Rachel is a national leader in applied health data science with international expertise in leveraging routine electronic health records to tackle major public health challenges.

Rachel co-leads the University of Bristol Electronic Health Records (EHR) group, and her research on long-term effects of COVID-19 has informed national policy, including the UK Government’s COVID-19 review, and NICE guidelines.

Rachel holds senior leadership roles for national, regional and local strategic data infrastructure programmes, including Co-Director of Health Data Research (HDR) UK South West, Research Director for the South West Secure Data Environment (SDE), and deputy chair of the national Biomedical Research Centre Informatics Forum.

View all research projects

How do inflammation and asbestos exposure interact in developing pleural mesothelioma?

Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is a cancer of the lining of the lung caused by…
  • Theme Respiratory disease
  • Workstream Omics for prediction and prognosis

Linking mental health records for research: Eating disorders as a test case

Mental health conditions affect many people, but research to better understand them through drawing on…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Clinical informatics platforms

BRIDE: Improving access to NHS data to support research and care

Health services generate large amounts of data that could be used to improve patient care…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Clinical informatics platforms

Linking imaging and clinical data to improve orthopaedic surgery

Orthopaedic surgery often changes how a joint moves, sometimes in ways that are intended…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Clinical informatics platforms

Reducing bias in research: Building better tools to combine study results

When researchers want to know whether something causes a health outcome, like whether a vitamin…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Large, complex datasets

South West Secure Data Environment

The South West Secure Data Environment will enable research that’s faster, fairer and safer. What…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Clinical informatics platforms

Developing a reproducible data pipeline using stroke data

Routinely collected health and care data is a vital tool in research. Data pipelines…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstream Clinical informatics platforms

Lung development in early life and respiratory diagnosis and treatment

More than 17 per cent of deaths around the world can be attributed to respiratory…
  • Themes Respiratory disease Translational data science
  • Workstream Airways diseases

Do ethnicity and coexisting health conditions impact high-risk diabetes?

About a third of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have very high blood sugar…
  • Theme Translational data science
  • Workstreams Clinical informatics platforms Large, complex datasets

Exploring the clinical and health economic impact of the myCOPD app

The aim of this project is to explore the health economic benefits of an app…
  • Theme Respiratory disease
  • Workstream Airways diseases