My research addresses three major areas:

1. The epidemiology of skin diseases
2. Reporting of observational research undertaken using routinely collected data
3.  Outcome measures research in eczema

1. The epidemiology of skin diseases

My research addresses an important research gap, the causes, consequences and treatment of skin disease. Little is known about the epidemiology of skin diseases. My work focuses in particular on using the power of routine data sources to provide answers for important research questions.

• In my recent research, I have established that the herpes zoster vaccine is very effective against herpes zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia in routine use in the general population in older individuals in the USA. This was the first study demonstarting effectiveness against post-herpetic neuralgia in routine use.       These findings have great importance for countries currently considering introduction of the zoster vaccine into routine practice. 
• Other zoster related work includes identfiying and highlighting to general practitioners the problem of under-prescription of antiviral therapy in the setting of acute herpes zoster, including amongst individuals at high risk of serious zoster-related complications, for example those with immunosuppression and complicated zoster.
• Eczema research  I am leading a programme of work on eczema using a variety of data sources. This work is supported by a Wellcome Senior Clinical fellowship in Science. I will identify eczema phenotypes using longitudinal population-based data and use a comprehensive approach to investigate if there are strong associations between eczema and major adverse healthand social outcomes using large longitudinal population-based data. This cutting-edge work will make substantial contributions towards understanding eczema complexity and improving patient outcomes.

• Other eczema-related work is focused on gene-environment interactions in eczema (in collaboration with the UK Translational Research Network in Dermatology), identifying costs and validating eczema diagnosis codes in UK general practice.

• I led the largest ever study of pyoderma gangrenosum and demonstrated increased mortality rates in these patients, even when compared to controls with inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Following this work, I am now working closely with gastroenterology colleagues in Nottingham to study skin diseases associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and coeliac disease

2.Reporting of observational research undertaken using routinely collected data

I co-founded the REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely collected Data (RECORD) initiative (www.record-statement.org ) in 2012 in order to create reporting guidelines for studies undertaken using observational routinely-collected data. 

3.Outcome measures research

I am also an active participant leading research as part of the Harmonising Outcome Measures in Eczema (HOME) initiative, which is an international initiative designed to devise a minimal set of core outcome domains to be used in all clinical trials and observational studies in eczema. This research will solve the problem of multiple inconsistent outcome measures which currently hamper evidence-based medicine by hindering comparison between different studies and the ability to combine the results of studies in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. 

http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/eph/ncde/ehrresearchgroup/index.html

www.orgs.dermis.net/eden

www.record-statement.org