Farr researcher awarded NIHR In-Practice Fellowhip

Meena Rafiq is a GP who has been working at the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, London, during her Academic Clinical Fellowship in Primary Care, while completing a Master's in Epidemiology at LSHTM. She has been awarded a two-year NIHR In-Practice Fellowship (IPF) to investigate the role of childhood infections on development of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in early life, using primary care linked CPRD data. This project is a joint collaboration between Farr London and the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at LSHTM, involving Professor Andrew Hayward, Dr Sara Thomas, Dr Charlotte Warren-Gash and Dr Spiros Denaxas.  

Hodgkin’s lymphoma incidence in the UK has increased by almost 20% over the last decade. Most new cases occur in children and young adults, and the reasons for this increase remain unknown. Previous studies have established that wealthier countries have significantly higher rates of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in early life than developing countries. This is thought to be due to differences in childhood exposure to infection, with children in wealthier countries exposed to fewer infections at an earlier age, which affects their immune development and subsequent risk of developing certain immune-related diseases. This study will use large-scale general practice data linked to hospital episode statistics to investigate the changing distribution of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the UK population over time and the role of childhood infectious determinants. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the increasing incidence of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the UK population and how we can develop methods to address this.

The NIHR In-Practice Fellowship (IPF) offers academic training to fully-qualified general practitioners with outstanding potential for development as clinical academics in research. The research and training will be completed part time alongside clinical work, with the aim of developing a proposal during the course of the IPF for a competitive PhD fellowship.