Dr Harry Ahmed

Overview

I am a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Epidemiology and Director of the Academic Fellows Scheme at the Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University School of Medicine, and a practicing GP at Penygraig Surgery, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

My research focuses on using linked anonymised healthcare data to answer clinically relevent questions about common infections, antibiotic prescribing, and medication prescribing more generally.

I am particularly interested in:

1) Understanding how different treatment strategies affect clinical outcomes of acute infection.

2) Exploring whether acute infections can trigger incident non-infectious events (e.g., cardiac events) or deteriorations in chronic disease (e.g., heart failure).

3) Data-driven approaches to rationalising medication prescribing by better quantifying factors related to initiation, early switching/stopping, and clinically important adverse events. 

My current work includes:

Leading an NIHR Advanced Fellowship funded by Health and Care Research Wales investigating how we can Safely Prescribe Antibiotic Treatment for Infection in AnticoaguLant medication users (SPATIAL). The aim is to understand whether infection and/or specific antibiotics affect oral anticoagulant drug action and alter the risk of a serious bleed.

Leading a British Heart Foundation research grant investigating Myocardial Infarction and Stroke Subsequent tO URInary tract infection (MISSOURI).  The aim is to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between UTI and acute cardiovascular events to widen our understanding of cardiovascular disease mechanisms and justify and inform clinical trials of prevention strategies.

Contributing as Co-Investigator to the NIHR HTA funded PriMUS Study (developing a tool to help GPs diagnose men with lower urinary tract symptoms more accurately), the NIHR HTA funded BOPPP study (randomised trial of beta-blockers for prophylaxis of oesophageal varices), and the NIHR funded IMPART study (developing a decision aid for recurrent UTI in women).

I am Co-lead of the Infections work-package for the Health and Care Research Wales funded Wales Centre for Primary and Emergency Care Research (PRIME Centre Wales), and Associate Theme lead for the Population Health research theme for the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences.

I have considerable interest in supporting clinical acadmic trainees. I am Director of the Academic Fellows Scheme, a Welsh Government funded scheme that recruits, supports and mentors newly qualified GPs for two-years and provides opportunities for research, teaching, and postgraduate study. I also co-Lead the Cardiff cohort of the WCAT programme and mentor GP Academic Trainees.

My teaching roles include Case-based learning modules, co-leading the infections module of the Population Health Intercalated BSc, and supervising MPH, SSC, and intercalated BSc projects.