Public Health and Health Services Research at UEA is led by four key Research Groups: Health Services and Primary Care, Epidemiology and Public Health, the Health Economics Group, and the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit (CTU). We support over 70 researchers and research students from multidisciplinary backgrounds to undertake cutting edge research to improve the quality of our public health and wider health services to ensure they are effective, cost-effective, equitable and acceptable to patients and society. We hold external research funding from NIHR, major charities and other funders and undertake commercial consulting with a range of health service and industry partners to ensure our research is of the highest quality and benefits patients and the public, our health services, and society.

Our research typically combines state-of-the art research methods with expert knowledge in clinical, public health and health service fields. In our research collaborations we provide methodological expertise, especially in interdisciplinary health services research, health economics, research design, clinical trials, clinical epidemiology and medical statistics. Our research addresses a wide range of clinical, health service and public health problems. Much of our research supports decision-making in health care and entails investigating, or trying to change, the behaviour of members of the general population, patients, professionals and organisations.

We lead or collaborate on many clinical trials, with an emphasis on large scale pragmatic trials of medicines, devices and complex health care interventions, usually including economic and qualitative research components. We also carry out evidence synthesis and meta-analytic studies which, in addition to influencing health policy and clinical practice, help identify gaps in current knowledge and priorities in future research. Staff from the NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) for the East of England are also hosted by Norwich Medical School within this Research Theme. The RDS is funded by the NIHR to advise on, and improve the quality of, research applications. Researchers affiliated with the RDS work across our Research Groups, with expertise including statistics, health economics and qualitative research.

We welcome enquiries from potential collaborators or research students. Please make initial contact via the Theme Lead Professor Jennifer Whitty.