The Society
More than 35,000 clinicians, scientists and allied health professionals from over 160 countries are part of the ERS community
Become an ERS member
The Usher Institute, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, The University of Edinburgh is an interdisciplinary environment dedicated to healthcare research and innovation globally. Work clusters within four Centres: Population Health Sciences; Medical Informatics; Global Health; Biomedicine, Self and Society; We have a broad portfolio of implementation and applied respiratory research including:
• Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (https://www.aukcar.ac.uk) is a UK-wide collaborative of Universities) with expertise encompassing e-health, informatics; supported self-management, asthma diagnosis.
• NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health:
RESPIRE (https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/respire/about) undertakes research on acute/chronic respiratory conditions with partners in South-East Asia
Applied health service research\Asthma\COPD\M-health & e-health\Smoking
Global fellowships (return phase only)/European fellowships – in line with current status
The Usher Institute has an ethos of collaborative and interdisciplinary research including researchers, clinicians and practitioners from public health, primary care, biomedical and social sciences with expertise in epidemiology, statistics and modelling, sociology, social policy, psychology, economics, geography, health promotion, nursing and medicine.
• Within Usher there is expertise in allergy and respiratory disease, including asthma, rhinitis, allergy, COPD and respiratory tract infections
• Other core areas of research include e-health; cancer; palliative care; sociology of health; global health; medical informatics
• Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit: provides an infrastructure to design, plan and deliver clinical research studies.
We lead programmes of respiratory research within Collaborative Centres:
• Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR) has major projects identifying/targeting at-risk patients with asthma, implementing supported self-management, e-Health, asthma diagnosis.
• NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE) leads projects identifying/awareness of respiratory disease; improving asthma care, managing childhood pneumonia, adapting pulmonary rehabilitation to low-resource settings, air quality, TB adherence.
• REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) http://resc-eu.org/ is developing evidence on RSV disease burden and economic impact, and supporting trials of vaccines/therapeutics
• Evaluating public health initiatives and informing social policy on tobacco use
Important links for the Usher Institute include:
• National Health Service
• Health Data Research UK Scotland: committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge research using ‘big data’ to advance the health and care of patients and the public.
• Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit: provides an infrastructure to design, plan and deliver clinical research studies.
• Queen’s Medical Research Institute
• Global Health Academy
• Patient and Public Involvement
• Third sector (Asthma UK, British Lung Foundation)
• Professional bodies (e.g. ERS; British Thoracic Society; International Primary Care Respiratory Group)
As part of the Centre for Global Health Research, the Usher Institute actively engages in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, building capacity and transferring knowledge to researchers and groups in low and middle-income countries. RESPIRE is a specific example of a global respiratory unit funded by the UK National Institute of Health Research which aims to support and build capacity for research in our four partner South Asian countries. Within this initiative we have supported Fellowships to support career progression both at early career and senior researcher level, PhD studentships, Masters training, as well as developing local ‘research schools’ to facilitate interest in research (https://www.edweb.ed.ac.uk/usher/respire/respire-fellowships) and (https://www.edweb.ed.ac.uk/usher/respire/phd-studentships) We regularly host webinars, seminars, symposia, international conferences and visiting students and scholars from a broad range of countries. Our thriving Global Health Academy offers innovative support for international students throughout their career. (http://www.ed.ac.uk/global-health)
Yes