About APEx
Our mission
- Establish a research focus on the development and delivery of holistic, person-centred care that builds on existing expertise.
- Understanding, researching, and exploring new, integrated models of care which cross traditional boundaries of primary, secondary, mental health and social care.
- Look at innovative ways of delivering high-quality integrated care that exploit the potential of technology.
- Pursue research and education in primary care leadership and service organisation, building on existing expertise associated with the Peninsula Applied Research Collaboration (PenARC) and the Exeter Business School.
- Establish a continuum of education in primary care from the undergraduate to the postgraduate and the established professional, placing research and evidence at the heart of primary care education.
Our Team
| Member of staff | Position |
|---|---|
| Professor Richard Neal | Professor of Primary Care and Director of APEx. @richarddneal |
| Member of staff | Position |
|---|---|
| Professor John Campbell | Professor of General Practice and Primary Care, Director Exeter SPCR |
| Professor Richard Neal | Professor of Primary Care and Director of APEx |
| Professor Gary Abel | Senior Lecturer & Statistician |
| Dr Nur Akter | Statistician/ Data Analyst (Di-Facto Project, National Cancer Diagnosis Audit) |
| Kasim Allel Henriquez | Research Fellow (Antimicrobial Resistance) |
| Dima Arafah | PhD Student |
| Associate Professor Sarah Bailey | Associate Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics |
| Mrs Melissa Barlow |
Graduate Research Assistant - (EPIC Project) |
| Dr Jess Bollen | Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
| Dr Jo Butterworth | NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in General Practice / Medical Education |
| Dr Raff Calitri | Trial Manager/Research Fellow |
| Research Fellow | |
|
Miss Wawa Chen |
Graduate Research Assistant (DISCO Team) |
| Graduate Research Assistant | |
| Clinical Senior Lecturer in General Practice and Primary Care | |
| Research Fellow and NIHR SPCR Postdoctoral Research Fellow | |
|
Louise Cooper |
Graduate Research Assistant (CARPE Umbrella Review) |
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
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Clinical Associate Professor & Senior Clinical Research Fellow (REACH-HF Project) (Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure) |
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| Dr Gianni Dongo | NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow |
| Ms Elizabeth Down |
Graduate Research Assistant (EPIC Project) (Evaluating ethnic differences in blood markers of cancer in primary care) |
| Professor Barney Dunn | Professor of Psychology |
| Marilyn Evans | APEx Administrator |
| Professor Philip Evans | Professor of Primary Care Research |
| Emily Fletcher | Research Fellow and PhD Student |
| Charlotte Forbes | Academic Clinical Fellow |
| Gina Gardener | PhD Student |
| Laura Gill |
Graduate Research Assistant |
| Professor Vicki Goodwin |
Professor of Ageing and Rehabilitation & NIHR Senior Investigator |
| Becky Gudka |
Graduate Research Assistant |
| Dr Abi Hall |
Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
| Rebekah Hall |
Graduate Trainee Assistant in Health Economics and PhD Student |
| Professor David Halpin | Consultant Physician and Honorary Professor |
| Professor Willie Hamilton | Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics |
| Professor Alex Harding | Sub Dean, Course Director M.Clin.Ed |
| APEx Administrator | |
| Professor of Primary Care and Public Health Research | |
| Senior Research Fellow | |
|
Adnan Khan |
Academic Clinical Fellow |
| NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow | |
|
Taha Khan |
Academic Clinical Fellow |
| Eve Kingstone | Professional Training Year Student |
| Ellie Kingsland | PA to John Campbell and Richard Neal, and Senior Administrator to APEx |
| Lucy Kirkland | Graduate Research Assistant (DISCO team) |
| Judit Konya | Academic Clinical Lecturer |
| SPCR PhD Student | |
| Mireille Gillings Professor of Health Innovation | |
| Academic Clinical Fellow | |
| SPCR PhD Student | |
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Calum MacLeod |
SPCR Research Manager |
| Research Fellow (DISCO Group) | |
| NIHR SPCR Senior Research Fellow | |
|
Rosie Mew |
Academic Clinical Fellow |
| Post Doc Research Fellow | |
| Dr Sarah Moore | NIHR SPCR GP Career Progression Fellow |
| Research Fellow (DISCO Group) | |
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MPhil/PhD PGR Student |
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Research Fellow in Statistics/Data Science |
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Senior Academic GP and Clinical Pharmacologist |
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Associate Professor in Primary Care |
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Associate Research Fellow |
