The Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) of

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

is located at the Old Road Campus in

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. It is one of the largest departments within Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division. The head of department is Professor Sir Rory Collins.

History

The Nuffield Department of Population Health was formed from the merger of ten research units in the Medical Sciences Division in 2013, the majority of which were in the Department of Public Health which ceased to exist. These centres were the Cancer Epidemiology Unit (CEU); Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX); Centre on Population Approaches for Non Communicable Disease Prevention (CPNP);

Clinical Trial Service Unit The Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) is a medical research institute within the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University. It primarily conducts large scale clinical trials (phase III – Final Testing) and epidemiological ...

(CTSU); the Ethox Centre; Health Economics Research Centre (HERC); Health Services Research Unit (HSRU); Medical Careers Research Group (MCRG); Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit (MRC PHRU); and the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU). The department is named for Viscount Nuffield, a major benefactor in establishing medical sciences at the University in the 1930s.

Research

Research has focused on a broad range of public health science including the benefits of reducing

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

intake, the efficacy of

statins Statins, also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are a class of lipid-lowering medications that reduce illness and mortality in those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. They are the most common cholesterol-lowering drugs. Low ...

, and

women's health Women's health differs from that of men in many unique ways. Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not mer ...

through the ''

Million Women Study The Million Women Study is a study of women’s health analysing data from more than one million women aged 50 and over, led by Dame Valerie Beral and a team of researchers at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. It is a collab ...

''. NDPH researchers, Michael Parker and Sara Wordsworth, contributed to

Chief Medical Officer Chief medical officer (CMO) is the title used in many countries for the senior government official designated head of medical services, sometimes at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical ...

Sally Davies' 2016 annual report on

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

in health care systems. There are over 500 research staff within NDPH.

Buildings

The department is currently based in two buildings on the Old Road Campus in

, Oxford: * The

Richard Doll Building The Richard Doll Building (RDB) is a University of Oxford building on the Old Road Campus, in Headington, east Oxford, England. The building is named after the physician and epidemiologist Sir Richard Doll CH OBE FRS (1912–2005). The buildin ...

(main building) * The

Big Data Institute The Big Data Institute (BDI), part of the Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, is an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Oxford. The institute brings together researchers from both the Nuffield Departmen ...

(BDI) The

opened in 2017 as a collaboration between NDPH and the

Nuffield Department of Medicine Nuffield may refer to: *William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, founder of Oxford-based Morris Motors and philanthropist * Nuffield, Oxfordshire, a village in Oxfordshire, England and home of William Richard Morris from which he chose his title, Vis ...

. The BDI hosts the NDPH research groups Ethox and the Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit.

References

External links

Nuffield Department of Population Health website

Medical Sciences Division website

University of Oxford website
{{University of Oxford 2013 establishments in England

Population Health Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. It ha ...

Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Population genetics organizations Research institutes of the University of Oxford