Georgina Ferry interviews Richard Hobbs, Head of Department at the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences and Nuffield Professor of Primary Care, 29 November 2021.
Topics discussed include (00:00:30) RH's early training as a GP and interest in cardiology, academic posts in Birmingham and Oxford; (00:02:32) RH's passion for primary care and general practice; (00:03:48) methods to explore questions in general practice and research interest in epidemiology, big data, clinical trials; (00:07:18) the importance of research in primary care, funding; (00:09:00) crises in NHS and general practice, including a lack of healthcare professionals in the community; (00:11:20) interest and research work in cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure and atrial fibrillation; (00:17:09) RH's first memory of the emergence of COVID-19 and response taken by the medical school, freezing research programmes, clinical trial proposals relating to COVID-19; (00:21:48) PRINCIPLE [Platform Randomised Trial of Treatments in the Community for Epidemic and Pandemic Illnesses] and RECOVERY [Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy] trials; (00:22:52) national screening programme on flu surveillance; (00:25:40) work by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and publication of rapid reviews; (00:26:47) COVID risk score; (00:30:00) treatments explored in drug trials (00:32:30) PANORAMIC [Platform Adaptive trial of Novel antivirals for early treatment of COVID-19 in the Community] platform; (00:34:00) TACKLE [AstraZeneca] monoclonal antibody trial; (00:38:00) ivermectin trial and controversy; (00:44:00) the scientific debate in response to restrictions on freedoms; (00:47:50) Delta variant and the impact on the NHS; (00:51:00) national collaborations and partnerships; (00:56:35) respiratory infection and cardiovascular disease; (00:57:10) long-term implications of the pandemic on general practice and the health service; (01:01:25) national and global policy-making; (01:05:54) personal impact of the pandemic on work life, ability to travel, attendance at online conferences; (01:09:50) well-being of departmental colleagues; (01:11:43) the University's contribution to the world with regards to the pandemic response and development of a vaccine; (01:15:03) personal risk felt from COVID-19; (01:18:15) areas of interest for future research, including long COVID and digital assets; (01:20:38) the impact of COVID-19 on RH's approach to work.
