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Professor Gary Macfarlane

Professor Gary Macfarlane
Professor Gary Macfarlane
Professor Gary Macfarlane

BSc (Hons), MBChB, PhD, CStat, MD (Hons), FFPHM, DSc, HonFFOM

Clinical Chair in Epidemiology

About
Email Address
g.j.macfarlane@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address
106 Health Sciences Building
Foresterhill Campus
Foresterhill
AB25 2ZD

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School/Department
School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Personal Assistant
Personal Assistant
Mrs Jisha Babu
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Biography

Gary Macfarlane has held the Chair in Epidemiology (Clinical) since 2005 and previously held the same post at The University of Manchester from 1999. He is an Honorary Consultant in the Department of Public Health at NHS Grampian, Deputy Clinical Lead for Chronic Pain at NHS Research Scotland and Director of the Versus Arthritis/Medical Research Council Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work. He was Dean of Research Impact and Interdisciplinary Research for the period 2018-2024. He trained in Statistics/ Computing Science and then Medicine at The University of Glasgow before undertaking his PhD at The University of Bristol. He worked at the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan before leading a programme of chronic pain research at the Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit at the University of Manchester.

He leads the Epidemiology group at the University of Aberdeen. The clinical research programme focusses on Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMD) and undertakes research on: mechanisms of disease onset and outcome (observational epidemiology), identifying effective management for RMDs (Clinical trials and evidence synthesis), and designing optimal delivery of care (health services research). He and his research team have particular expertise in common complex conditions (including musculoskeletal pain and fatigue, fibromyalgia, and early osteoarthritis), inflammatory conditions, and rare diseases. The programme also hosts several disease and drug registries: the British Society of Rheumatology Biologics Registers in Ankylosing Spondylitis (BSRBR-AS) and Psoriatic Arthritis (BSR-PsA) and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy UK Antimicrobial Registry (UKAR), all of which recruit UK-wide.  Professor Macfarlane is a Chartered Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and an Honorary fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine. 

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons) Statistics and Computing Science 
    1985 - University of Glasgow 
  • MBChB Medicine and Surgery 
    1990 - University of Glasgow 
  • PhD Epidemiology 
    1993 - University of Bristol 

    The Epidemiology of Oral Cancer

  • MD (Hons) Medicine (Epidemiology) 
    2003 - University of Glasgow 
  • DSc Medicine 
    2021 - University of Glasgow 
  • CStat Statistics 
    1999 - Royal Statistical Society 
  • FFPH Public Health 
    2009 - Faculty of Public Health 
  • HonFFOM Occupational Medicine 
    2023 - Faculty of Occupational Medicine 

    I have been awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine 

External Memberships

  • Health and Safety Executive (UK) Scientific Quality Advisory Group: Member
  • British Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting Organising Committee: Member
  • NHS Research Scotland Pain Network: Deputy Chair
  • Versus Arthritis Fellowship Committee: Member 
  • British Society for Rheumatology: Research and Registers Committee 

Latest Publications

  • Childhood maltreatment and chronic ‘all over’ body pain in adulthood: a counterfactual analysis using UK Biobank

    Timmins, K., Hales, T. G., Macfarlane, G., Consortium Against Pain InEquality (CAPE) investigators, Chronic Pain Advisory Group
    Pain
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Recording of non-musculoskeletal manifestations, comorbidities, and safety outcomes in European spondyloarthritis registries: a survey

    Ahmadzay, Z. F., Heberg, J., Jørgensen, J. B., Ørnbjerg, L. M., Østergaard, M., Møller-Bisgaard, S., Michelsen, B., Loft, A. G., Jones, G. T., Hellamand, P., Scherer, A., Nissen, M. J., Pavelka, K., Závada, J., Laas, K., Vorobjov, S., Nordström, D., Sokka-Isler, T., Regierer, A. C., Reich, A., Gudbjornsson, B., Thorarinsdottir, K., Iannone, F., Favalli, E. G., van de Sande, M., Provan, S. A., Kvien, T. K., Rodrigues, A. M., Gonçalves, C. F., Codreanu, C., Mogosan, C., Rotar, Z., Prikmajer, K. P., Castrejon, I., Otero-Varela, L., Di Giuseppe, D., Wallman, J. K., Ciurea, A., Möller, B., Kenar-Artın, G., Yildirim, T. D., Macfarlane, G. J., Rotariu, O., Glintborg, B., Hetland, M. L.
    Rheumatology Advances in Practice, rkae135
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis Reported Willingness to Use Remote Care and Showed High Adherence to Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: an 18-Month Observational Study

