Keele University Prospectus Postgraduate | 2016 | Page 13

WWW.KEELE.AC.UK/POSTGRADUATE

The Research Institute for
Primary Care and Health Sciences

The Research Institute for Primary Care and Health
Sciences (iPHCS) is built on dynamic partnerships
of multidisciplinary academic teams, based at
Keele with patients and clinicians in the local health
economy. Our overall aim is to deliver high quality
multidisciplinary research designed to improve the
content, delivery and configuration of primary care
for the benefit of patients with musculoskeletal,
mental health and other long term conditions.
Our research is delivered through a number of
research groups, the largest of which is the Arthritis
Research UK Primary Care Centre of Excellence,
which hosts well-established programmes in spinal
pain, osteoarthritis and stratified care, and research in
early identification and primary care management of
inflammatory rheumatological conditions, including
gout, polymyalgia rheumatica and rheumatoid arthritis.
Our research programmes also investigate long
term conditions that commonly co-exist with
musculoskeletal disorders particularly mental health
issues (anxiety and depression) which impact on
how patients cope with and manage their long term
conditions. Our research portfolio is further enhanced
through multi-disciplinary teams encompassing clinical
expertise in General Practice, Rheumatology, Allied
Health Professionals, our methodological strengths in
prognosis, bio-statistics, consultation epidemiology
and qualitative research methods, and through our
membership of the:
• NIHR National School of Primary Care Research,
which expands the research portfolio through
national collaborations
• NIHR Collaborations for Applied Health Research
and Care West Midlands (CLAHRC WM)
We have a thriving MPhil/PhD programme,
and a large group of postgraduate research students,
working in the supportive research environment of
an internationally renowned research group.
Our PhD students have access to rich research
resources, including data-sets from high quality
cohorts and randomised clinical trials and linked
patient level data. We offer high quality supervision
teams, an active and supportive postgraduate peer
support group, together with ongoing programmes
of external and internal seminars, training programmes
and dedicated workshops in the research methods
relevant to our PhD programmes.
We offer well-funded PhD bursaries which are
regularly advertised, usually in January or February
of each year. We welcome students from a wide
range of disciplinary backgrounds, including
(but not exclusively) epidemiology, clinical health care
professions, mathematics, statistics, sociology,
social policy, geography, psychology, and economics.
Our completion rates are excellent and the
environment and training we offer enables our
research graduates to progress into successful
academic careers.
For more information visit:
www.keele.ac.uk/pchs

Good to know:
91% of Keele’s research in Primary
Care has been judged world leading
or internationally important by
the Public Health, Health Services
Research, and Primary Care
assessment panel of the 2014
Universities UK’s Research Excellence
Framework (REF). On the basis of
World Leading or Internationally
Important research (3* and 4*),
Keele is ranked 3rd nationally.
The Grade Point Average overall for
Keele’s primary care research ranks
it as the 6th best Medical School
nationally undertaking primary care
research, whilst we are ranked 5th in
terms of best research publications
and in terms of the interna F