The Department of Primary Care Health Sciences was established in October 1998 (as the Department of Primary Health Care) with the appointment of a foundation chair in general practice.  The Department was awarded world-leading 4* status and rated the highest performing Primary Care department in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 45% of our staff were rated 4* (world leading) and 40% were rated 3* internationally excellent research).

In the UK, most serious illness presents first to primary care and the bulk of NHS care of patients with long-term illness is provided in primary care. The department has a national and international role in providing the evidence base which underpins this health care and is responsible for teaching general practice to University of Oxford medical students. The department provides a strong multi-disciplinary training environment and a full programme of academic support. It has strong links with other epidemiological and community based research groupings in the University and also with local general practices that participate in both teaching and research.

The Department’s primary research focus is on the prevention, early diagnosis and management of common illness in general practice - particularly childhood infection, cancer, heart disease and stroke. It has recently developed a new stream of clinical research which seeks to improve the conceptual understanding and use of monitoring in a number of chronic diseases. The Department has an international reputation for developing innovative methods of research synthesis and research use to ensure that research findings change clinical practice. It is host to the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (which provides an editorial home for the journal Evidence-Based Medicine). We are also home to the international Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group which collates and summarises research evidence from across the world to underpin governmental health policies on smoking. The Department is a founding member of the National School of Primary Care Research.

The Department is temporarily located at Hythe Bridge Street, in the centre of Oxford, 2 minutes’ walk from Oxford train station.  In the latter half of 2012, we expect to move to new offices which are currently being built on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) just north of the city centre.