    Thomassen, E. E. K., Berg, I. J., Kristianslund, E. K., Tveter, A. T., Bakland, G., Gossec, L., Hakim, S., Macfarlane, G., De Thurah, A., Østerås, N.
    Rheumatology International, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 2089–2098
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Smoking and alcohol by HPV status in head and neck cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Study

    Thakral, A., Lee, J. J., Hou, T., Hueniken, K., Dudding, T., Gormley, M., Virani, S., Olshan, A. F., Diergaarde, B., Ness, A. R., Waterboer, T., Smith-Byrne, K., Brennan, P., Hayes, D. N., Sanderson, E., Brown, C., Huang, S., Bratman, S. V., Spreafico, A., De Almeida, J., Davies, J. C., Bierut, L., Macfarlane, G., Lagiou, P., Lagiou, A., Polesel, J., Agudo, A., Alemany, L., Ahrens, W., Healy, C. M., Conway, D. I., Nygård, M., Canova, C., Holcatova, I., Richiardi, L., Znaor, A., Goldstein, D. B., Hung, R. J., Xu, W., Liu, G., Espin-Garcia, O.
    Nature Communications, vol. 15, 7835
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Development and external validation of a head and neck cancer risk prediction model

    Smith, C. D. L., McMahon, A. D., Lyall, D. M., Goulart, M., Inman, G. J., Ross, A., Gormley, M., Dudding, T., Macfarlane, G., Robinson, M., Richiardi, L., Serraino, D., Polesel, J., Canova, C., Ahrens, W., Healy, C. M., Lagiou, P., Holcatova, I., Alemany, L., Znoar, A., Waterboer, T., Brennan, P., Virani, S., Conway, D. I.
    Head Neck, vol. 46, no. 9, pp. 2261-2273
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

View My Publications

Prizes and Awards

Sir Alexander Morison Medal from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Heberden Medal from the British Society for Rheumatology

Research

Research Overview

My major research interests are in the Epidemiology of Rheumatic and Musculoskleletal Disorders (RMD) with a particular focus on common disabling symptoms (chronic pain, and fatigue) inflammatory and non-inflammatory arthritis. I am Director of the Versus Arthritis and MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work. I lead several nationwide drug registries. I have current live grant income over £13 million. 

Research Specialisms

  • Epidemiology
  • Medical Statistics
  • Medicine
  • Environmental and Public Health

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Research programme

You can read about the research programme I lead, including studies underway, research outputs and plain language summaries here: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/iahs/research/epidemiology/research-107.php

Collaborations

Medical Research Council/Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work

Professor Macfarlane principal investigator for the Aberdeen spoke of this centre, which is based at the University of Southampton. Coordinated by the University of Southampton, the centre brings together fifteen different academic institutions across the UK, with interest and expertise in rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease, and its relation to occupation, to identify effective and cost-effective ways to minimise the adverse impacts of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. The work at the University of Aberdeen is focussed on investigating: media campaigns for low back pain; axial spondyloarthritis; pain management. 

European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) revised guidelines for the management of fibromyalgia

Professor Macfarlane chaired an international group of clinicians, allied health professionals and scientists from 12 countries across Europe, in revising EULAR guidelines for the management of fibromyalgia. Since the original EULAR fibromyalgia guidelines, more than fifty randomised controlled trials have been published concerned with the phramcological or non-pharmacological management of the conditions. The revised guidelines were published, in 2016, in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases: http://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2016/07/04/annrheumdis-2016-209724.full

UK-RiME : UK Research in Musculoskeletal Epidemiology

The UK Research in Musculoskeletal Epidemiology (UK-RiME) partnership is a national collaboration between eight epidemiology centres in the United Kingdom including Aberdeen. The partnership seeks to develop a co-ordinated training programme facilitated by exchanges between departments at PhD, post-doctoral, NIHR academic clinical fellow, clinical fellow and international trainee levels.  UK-RiME facilitates access to one another’s cohorts and share analytical expertise with each other and the UK musculoskeletal research community.

