The Oxford Centre for Monitoring and Diagnosis in Primary Care (MaDOx) is a new research programme funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) based in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. The Centre has been set up in order to improve monitoring and diagnostic techniques used in General Practice and other NHS primary care settings.

 Research to improve diagnosis in primary care is important to the NHS for two reasons: missed diagnoses cause substantial and unnecessary morbidity, mortality and costs; likewise inappropriate or unnecessary diagnostic investigations waste resources. Our diagnostic research programme is designed to help GPs and other front-line clinicians make better decisions, particularly in the areas of children’s health and cardiovascular disease.

Secondly, monitoring of patients who have chronic diseases is an increasingly important component of primary care. The MaDOx programme is identifying better and more cost-effective ways of monitoring treatment and progress of patients with diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, asthma, and those on anticoagulation therapy.

The team includes research groups with complementary expertise from the Departments of Primary Care Health  Sciences Engineering Science, Paediatrics, and Public Health at Oxford University, together with the Department of Primary Care and General Practice at Birmingham University, and Department of Paediatrics at the University of Leicester. We also collaborate with primary care researchers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. We anticipate that this expert group will be a reference point and source of advice for diagnostic methods and new technological innovation in primary care.

For further information contact: madox.primarycare@dphpc.ox.ac.uk