Alex Walker
Director of Research
Alex is an epidemiologist at the Bennett Institute. He has a particular interest in database linkage, time course analysis, risk stratification, prognosis modelling and novel computational methods in epidemiology. Before coming to Oxford he was a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Nottingham, where he worked on a variety of projects relating to several disease areas, including; hepatitis C, cancer and venous thromboembolism. His work to date has mostly focused on using routinely collected data - data sources such as the CPRD, HES and ONS data - to answer pragmatic and clinically relevant questions. He completed his PhD in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at Nottingham, which involved pharmacoepidemiology, commonly prescribed drugs and cancer. Before that he completed a MSc in Oncology and a BSc in Biochemistry and Genetics.
Papers by Alex Walker
(PRE-PRINT) Effect of the 2022 COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign in 50 year olds in England: regression discontinuity analysis in OpenSAFELY
(PRE-PRINT) Fit notes associated with COVID-19 in 24 million patients’ primary care records: A cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP.
(PRE-PRINT) The impact of COVID-19 on medication reviews in English primary care. An OpenSAFELY-TPP analysis of 20 million adult electronic health records.
Eleven key measures for monitoring general practice clinical activity during COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using 48 million adults’ primary care records in England through OpenSAFELY
[PRE-PRINT] Data-driven identification of potentially successful intervention implementations: a proof of concept using five years of opioid prescribing data from over 7000 practices in England
Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics
Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data
Changes in COVID-19-related mortality across key demographic and clinical subgroups in England from 2020 to 2022: a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform
Data-Driven Identification of Unusual Prescribing Behavior: Analysis and Use of an Interactive Data Tool Using 6 Months of Primary Care Data From 6500 Practices in England
Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 versus mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccine boosting in England: matched cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP
First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY
Identifying Patterns of Clinical Interest in Clinicians' Treatment Preferences: Hypothesis-free Data Science Approach to Prioritizing Prescribing Outliers for Clinical Review
Impact of Electronic Health Record Interface Design on Unsafe Prescribing of Ciclosporin, Tacrolimus, and Diltiazem: Cohort Study in English National Health Service Primary Care
Suboptimal prescribing behaviour associated with clinical software design features: a retrospective cohort study in English NHS primary care
(PRE-PRINT) OpenSAFELY: Do adults prescribed Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have an increased risk of death from COVID-19?
Prescription of suboptimal statin treatment regimens: a retrospective cohort study of trends and variation in English primary care
Trends and variation in unsafe prescribing of methotrexate: a cohort study in English NHS primary care.
Variation in responsiveness to warranted behaviour change among NHS clinicians: novel implementation of change detection methods in longitudinal prescribing data
Impact of Chief Medical Officer activity on prescribing of antibiotics in England: an interrupted time series analysis
Is Use of Homeopathy Associated With Poor Prescribing in English Primary Care? A Cross-Sectional Study
Optimising laboratory monitoring of chronic conditions in primary care: a quality improvement framework
Do doctors in dispensing practices with a financial conflict of interest prescribe more expensive drugs? A cross-sectional analysis of English primary care prescribing data.
Measuring the Impact of an Open Web-Based Prescribing Data Analysis Service on Clinical Practice: Cohort Study on NHS England Data
Why did some practices not implement new antibiotic prescribing guidelines on urinary tract infection? A cohort study and survey in NHS England primary care
Opioid prescribing trends and geographical variation in England, 1998–2018: a retrospective database study
Six months on – NHS England needs to focus on dissemination, implementation and audit of its Low-Priority Initiative
Time trends and geographical variation in prescribing of antibiotics in England 1998–2017
Detecting Change in Comparison to Peers in NHS Prescribing Data: a Novel Application of Cumulative Sum Methodology
The clinician impact and financial cost to the NHS of litigation over pregabalin: a cohort study in English primary care
Trends and variation in prescribing of low-priority treatments identified by NHS England: a cross-sectional study and interactive data tool in English primary care
Time trends and geographical variation in prescribing of drugs for diabetes in England from 1998 to 2017
Trends, geographical variation and factors associated with prescribing of gluten-free foods in English primary care: a cross-sectional study
New mechanism to identify cost savings in English NHS prescribing: minimising 'price per unit', a cross-sectional study
Blogs by Alex Walker