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| Senior Research Fellow (Three Schools Mental Health) | |
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Research Fellow |
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SPCR MRes Student |
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| Research Fellow | |
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Mr David Shotter |
Graduate Research Assistant (SPOCC Project) (SPotting Cancer among Comorbidities) |
| Senior Lecturer in Primary Care | |
| Beccy Summers | Research Associate (PPI) |
| Dr Bethan Treadgold |
Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
| Dr Maria Valasaki | Postdoctoral Qualitative Researcher (SPOCC Project) |
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Senior Research Fellow in Complex Interventions |
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| Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics | |
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow | |
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Research Fellow |
| Member of staff | Position |
|---|---|
| Christine Addington | Postdoctoral Research Associate (Pflexi Study) |
| Dr Anna Adlam | Associate Professor - Chartered Clinical Psychologist (D.Clin.Psy.) and academic Neuropsychologist (Ph.D.) |
| Professor Louise Allan | Professor of Geriatric Medicine |
| Professor Rob Anderson | Associate Professor of Health Services and Implementation Research, Director of Research Impact (Institute of Health Research), Director of ESMI |
| Professor Clive Ballard | Professor of Age Related Diseases |
| Professor Vashti Berry | NIHR South West Peninsula Applied Research Collaboration Senior Research Fellow |
| Dr Alex Burns | GP and PhD Student |
| Professor Linda Clare | Professor of Clinical Psychology and Ageing and Dementia |
| Dr Anne Corbett | Senior Lecturer in Dementia Research |
| Dr Antoinette Davey | Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
| Professor Helen Dawes | Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation |
| Professor Sarah Dean | Professor of Psychology Applied to Rehabilitation and Health |
| Dr Jemima Dooley | Research Fellow/Engagement Officer, Mood Disorders Centre |
| Dr Ndubuisi Egwim | Honorary Associate |
| Professor Chris Dickens | Professor of Psychological Medicine |
| Professor Andrew Eynon-Lewis | Honorary Clinical Professor in General Practice and Primary Care |
| Dr Hollie Gay | Postdoctoral Research Fellow |
| Dr Lisa Gibbons | Honorary Clinical Associate Research Fellow and Clinical Research Specialty Lead for the NIHR |
| Jodie Hall |
PhD Student |
| Professor William Henley |
Professor of Medical Statistics |
| Professor Alexandra Hillman |
Associate Professor in Sociology |
| Professor Claire Hulme | Professor of Health Economics |
| Professor Chris Hyde | Professor of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology |
| Professor David Keene | Associate Professor |
| Professor Dawn Lee | Associate Professor of Health Economics and Health Policy |
| Dr Kristin Liabo | Senior Research Fellow |
| Dr David Llewellyn | Senior Research Fellow |
| Research Fellow | |
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Senior Clinical Research Fellow & Honorary Consultant Geriatrician |
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Dr Matthew Masoli |
Honorary Senior Clinical Researcher |
| Academic Clinical Fellow | |
| Associate Professor in Health Economics (E&R) | |
| Honorary Senior Clinical Researcher | |
| Senior Research Fellow | |
| Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Public Health | |
| Professor in Perinatal Clinical Psychology | |
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Dr Martin Pitt |
Associate Professor of Healthcare Modelling and Simulation |
| Senior Research Fellow | |
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Lecturer in Social and Organisational Psychology |
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| Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics | |
| Associate Professor | |
| Professor of Health Services Research | |
| Research Fellow | |
| Professor of Mathematics for Healthcare | |
| Honoary Professor | |
| Research Fellow (Three Schools Mental Health) | |
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Professor of Experimental and Applied Clinical Psychology |
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| Senior Research Fellow | |
| Senior Research Fellow | |
| Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology |
Bringing together research groups across Health and Community Sciences
- Ageing and Frailty (website under construction)
- Cancer Diagnosis (DISCO)
- Child Health including Children and Young People's Mental Health (ChYme)
APEx has key partnerships with individuals and local, regional, national and international organisations, some of which are highlighted below.
