Christian Mallen

Biography

Professor Mallen is currently the NIHR Research Professor in General Practice and the interim Director of the Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences. He leads Keele's Global Health Research and is also the Director of the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Programme for Primary Care. 

Professor Mallen trained in clinical medicine in Nottingham and North Staffordshire, completing vocational training in general practice in 2003. He worked clinically as a GP for NHS North Staffordshire. 

Christian's academic training was supported by Arthritis Research UK Doctoral Training, Career Progression, and Clinician Scientist Fellowships. This allowed him to develop expertise in the early diagnosis and management of common musculoskeletal disorders in primary care. 

Professor Mallen is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics. Christian has been awarded both the Yvonne Carter and John Fry Awards for primary care research.

Research and scholarship

Professor Mallen's research interests focus on improving the management of common rheumatological complaints in primary care. In particular, Christian is interested in improving the diagnosis and prognosis of musculoskeletal disorders in a general practice setting, both in the UK and in low and middle-income country settings. 

Professor Mallen's NIHR Research Professorship focuses on 'missed opportunities' to improve the management of inflammatory conditions in primary care. Specific projects include using routinely collected GP consultation data to investigate the association in patients with gout, and vascular screening in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A new large inception cohort of patients with PMR is being developed to establish the course and prognosis of this group in a primary care setting. 

Christian has active research collaborations with the University of Birmingham (Dr Karim Raza - early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis), Univeristy of Warwick (Lilford, NIHR Global Slum Health Unit) and University of Essex (Professor Dasgupta - polymyalgia rheumatica). He also works closely with Nottingham University academic rheumatology group. 

As lead for the Keele University Global Health prorgamme, Professor Mallen has developed strong academic collaboration in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Our work in low and middle-income countries builds on our expertise in musculoskeletal disorders and mental health,  improving outcomes for patients with these disabling and often neglected conditions. 

Christian Mallen has active research funding, as a lead or co-applicant from:

• NIHR (ARC, RfPB, HTA, PGAR, SPCR, HS+DR)
• Wellcome Trust
• Versus Arthritis (previously Arthritis Research UK)
• Health Education England
• Medical Research Council

Past funding includes:

• All funders listed above
• Bristol Myers Squibb (for a non-drug study screening people for atrial fibrillation)
• Dunhill Medical Trust
• AHRC
• North Staffordshire Medical Trust
• Haywood Foundation
• RCGP Scientific Foundation Board
• Newton Fund

Other relevant declarations include:

• Membership of guideline groups for EULAR and BSR
• NHS General Practitioner, NHS North Staffordshire
• Associate R+D Director, NHS North Staffordshire
• Training Lead, NIHR School for Primary Care Research
• Academic Development Lead, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Teaching

• Director, Wellcome Trust PhD Programme for Primary Care 
• Training Lead, NIHR SPCR 
• Christian leads and co-supervises a number of doctoral and masters students 

Further information

http://www.oxfordleadershipprogramme.co.uk/biography/49

https://www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/members