Research output per year
Research output per year
Personal profile
Overview
Will is a Professor of Digital Epidemiology at the University of Manchester and an honorary consultant rheumatologist at Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.
His research aims to address clinically important questions by analysing data from patient populations, with particular focus on digital health data. This includes the analysis of electronic health record data from GP surgeries and from hospitals (for example, examining the safety of drugs used in rheumatology) and the collection and analysis of data direct from patients using smartphones and wearables. Examples of innovative digital health research projects and programmes include Cloudy with a Chance of Pain, REMORA (Remote Monitoring of RA) and Assembling the Data Jigsaw. He leads the UK-wide network Health Research from Home which aims to collate and share best practice about the use of smartphones and wearables for population health research.
Will chairs the Scientific Advisory Board for Our Future Health and is a member of MRC's Centres of Research Excellence Panel.
Memberships of committees and professional bodies
- British Society for Rheumatology
- Royal College of Physicians
- International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology
Qualifications
- BSc (Physiology), The University of London, 1995
- MBBS, The University of London, 1997
- MRCP 2002
- MSc (Clinical Rheumatology), The University of Manchester, 2004
- PhD, The University of Manchester, 2008
- MSc (Pharmacoepidemiology), McGill University, Montreal, 2011
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
External positions
Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) Panel Member, Medical Research Council (MRC)
Feb 2025 → …
Population Health Sciences Group (PHSG) Member , Medical Research Council (MRC)
Oct 2023 → Mar 2025
Scientific Advisory Board Chair, Our Future Health
Apr 2021 → …
Population & Systems Medicine Board (PSMB) Member, Medical Research Council (MRC)
Apr 2020 → Mar 2025
Consultant to Google Health, Google UK Limited
2017 → 2021
External Examiner, Pharmacoepidemiology & Pharmacovigilance, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Jul 2016 → Jul 2021
Pharmacovigilance Expert Advisory Group Member, MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency)
2011 → 2017
Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms
- Christabel Pankhurst Institute
- Digital Futures
Keywords
- Epidemiology
- Digital epidemiology
- Pharmacoepidemiology
- Rheumatology
- Arthritis
- Drug safety
- mHealth
- eHealth
- Smartphones
- Wearables
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
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Clinical utility of digital pain drawings captured by people living with musculoskeletal pain conditions: A qualitative study
Ali, S. M., Elsayed , S., Lee, R. R., Firth, J., McCarthy, D., Dixon, W. G. & van der Veer, S. N., 16 May 2025, In: British journal of pain.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Comparative Risk of Severe Constipation in Patients Treated With Opioids for Non-cancer Pain: A Retrospective Cohort Study In Northwest England
Yimer, B. B., Soomro, M., Mcbeth, J., Ramirez Medina, C., Lunt, M., Dixon, W. & Jani, M., 6 May 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: BMC Medicine.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Integrating patient-generated health data from a smartphone app across multiple healthcare providers: a case study
van der Veer, S. N., Knowles, S., Dowding, D., Sharp, C. A., Moschogianis, S., Griffiths-Jones, D. & Dixon, W. G., 13 Jan 2025, (Accepted/In press) Medical Informatics Europe 2025, 19-21 May 2025, Glasgow, Scotland.Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review
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Preparing to deliver a stepped wedge cluster-randomised trial to test the effectiveness of daily symptom tracking integrated into electronic health records for managing rheumatoid arthritis: a mixed-methods feasibility trial
Druce, K., Masood, Y., Chadwick, H., Skyrme, S., Griffiths-Jones, D., Bravo Santisteban, R. D., Bower, P., Firth, J., Sharp, C., Arden Armitage, C., Dowding, D., Mcbeth, J., Sanders, C., Dixon, W. & Van Der Veer, S., 2025, In: BMC Rheumatology. 9, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
The current state of digital manikins to support pain self-reporting: a systematic literature review
Ali, S. M., Mountain, D. C., Lee, R., Murphy, D., Chiarotto, A., Wong, D. C., Dixon, W. G. & van der Veer, S., 10 Mar 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: Pain Reports.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Supporting the rheumatology multi-disciplinary team to write directly to patients
Sharp, C. (PI), Dixon, W. (CoI) & McMillan, B. (CoI)
25/09/23 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Transforming outpatient consultations by integrating regular symptom tracking by patients into the electronic health record
Dixon, W. (PI), Arden Armitage, C. (CoI), Bower, P. (CoI), Dowding, D. (CoI), Mcbeth, J. (CoI), Parkes, M. (CoI), Sanders, C. (CoI), Sharp, C. (CoI), Van Der Veer, S. (CoI) & Wilson, P. (CoI)
1/10/21 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Integrating hospital outpatient letters into the healthcare data space
Nenadic, G. (PI), Dixon, W. (CoI) & Jani, M. (CoI)
1/10/21 → 30/09/25
Project: Research
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Harnessing digital data to improve the benefit:harm balance of opioids for non-cancer pain
Jani, M. (PI), Barton, A. (CoI), Dixon, W. (CoI) & Peek, N. (CoI)
1/09/21 → 30/11/27
Project: Research
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Trends and factors associated with prescription opioid utilisation, dependence and deaths in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs)
Jani, M. (PI), Dixon, W. (CoI), Lunt, M. (CoI) & Peek, N. (CoI)
1/12/20 → 31/01/26
Project: Research
Prizes
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Outstanding Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year
Dixon, W. (Recipient), 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Patients as Partners award winner, ‘Enabling Patients with Technology’
Dixon, W. (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Digital Patient-Generated Health Data: Opportunities for Pharmacoepidemiology
Dixon, W. (Speaker)
26 Aug 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Teaching and Research
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Symptom tracking integrated into clinical care
Dixon, W. (Speaker)
17 May 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
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Boston University
Dixon, W. (Secondee)
12 Jul 2022 → 14 Jul 2022Activity: External visiting positions or secondments › Visiting an external academic institution › Research
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Smartphones to support clinical care and research
Dixon, W. (Speaker)
5 Apr 2022Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
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Are registers worth it?
