Author: Rohini Mathur

Full Blog:

Name: Rohini Mathur

Position: Professor and Chair of Health Data Science

University: Queen Mary University of London

SSM member since: 2024

SSM committee roles: Co-chair of the SSMPH Annual Conference Local Organising Committee (2026)

Research topics of interest: Epidemiology, Health Inequalities, Women’s Health



How did your career in social medicine/population health begin?

I completed my undergraduate degree in public health at the University of Waterloo in Canada - this program really allowed me to explore my interests across the arts and sciences, bringing together biomedical and social science, public health, and epidemiology. In 2006, I completed the MSc in reproductive and sexual health which embedded me amongst colleagues from across the world and a range of professional backgrounds. This set me up well for my first research role at McGill University in Montreal. Here I worked as part of her Life Histories, Health, and HIV/AIDS data laboratory, where I learned about the importance of early life and lifecourse factors on health and social outcomes. Following a year in Montreal, I moved back to the UK and was working at a temp agency – as a stroke of luck I took on a maternity cover with the Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) at QMUL, which turned into a long-term position and really set the trajectory of the rest of my academic career. Drawing on my experience from CEG, I won a PhD studentship at LSHTM funded by ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, where I studied under the supervision of Prof Liam Smeeth and Prof Emily Grundy to understand the usefulness of ethnicity data, its importance in understanding health inequalities in a UK context. Following on from my PhD, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Wellcome Trust to understand ethnic inequalities in diabetes in the UK. I set out to understand where along the care pathway inequalities might arise so that we may better target interventions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I worked as part of the OpenSAFELY collaborative and the SAGE Ethnicity subgroup to investigate ethnic inequalities along the COVID-19 pathway. In October 2022, I came back to QMUL and the Clinical Effectiveness Group as Professor.

What is your research area and what excites you most about it?

I’m an epidemiologist working largely with routine electronic health record data to tackle health inequalities and drive quality improvement in the UK and globally – with a focus on improving the evidence base for populations under-represented in research, such as populations from different ethnic and social backgrounds, from low- and middle-income countries, and pregnant women. As co-director of an NIHR Global Health Research Group, I am co-leading a clinical trial with colleagues from Chiang Mai University, Thailand and LSHTM. We aim to understand how we can better incorporate electronic health records into quality improvement for hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease in Thai primary care settings. I am collaborating with Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox and the QRESEARCH team to improve evidence around the safety and effects of medicines in pregnancy, and how these might differ between women from different ethnic or social backgrounds. In 2023, I took on the role of academic lead for the Clinical Effectiveness Group where I work in close collaboration with local healthcare practitioners and researchers to improve health for people living across North East London. I also collaborate with the Genes & Health study, the largest UK wide study of British Bangladeshis and British Pakistanis led by Prof Sarah Finer and Prof David Van Heel at QMUL to better understand the genetic and clinical drivers of cardiometabolic disease, in particular research into early-onset Type 2 Diabetes led by Dr Moneeza Siddiqui. What is exciting about my work is the opportunities arising from the rapid growth of high-quality health-related data worldwide, which is enabling us to redress the historic under-representation of diverse and under-researched populations in clinical research. We are fortunate in the UK to have a wealth of routinely collected healthcare data from the NHS which can be used for research. Importantly, because routinely collected healthcare data cover the whole population, they can be used to study the effects of medicines in populations excluded from trials, such as pregnant women, children, older adults, people from minoritised ethnic groups, and people with long-term conditions.

How has SSM influenced your career journey and what have you got out of being an SSM member?

SSM has provided tremendous opportunities to connect with researchers from across the UK and more widely to share ideas and plan collaborations for the future. I particularly value the vast multidisciplinary expertise across the SSM community which allows me to think about how to incorporate social science and qualitative methods, community and participatory approaches, and clinical expertise. The breadth of data resources, cohorts, and community organisations represented in SSM is also very exciting and really showcases the excellent research and impact that SSM has.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career in social medicine/population health?

Don’t feel pressure to decide early on what you want to do as a career. Be open to opportunities in different disciplines and different research topics – the world of research is evolving rapidly, and we probably can’t imagine what research will look like 10-15 years from now – you have an opportunity to be a part of that change and shape the future. I’m still thinking about what I want to be when I grow up!

Tell us a (fun) fact about yourself that is unrelated to your career.

My heart has always been divided across the arts and sciences, and I try and indulge both sides of my brain. I’m an avid student of Indian classical dance (Kathak) and learn online with a teacher in India (a pandemic hobby which stuck!). I was also lucky enough to perform in the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in 2012!