled trials; psychometrics; advanced qualitative techniques such as interpretative phenomenological analysis as well as mixed methods. We are currently using verbal and visual data in various innovative ways, such as the use of family maps, video diaries and voice mail apps. We also have expertise in participatory design, and have extensive networks to a range of applied organisational field work sites.

The guiding principles of the HP Theme are to provide students with the opportunity to work in a world-class research and training environment, and to mentor them through their PhD to postdoctoral fellowships and other career opportunities. They will become transdisciplinary population health leaders with epidemiological and data science skills, who will be able to better understand, intervene, and evaluate responses to, major public health challenges.