Jon Nicholl BA (Philosophy), MSc (Statistics), DSc (Health Services Research), CStat, FFPH

Dean of School

Address:
School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR)
University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA

Room: 2023

Tel: (+44) (0)114 222 5453
Fax: (+44) (0)114 272 4095 (non-confidential)

Email: j.nicholl@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I was appointed director of the Medical Care Research Unit at the University of Sheffield in 1993 where I am Professor of Health Services Research. I was appointed Dean of the School in 2010. Before joining Sheffield University as a medical statistician I spent five years as a research associate at University College London working on road traffic accident prevention.

I was chair of the NIHR HTA Programme Commissioning Board from 2005 to 2010, and their Clinical Trials Board from 2007 to 2010.  I also served as Deputy Chair of the Medical Research Council´s Health Services and Public Health Research Board and their Clinical Trials Board.

Research Interests

My main research interest is in the evaluation of emergency and urgent first contact care and services, particularly A and E services, including trauma services and chest pain care; ambulance services including helicopter ambulances; and urgent first contact care services including NHS direct and out-of-hours services.  I also carry out methodical research related to the design of health service evaluations, and I have a particular interest in the use of routine (e-health) data for HSR.

Professional Activities

• Chair Sub-Panel 2 for REF2014
• Member DH Policy Research Programme Commissioning Panel
• Member NETS Clinical Trials Unit Standing Advisory Committee
• Member HTA Programme Strategy Oversight Group
• Chair METADATA Project steering committee
• Chair PROMISE trial Data monitoring committee
• Chair STAR Trial Data Monitoring Committee
• Elected member Health Services Research Network Board
• Member Black Country CLAHRC Advisory Board
• Chair PARAMEDIC Trial Steering Committee
• Member of S. Yorks Safer Roads Partnership Partnership (2008 - )

Current Research Projects

Co-investigator

1. Using NHS Direct to help manage long term chronic conditions.
   (with Professor Salisbury and colleagues, NIHR £2m)
2. Care of Older People Who Fall – The ‘SAFER2’ Trial.
   (with Professor Snooks and colleagues, HTA £1.15m)
3. A randomised controlled trial and cost-effectiveness evaluation of “booster” interventions to sustain increases in physical activity in middle-aged adults in deprived urban neighbourhoods.
   (with Dr. Goyder and colleagues, HTA £1.19m)
4. The 3Mg Trial: RCT of nebulised or IV magnesium in acute asthma.
   (with Professor Goodacre and colleagues, HTA £1.06m)
5. Development of Risk Adjustment Methods to Evaluate Systems of Emergency Medical Care.
   (with Dr. Goodacre, MRC £951,000)
6. Systematic review of direct transfer to specialist centres.
   (with Dr. Pickering and colleagues, SDO £150,000)
7. Evaluation of the three digit number.
   (with Professor O'Cathain and colleagues, PRP £405,000)
8. Exploring the systems effect on emergency admissions
   (with Professor O'Cathain and colleagues, NIHR SDO £349,000)
9. Developing new ways of measuring the impact of ambulance service care
   (with J Turner and colleagues. NIHR programme grant £2.01m)                           

Key Recent Research Papers

• Penson R, Coleman P, Mason S, Nicholl J. Why do patients with minor or moderate conditions that could be managed in other settings attend the emergency department? Emerg Med J. 2011 May 11.
• Roberts I, Prieto-Merino D, Shakur H, Chalmers I, Nicholl J. Effect of consent rituals on mortality in emergency care research. Lancet. 2011 Mar 26;377(9771):1071-2.
• O’Cathain A, Murphy E, Nicholl J. Three techniques for integrating data and findings in mixed methods studies. BMJ 2010; 341:1147-1150.
• Relton C, Torgerson D, O’Cathain A, Nicholl J. Rethinking pragmatic randomised controlled trials: introducing the “cohort multiple randomised controlled trial” design. BMJ, 2010; 340: 963-967.
• Gray A, Goodacre S, Nicholl J, et al. The development of a simple risk score to predict early outcome in severe acute acidotic cardiogenic pulmonary edema: The 3CPO score. Circulation Heart Failure, 2010; 3(1): 111-117.
• McCulloch P, Altman DG, Campbell WB, Flum DR, Glasziou P, Marshall JC, Nicholl J. No surgical innovation without evaluation. The IDEAL recommendations. Lancet, 2009; 374: 1105-1112.
• Morrell CJ, Slade P, Warner R, Paley G, Dixon S, Walters SJ, Brugha T, Barkham M, Parry GJ, Nicholl J. Clinical effectiveness of health visitor training in psychologically informed approaches for depression in postnatal women: pragmatic cluster randomised trial in primary care. BMJ, 2009: 338: 3045.
• Gray A, Goodacre S, Newby D, Sampson F, Mason M, Nicholl J. Effectiveness of non-invasive ventilation inpatients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema. NEJM, 2008; 359: 142-151.
• Mason S, Knowles E, Colwell B, Wardrope J, Dixon S, Gorringe R, Snooks H, Perrin J, Nicholl JP. Effectiveness of paramedic practitioners in attending 999 calls from elderly people in the community: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 2007; 335: 919-924.
• Brown C, Nicholl J, Liliford RJ. Use of process measures to monitor the quality of clinical practice. BMJ, 2007; 335: 648-650.
• Goodacre S, Cross E, Lewis C, Nicholl J, CAPEWELL S. Effectiveness and safety of chest pain assessment to prevent emergency admissions: ESCAPE cluster randomised trial. BMJ, 2007; 335: 659-664.
• Nicholl J, West J, Goodacre S, Turner J. The relationship between distance to hospital and patient mortality in emergencies: an observational study. EMJ, 2007, 24(9): 665-668.
• Nicholl JP. Case-mix adjustment in non-randomised observational evaluations - the constant risk fallacy. J. Epi Comm Health. 2007; 61: 1010-1013.

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests lie in the design of evaluations, particularly randomised controlled trials.

I am interested in supervising research students in topic areas related to my research interests in emergency and urgent care service research, and in methodical research into the deign and analysis of health services research and clinical trials.  I have a particular interest in using routine (e-health) data for health services research and would be interested in supervising research students interested in developing this area of HSR.

Section

Jon is based in the Health Services Research section.

24 October 2011