About COBM

The Department of Community Based Medicine is now part of the New School of Social and Community Medicine and contributes to teaching, research and postgraduate study across the wide range of health-related areas covered by the four Academic Units that comprise the Department. Full details of activities such as research projects and taught courses are available on the Units’ individual pages.

The Department makes a major contribution to a number of research themes in the University, primarily relating to epidemiology, health services research, ethics and neuroscience. The population-based research is characterised by a multidisciplinary and multi-method approach to addressing questions influenced by public health and health service priorities, often but not exclusively conducted in primary care. There is therefore an emphasis on issues of high prevalence and/or burden on the community, involving problems and interventions of a complex nature.

Undergraduate teaching within the Department of Community Based Medicine spans many areas and principally provides training for undergraduate student doctors – contributing to at least a third of their 5-year course. We have responsibility for several units and elements in the undergraduate medical curriculum, and have led on a number of innovations including assessment methods and a range of taught student selected components.

Numerous opportunities for postgraduate research and taught courses are available in a wide range of disciplines and areas of application and we welcome informal contact from prospective students to discuss potential projects and ideas.