| Region | Partner | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Local |
Dr Lisa Gibbons | An Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Exeter Medical School, is the Clinical Research Specialty Lead for Primary Care within the CRN: SWP, based in Exeter. |
| Associate Professor Philip Evans |
The National Specialty Lead for Primary Care for the CRN covers the whole of England, and is also one of the two Cluster C Leads based within King's College London with specific responsibility for Dermatology, Mental Health, Primary Care and Public Health. |
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| Regional |
Devon NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
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NHS England and NHS Improvement South West
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NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN): South West Peninsula
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Royal College of General Practitioners (Tamar Faculty)
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| National |
NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN): National Lead
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Research Impact
The NHS needs clear, detailed feedback from patients to monitor the performance of primary care clinical teams. Research from the University of Exeter directly informed the creation and use of the national GP Patient Survey (GPPS) – one of the world’s largest annual patient surveys, covering all 6,900 practices, and over 14 million patients in England since 2014.
The resulting impact has been:
(i) GPPS is routinely used to measure and monitor the quality of GP services
(ii) GPPS data has informed new national policies that have been introduced changing service provision
(iii) the public, regulators/inspection agencies, and service providers have been better informed about patient experience of general practice.
| Professor John Campbell | Professor of Primary Care | 2002 to date |
| Dr Gary Abel | Senior Lecturer in Primary Care (Medical Statistics) | 2016 to date |
| Dr Ruben Mujica Mota | Senior Lecturer in Health Economics | 2003-2019 |
1. Campbell J, Smith P, Nissen S, Bower P, Elliott M, Roland M. The GP Patient Survey for use in primary care in the National Health Service in the UK–development and psychometric characteristics. BMC Family Practice. 2009 Dec;10(1):57.
2. Burt J, Campbell J, Abel G, et al. (+12 other University of Exeter co-authors). Improving patient experience in primary care: a multi-method programme of research on the measurement and improvement of patient experience. Programme Grants for Applied Research (NIHR Journals Library). 2017. No. 5(9).
3. Roberts MJ; Campbell JL; Abel GA; Davey AF; Elmore NL; Maramba I; Carter M; Elliott MN; Roland MO; Burt JA. Understanding high and low patient experience scores in primary care: Analysis of patients’ survey data for general practices and individual doctors. 2014. BMJ (Online) 349(nov11 3):g6034
4. Burt J; Newbould J; Abel G; Elliott MN; Beckwith J; LLanwarne N; Elmore N; Davey A; Gibbons C; Campbell J et al. Investigating the meaning of ‘good’ or ‘very good’ patient evaluations of care in English general practice: A mixed methods study. 2017. BMJ Open 7(3):e014718
5. Warren F, Abel G, Lyratzopoulos G, Richards S, Barry H, Elliott M, Roland M, Campbell J. Characteristics of service user and provider organisations associated with experience of out-of-hours general practitioner care in England: population based cross sectional postal questionnaire survey. BMJ 2015; 350: h2040.
6. Mujica-Mota RE; Roberts M; Abel G; Elliott M; Lyratzopoulos G; Roland M; Campbell J. Common patterns of morbidity and multi-morbidity and their impact on health-related quality of life: evidence from a national survey. 2015. Quality of Life Research 24(4):909-918.
In the UK, cancer will affect 1 in 2 people during their life. Delays in diagnosis are common, and shorten lives. This large programme of research by Hamilton and the DISCO team has developed risk assessment tools for 13 more cancer sites. The resulting impact has been:
(i) These risk algorithms have been incorporated into the three main UK GP software systems. It is available for use by over 90% of general practices in the UK, covering more than 50 million registered patients.
(ii) This research also underpinned 89 of the 210 recommendations in the 2015 NICE guidelines for recognition of suspected cancer, governing ~£1bn of annual NHS spending.
(iii) Implementation of this guideline has speeded up cancer diagnosis by on average a week, with improved cancer survival.
| Professor Willie Hamilton | Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics | 2010–date |
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Dr Elizabeth Shephard |
Research Fellow | 2010–date |
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Dr Sarah Price |
Research Fellow | 2013–date |
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Dr Sarah Walker |
Research Fellow | 2013–date |
| Dr Sarah Bailey | Research Fellow | 2013–date |
| Prof Anne Spencer | Professor | 2012-date |
1. Shephard EA, Neal RD, Rose P, Walter FM, Litt EJ, Hamilton WT. Quantifying the risk of multiple myeloma from symptoms reported in primary care patients: a large case–control study using electronic records. Br J Gen Pract. 2015;65(631):e106-e13.
