NIHR RDS London

Professor Michael King, Professor of Primary Care Psychiatry
Joint Lead

Michael King completed his medical studies in New Zealand before coming to the United Kingdom to undertake a vocational training in general practice at the Hammersmith Hospital. He then moved to the Maudsley Hospital to train in psychiatry and later trained in psychiatric epidemiology at the General Practice Research Unit in the Institute of Psychiatry under the leadership of the late Professor Michael Shepherd. Thus, much of his research focuses on primary mental health care. He is interested in how GPs recognise and manage mental health problems and the epidemiology of such problems in primary care populations. He has particular expertise in the methodology of randomised trials of complex interventions in primary and secondary care. He also has research and clinical interests in cognitive behaviour therapy and in sexual medicine.

 

Professor Irwin Nazareth, Head of Dept of Primary Care & Population Health & Director MRC GPRF
Joint Lead

Irwin started working at the UCL in 1990 as a Sir Jules Thorne Research Fellow and then as a MRC funded fellow. He has a wide range of clinical research interests and has over the years obtained funding from the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, BUPA and the National Institute of Health Research for translational clinical research activities.

Irwin is also Scientific Director of the MRC General Practice Research Framework, the largest national general practice resource of research practices in the UK and is the Director of PRIMENT one of the 17 fully registered UK Clinical Research Collaboration Clinical Trials Unit which focuses on the design, conduct and analyses of randomised trials on primary care and mental health. His international research interests extend to current research on depression in Europe funded by the European Commission V Framework, Quality of Life Programme and primary care research in deprived areas of the Eastern Cape of South Africa supported by the British Council and the Sir Halley Stewart Charitable Trust and collaboration with India on the evaluation of chronic diseases in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine and Public Health Foundation of India. He is a part time general practitioner at a RCGP Investigator led research practice, the Keats Group Practice in Hampstead which has a focus on research.

 

Faye Owen, Research Co-ordinator & Advisor

Faye’s research career began in 1998 after completing her degree in Psychology obtained from Middlesex University. In her first position at Hammersmith Medicines Research Faye worked on numerous industry-led early phase clinical trials (Phases 1 and 2) over a 6 year period.  She then took up the post of Clinical Trials Co-ordinator in 2004 at the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre. Here Faye was responsible for a portfolio of trials for the treatment of biliary tract cancer, including two multicentre randomised phase 3 studies. It was during this period that Faye was awarded an MSc in Psychological Research Methods and Statistics in 2005. In 2007 Faye joined the UCL Department of Mental Health Sciences as a Research Fellow where she led a large study exploring the associations between beliefs and psychological status in patients receiving specialist palliative care. Faye now holds a joint post between RDS London, as an advisor, and PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit as Research Co-ordinator, where she is responsible for managing the operational, organisational and research aspects of the CTU studies.

 

Barbara Jefferis, Senior Scientist MRC GPRF.

Barbara graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Human Sciences and then completed an MSc at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She joined the Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UCL Institute of Child Health where she worked on several epidemiological research projects on the themes of childhood cognitive development, lifecourse health behaviours, obesity and diabetes using the 1958 British birth cohort.  During her eight years at ICH she held an MRC/ DH Health of the Public Special Training Fellowship and completed her PhD in lifecourse epidemiology. She then moved to the UCL Department of Primary Care and Population Health to work with the British Regional Heart Study and the British Women’s Heart Health Study, conducting aetiological research on CHD and stroke. This included a programme of work on the risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes associated with second hand smoking and a project investigating the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the onset of CVD. Barbara now holds a joint post between RDS London, as an advisor, the PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit and the MRC General Practice Research Framework, whilst continuing her research projects at UCL with the British Regional Heart Study.