Dixon, W. (Speaker)
Sept 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
Impacts
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Biologics registers for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: enhancing access to novel therapies and balancing drug safety concerns versus effectiveness
Hyrich, K. (Participant), Bruce, I. (Participant), Griffiths, C. (Participant), Warren, R. (Participant), Symmons, D. (Participant), Ashcroft, D. (Participant), Dixon, W. (Participant), Lunt, M. (Participant), Yiu, Z. (Participant) & Mercer, L. (Participant)
Impact: Health and wellbeing
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Improving treatment outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis
Symmons, D. (Participant), Silman, A. (Participant), Hyrich, K. (Participant), Lunt, M. (Participant), Dixon, W. (Participant) & Verstappen, S. (Participant)
Impact: Health impacts, Societal impacts, Economic impacts
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REMORA as case study in NHSx's Rheumatology Digital Playbook
Dixon, W. (Participant)
Impact: Awareness and understanding, Technological, Health and wellbeing
Datasets
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Modelling and extraction of variability in free-text medication prescriptions from an anonymised primary care electronic medical record research database
Karystianis, G. (Contributor), Sheppard, T. (Contributor), Dixon, W. (Contributor) & Nenadic, G. (Contributor), figshare , 9 Feb 2016
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3632789.v1, https://figshare.com/collections/Modelling_and_extraction_of_variability_in_free-text_medication_prescriptions_from_an_anonymised_primary_care_electronic_medical_record_research_database/3632789/1
Dataset
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MedNorm: A Corpus and Embeddings for Cross-terminology Medical Concept Normalisation
Belousov, M. (Creator), Dixon, W. G. (Contributor) & Nenadic, G. (Contributor), Mendeley Data, 3 Jun 2019
DOI: 10.17632/b9x7xxb9sz.1, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/b9x7xxb9sz
Dataset
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The Future of Patient-Generated Data for UK Health Research
Dixon, W. G. (Creator), McBeth, J. (Creator), Mackey, E. (Creator), Peek, N. (Creator), van der Veer, S. (Creator) & Ainsworth, J. (Creator), University of Manchester Figshare, 27 Jun 2022
DOI: 10.48420/20066132, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/report/The_Future_of_Patient-Generated_Data_for_UK_Health_Research/20066132
Dataset
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Interactive screenshots of the patient symptom tracking app for the Remote Monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (REMORA2) stepped wedge cluster randomized trial
Van der Veer, S. N. (Contributor) & Dixon, W. G. (Creator), University of Manchester Figshare, 19 Aug 2024
DOI: 10.48420/26662249, https://figshare.manchester.ac.uk/articles/media/Interactive_screenshots_of_the_patient_symptom_tracking_app_for_the_Remote_Monitoring_of_Rheumatoid_Arthritis_REMORA2_stepped_wedge_cluster_randomized_trial/26662249
Dataset
Press/Media
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BBC presenter on why cold weather makes his body hurt
7/01/25
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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'App to track symptoms would lead to better NHS care'
5/08/24
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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The Independent (& various media outlets): Up to one in three with rheumatoid arthritis at risk of long-term opioid use
Jani, M., Huang, J., Dixon, W., Peek, N. & Jenkins, D.
16/05/23
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Good Housekeeping: the use of smartphones for health research
19/07/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research