He leads the Dundee Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (DEBU) and co-leads the Tayside Clinical Trials Unit (TCTU) which has UKCRC registration and successfully manages approximately 20 clinical trials. He has also carried out extensive population record-linkage research on drug safety, adherence and management of long term conditions using Tayside’s and Scotland’s unique prescribing population databases and is the author of over 210 publications (h-index 50, m-index 1.42), as well as an investigator on research projects to a total of over £32 million.

He has developed a number of prognostic algorithms, most notably predicting Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in people with type 2 diabetes (Diabetes Care, 2006), and Chief Scientist Office funded algorithm to predict risk of emergency admissions in primary care (PEONY) with a view to developing cost-effective interventions for long term conditions (Archives Internal Medicine, 2008). An NIHR HTA-funded study has developed aids to clinical decision making with abnormal liver function tests in primary care. He is senior author of a study to predict outcomes for those admitted to hospital with Acute Pancreatitis using health informatics across Scotland.