2. Stapley S, Peters TJ, Neal RD, Rose PW, Walter FM, Hamilton W. The risk of pancreatic cancer in symptomatic patients in primary care: a large case-control study using electronic records. British Journal of Cancer. 2012;106(12):1940-4.
3. Walker S, Hyde C, Hamilton W. Risk of breast cancer in symptomatic women in primary care: a case-control study using electronic records. Br J Gen Pract. 2014;64(629):e788-e93.
4. Hamilton W, Hajioff S, Graham J, Schmidt-Hansen M. Suspected cancer (part 2 – adults): reference tables from updated NICE guidance. Brit Med J. 2015;350:h3044.
5. Banks J, Hollinghurst S, Bigwood L, Peters TJ, Walter FM, Hamilton W. Preferences for cancer investigation: a vignette based study of primary care attendees. The Lancet Oncology. 2014;15:232-40.
6. Bailey SE, Ukoumunne OC, Shephard EA, Hamilton W. Clinical relevance of thromocytosis in primary care: a prospective cohort study of cancer incidence using English electronic medical records and cancer registry data. Br J Gen Pract. 2017;67:405-13
7. Price S, Spencer A, Medina-Lara A, Hamilton W. Availability and use of cancer decision-support tools: a cross-sectional survey of UK primary care. British Journal of General Practice. 2019;69(684):e437
Type 2 diabetes affects around 4 million people in England, with around 200,000 new diagnoses every year. However, the disease can be prevented by identifying early signs of its development (so-called ‘pre-diabetes’) and supporting people to improve their diet, increase physical activity and reduce weight. Behaviour change research at Exeter since 2003 has directly informed the creation in 2015 and subsequent development of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) in England. Over 400,000 people have been referred to NHS DPP and in 2018 –19. It exceeded its policy goal of 100,000 people on the programme each year. Based on similar numbers, NHS England’s own impact analysis of the NHS DPP estimated net economic benefits of £1.2bn for 5 years’ of the programme from 2016 to 2021.
(i) Evidence from University of Exeter research led to the 2012 change in the recommendations of the NICE public health guidance PH38 on diabetes prevention
(ii) The NHS DPP has been a joint programme of NHS England, Public Health England and Diabetes UK, delivering at scale, evidence-based behavioural interventions for individuals identified as being at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes
(iii) Based on similar participation assumptions, NHS England’s own impact analysis (in 2016) of the NHS DPP estimated that by the end of the fifth year of the programme (i.e. 2020) 18,000 cases of diabetes would have been prevented or delayed among 390,000 programme participants
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Dr Jane Smith |
Senior Lecturer in Primary Care |
2012–date |
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Professor Colin Greaves |
Associate Professor of Psychology Applied to Health |
2003–2018 |
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Dr Phil Evans |
Associate Professor of General Practice and Primary Care | 2012–date |
1. Greaves CJ, Sheppard KE, Abraham C, et al. Systematic review of reviews of intervention components associated with increased effectiveness in dietary and physical activity interventions. BMC Public Health 2011;11(119):1–12. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-119
2. Greaves CJ, Stead J, Hattersley A, et al. A simple pragmatic system for detecting new cases of type 2 diabetes in primary care. Family Practice 2004;21(1):57–62. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmh113
3. Dunkley AJ, Bodicoat DH, Greaves CJ, et al. Diabetes Prevention in the Real World: Effectiveness of Pragmatic Lifestyle Interventions for the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes and of the Impact of Adherence to Guideline Recommendations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Diabetes Care2014;37(4):922–33. doi: 10.2337/dc13-2195
4. Evans PH, Greaves C, Winder R, et al. Development of an educational "toolkit" for health professionals and their patients with prediabetes: The WAKEUP study (Ways of Addressing Knowledge Education and Understanding in Pre-diabetes). Diabetic Medicine 2007;24(7):770–77. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2007.02130.x
5. Evans P, Greaves CJ. Helping people at high risk of type 2 diabetes: Using the WAKEUP materials. Diabetes and Primary Care 2015;17(4):175–79.
6. Smith JR, Greaves CJ, Thompson JL, et al. The community-based prevention of diabetes (ComPoD) study: a randomised, waiting list controlled trial of a voluntary sector-led diabetes prevention programme. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2019;16(1):112. doi:10.1186/s12966-019-0877-3
