Debbie Sharp
Professor of Primary Health Care
Email: debbie.sharp@bristol.ac.uk
Background
Debbie's academic career in primary care began in 1983 when she took up a lectureship at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, which later became UMDS and is now part of King’s College. She wrote her thesis as a Mental Health Foundation General Practice Research Fellow on post-natal and emotional illness in community settings and from there developed a major interest in the broader topic of primary care mental health.
In 1989 Debbie was promoted to Senior Lecturer, and in 1994 took up the foundation Chair in Primary Health Care in Bristol. Over the last 16 years she has developed an academic unit of more than 70 people, which had 70% of its submission rated 3* or 4* in the 2008 RAE. She has held a variety of posts and sat on many committees in the University of Bristol, most notably being Head of School between August 2000 and August 2003. She has also represented academic primary care at most major national fora.
Research
Debbie's research interests continue to be mainly in the field of mental health. She has a significant track record in the field of cancer in primary care and more recently in complementary and alternative medicine and childhood obesity. She is the Bristol lead for the NIHR School for Primary Care Research.
Teaching
Debbie played a major role in implementing the GMC’s Tomorrow’s Doctors (1993) in Bristol and for developing the general practice curriculum more generally resulting in general practice teaching in all five years of the curriculum. She was also responsible for overseeing the introduction of communication skills into to the curriculum and giving it a home in Primary health Care where it still resides. As Head of School she was instrumental in developing the Clinical Academy system and for recruiting general practices to teach our students across Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset.
Clinical
Debbie is also a part-time partner at the Shirehampton Group Practice in North Bristol.