Identifying the prevalence, burden, and trajectories of Pulmonary Hypertension in the UK

British Heart Foundation and National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI)

3-year PhD Studentship, within the BHF doctoral training programme at Imperial College London

Applications are invited for a 3-year PhD studentship starting in October 2023 at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI). Studentships will cover tuition fees (at the Home/EU rate) and a tax-free stipend of £19,668 per annum for a total of 3 years. Students will join a well-established doctoral training program with bespoke activities, seminars, mentors and workshops.

The National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, is located within the Main Campus at South Kensington, the Brompton Campus, and Hammersmith/White City Campus. Students will have the opportunity to work in state-of-the-art facilities within a highly developed research environment where our ambition is to translate research findings to help those with cardiovascular diseases. All students benefit from a full programme of training in research and transferable skills organised through the Graduate School, the quality of which has been recognised several times at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.

Project summary

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a devastating disease. Despite research in the area PH remains fatal in most people diagnosed with the condition. PH can affect people at all ages including babies, young adults and older people. This project offers a real opportunity to have impact in our understanding of PH which will ultimately lead to benefits for people and their families living with this condition. Importantly, the joint National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cardiovascular Partnership have recently identified that PH as a common comorbidity of cardiovascular and respiratory disease as a strategic research priority. The number of patients, and full social and economic burden of all forms of PH in the UK is unknown. The successful candidate will be supported by supervisors from that National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) and School of Public Health (SPH) and be based at the Hammersmith Hospital/White City Campuses of Imperial College London. This innovative project will involve a deep dive into large data. Specifically, it will provide key underpinning research to understand the prevalence and burden (healthcare resource utilisation, socioeconomic etc) of PH in its entirety, nationally, and provide a platform to investigate and manage PH in its broader presentations. The initial focus of the project will assess recording of PH in Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care dataset, determine if there has been any discernible changes in PH coding practices over time, assess how reliable (i.e., complete) is the capture of incident/prevalent cases of PH by subtype in UK primary care databases, and establish the best strategy for identifying cases of specific groups of PH. These results will enable the generation of epidemiological evidence for overall and predefined PH groups in the UK, and develop novel classifiers and trajectories of symptoms (coding events) that encompass all routinely collected clinical data and insight from adjacent biological studies to help inform a new ‘modern’ classification and stratification of PH.

Applicant Requirements

Applicants must hold, or expect to obtain, a first or upper second-class honours degree or equivalent in an appropriate subject from a recognised academic institution. Candidates must fulfil College admissions criteria and meet BHF residency requirements.

Prior experience working with healthcare coding data and Trusted Research Environments and coding is desirable but training will be provided.

How to Apply

To apply, please email Professor Allan Lawrie ([Email Address Removed])>) with the following documents.

-       Your CV

-       The names and addresses of at least two academic referees.

- Scanned copies of your degree certificates

-       A personal statement of no more than 1,000 words explaining your interest in the project and please ensure that you specify your degree classification from your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Selected candidates will get a tour of the relevant campus. Please assume that your application has not been successful if you have not heard from us within a month of the closing date.

Closing date for all applications: 30 June 2023

Interviews will be held online mid/end of July