Summary
I am the UK's first Asian female Professor of Primary Care, promoted in 2017 for my research to improve child health and reduce health inequalities. I am Director of the Imperial Child Health Unit at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, the UK’s pre-eminent research group for primary care of children. I was among the first trainees to be awarded 3 consecutive pre and postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR) and now support academic capacity as Chair of the NIHR Academy’s Selection Committee for Doctoral Research Fellowships.
Research
I am the institutional lead for Imperial Children and Families Programme for the National School for Public Health Research (SPHR) and Executive Board Member. I am a founding member of the SPHR Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee. I provide cross school leadership as External Review Panel member for the National School for Primary Care Research. Locally, I lead the Child Population Health Theme for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in Northwest London.
international work
As elected President of the Child and Adolescent Health Section of the European Public Health Association, I lead a network of 3000 health professionals in a 3 year strategic plan to achieve a WHO ‘Triple A rating (Analysis Advocacy Action) to improve children’s health in Europe (2021-2024). I am a Global Burden of Disease Collaborator, BMJ International Editorial Board Member and Visiting Professor in Europe, Asia and North America
priority areas
Primary care; preconception pregnancy and parenthood
Early years; infection and vaccine preventable disease, urgent care
Health in schools; physical and emotional health in schools, IMprOVE cohort
Long term conditions; asthma, mental health, inflammatory bowel disease
Teaching and capacity building
I lead the Child Health Specialisation for Imperial's online Global Masters in Public Health and teach on undergraduate courses including the Imperial Medicine and BSc Biomedical Sciences
In 2013, I led a successful application for a Silver Athena SWAN award for the School of Public Health to support career progression for women and disadvantaged staff and students. I have been academic mentor to numerous mentees as promotions champion at Imperial, cross institutional mentoring schemes across London, and nationally (NIHR) and Oxford International Primary Care Research Leadership Programme.
CLINICAL
I have been a practising GP in Putney, London since 1995. All of my research stems from encounters with patients and the public.
Publications
Journals
Jayasooriya N, Baillie S, Blackwell J, et al., 2023, Systematic review with meta-analysis: Time to diagnosis and the impact of delayed diagnosis on clinical outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease, Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, ISSN:0269-2813
Venkatraman T, Honeyford C, Ram B, et al., 2022, Identifying local authority need for, and uptake of, school-based physical activity promotion in England – a cluster analysis, Journal of Public Health, Vol:44, ISSN:1741-3842, Pages:694-703
Ma R, Foley K, Saxena S, 2022, Access to and use of contraceptive care during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK: a web-based survey., Bjgp Open, Vol:6
van den Akker M, Dieckelmann M, Hussain MA, et al., 2022, Children and adolescents are not small adults: toward a better understanding of multimorbidity in younger populations., J Clin Epidemiol, Vol:149, Pages:165-171
Ram B, Foley K, van Sluijs E, et al., 2022, Developing a core outcome set for physical activity interventions in primary schools: a modified-Delphi study, Bmj Open, ISSN:2044-6055