Who we are

Our Centre personnel cover nine different academic and healthcare institutions, as well as members of professional and healthcare societies throughout the UK.

Professor Gary J Macfarlane

Centre Director

Professor Macfarlane trained in Statistics and Computing Science and then Medicine at the University of Glasgow before his PhD at the University of Bristol. He worked at the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the European Institute of Oncology before leading a programme of chronic pain research at the Arthritis Research UK (now Versus Arthritis) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Manchester.

He currently leads the Epidemiology group at the University of Aberdeen which focusses its research in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), including research on mechanisms of disease onset and outcome (observational epidemiology), identifying effective management for RMDs (clinical trials and evidence synthesis),  and designing optimal delivery of care (health services research).

Professor Macfarlane is also Dean for Interdisciplinary Research and Research Impact at the University of Aberdeen.

Professor Ira Madan

Centre Deputy Director

Professor Madan trained in medicine at Guy’s Hospital Medical School London, graduating with distinction in 1985. After general medical training in Birmingham, moved to London to specialise in occupational medicine. She was lead consultant in occupational medicine in Bristol from 1992-1998, after which she returned to London to take up her current post at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and King’s College London.

Her research interests lie in the inter-relationship between long-term conditions and work and the relationship between psychosocial factors, physical symptoms, and disability. Together with CMHW member Dr Suzanne Verstappen she is leading the work stream on developing a core outcome set in occupational medicine research.

Ira served chief medical advisor to the Houses of Parliament for over 20 years and still provides consultant holiday cover for their health and wellbeing service. She is also scientific Trustee of the Colt Foundation, and was appointed as Academic Dean for the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in December 2020.

Lead investigators

Prof Karen Walker-Bone

Prof Gwenllian Wynne-Jones

Dr Rosemary Hollick

Prof Ira Madan

Prof Suzan Verstappen

Prof Katherine Payne

Dr Elaine Wainwright

Prof Nicola Fear

Centre co-investigator

Dr Nicola Goodson

Centre co-investigator

Prof Alison Hammond

Centre co-investigator

Dr Paula Holland

Centre co-investigator

Prof Yeliz Prior

Centre co-investigator

Centre researchers

  • Mr Daniel Bannell

  • Dr Cara Ghiglieri

  • Prof Gareth Jones

  • Prof Paul McNamee

  • Dr LaKrista Morton

  • Dr Martin Stevens

  • Dr Marty Lynch

  • Prof  Ross Wilkie

  • Dr Vaughan Parsons

  • Dr Sarah Dorrington

  • Dr Anne Stagg

  • Dr Thomas Allen

  • Dr Martin Eden

  • Dr James Higgerson

  • Dr William Whittaker

  • Dr Simone Battista

  • Ms Jen Parker

  • Dr Gregorio Bevilacqua

  • Prof Cyrus Cooper

  • Ms Stefania D’Angelo

  • Ms Julia Hammond

  • Ms Elena Zaballa Lasala

  • Miss Georgia Ntani

  • Ms Gabrielle Palermo

Administrative Staff

Stuart Anderson

Centre Manager

Stuart has worked with the Epidemiology group at the University of Aberdeen since 2018, currently working as a Project Coordinator on several CMHW studies including QUICK and Making it Work™ - Scotland, in addition to helping coordinate the work of the Centre.