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.
Professor Richard Hobbs
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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.
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The Collecting COVID oral history project captures the University of Oxford's research response during an unprecedented time, revealing the professional and personal stories of a diverse range of individual researchers and teams. Since November 2021, science writer and broadcaster Georgina Ferry has interviewed researchers and support staff from across Oxford’s academic divisions, capturing the story of the pandemic, as seen through the eyes of those at the forefront of research...