 

 

Funding and Grants

  • 2024-29/£1.2m/Versus Arthritis. “PrIOritising early detection of KNEE osteoaRthritis – PIOKNEER
  • 2022-25/£999k/ Medical Research Council and Versus Arthritis Advanced Pain Discovery Platform. High Impact Chronic Pain and UK Biobank: presentation, transitions and targets for intervention
  • 2022-24/£232k/Chief Scientist’s Office/ Supporting people with musculoskeletal disorders in Scotland to remain in work: adapting the Making it Work™ intervention developed for people with inflammatory arthritis in Canada (Co-Chief Investigator)
  • 2021-25/£3,179k/MRC and Versus Arthritis/Consortium Against Pain inEquality (CAPE) - The impact of adverse childhood experiences on chronic pain and responses to treatment (Investigator and Work Package Lead)
  • 2021-24/£485k /MRC/ Quantifying the Impact of Work on Paid Employment (Chief Investigator)
  • 2021-26/£1,250k/British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy/United Kingdom AntiMicrobial Registry (Co-chief Investigator)
  • 2020-26/£2,488k/ NIHR/ NIHR Programme Grant: Development and evaluation of the Digital-My Arm Pain Programme (D-MAPP) for improving painful distal upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (Investigator)
  • 2019-26/£2,300k/Medical Research Council & Versus Arthritis Centre of Excellence in Musculoskeletal Health and Work (Chief Investigator Investigator, Aberdeen)
  • 2019-25/£1,138k/Versus Arthritis/Developing new models of care for people with fibromyalgia (PACFiND) (Chief Investigator)
Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

 

Postgraduate (PhD) research students

The Epidemiology group welcomes applications in our research areas of interest.

External courses

Professor Macfarlane established a week-long Intensive Course in Applied Epidemiology (ICAE) at the University of Aberdeen.  This course has been run here since 2007, having previously been run for 15 years at the University of Manchester.  The course is highly rated by attendees, with attendees from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australasia.  The course is annual and starts on the first Monday in March. For further details and / or to register for the next course please see our ICAE web page.

The Epidemiology Group has also put on shorter courses at external locations including Warsaw and Bucharest and also runs courses focussed on specific clinical disciplines such as  "Essentials in Epidemiology for Reproductive Health".

 

Publications

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  • Role of medical history and medication use in the aetiology of upper aerodigestive tract cancers in Europe: the ARCAGE study

    MacFarlane, T., Macfarlane, G. J., Thakker, N. S., Benhamou, S., Bouchardy, C., Ahrens, W., Pohlabeln, H., Lagiou, P., Lagiou, A., Castellsague, X., Agudo, A., Slamova, A., Plzak, J., Merletti, F., Richiardi, L., Talamini, R., Barzan, L., Kjaerheim, K., Canova, C., Simonato, L., Conway, D. I., McKinney, P. A., Thomson, P., Sloan, P., Znaor, A., Healy, C. M., McCartan, B. E., Marron, M., Brennan, P.
    Annals of Oncology, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1053-1060
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • The epidemiology of multiple somatic symptoms

    Creed, F. H., Davies, I., Jackson, J., Littlewood, A., Chew-Graham, C., Tomenson, B., Macfarlane, G., Barsky, A., Katon, W., McBeth, J.
    Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 311-317
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Predicting OA progression to total hip replacement: can we do better than risk factors alone using active shape modelling as an imaging biomarker?

    Barr, R. J., Gregory, J. S., Reid, D. M., Aspden, R. M., Yoshida, K., Hosie, G., Silman, A. J., Alesci, S., Macfarlane, G. J.
    Rheumatology, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 562-570
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Organising a World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE): Reflections and lessons from the XIX WCE, Scotland

    Bhopal, R. S., Smith, W. C., McEwen, J., MacFarlane, G., McCallum, A., Pattison, D., Bhala, N., Peto, R., Pell, J. P.
    Public Health, vol. 126, no. 3, pp. 265-270
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Cognitive behavior therapy, exercise, or both for treating chronic widespread pain

    McBeth, J., Prescott, G., Scotland, G., Lovell, K., Keeley, P., Hannaford, P., McNamee, P., Symmons, D. P. M., Woby, S., Gkazinou, C., Beasley, M., Macfarlane, G. J.
    JAMA Internal Medicine, vol. 172, no. 1, pp. 48-57
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • The prevalence and management of low back pain across adulthood: Results from a population-based cross-sectional study (the MUSICIAN study)

    Macfarlane, G. J., Beasley, M., Jones, E. A., Prescott, G. J., Docking, R., Keeley, P., McBeth, J., Jones, G. T., MUSICIAN Study team
    Pain, vol. 153, no. 1, pp. 27-32
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Back pain

    Macfarlane, G. J., Beasley, M., Jones, E. A., Lovell, K., Prescott, G. J., Keeley, P., McBeth, J., Jones, G. T., MUSICIAN Study team
    75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American-College-of-Rheumatology/46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association-of-Rheumatology-Health-Professionals, pp. S345-S346
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts

  • Maternal and perinatal risk factors and childhood cancer

    Beasley, M., Bhattacharya, S., Pang, D., Macfarlane, G.
    Society for Social Medicine 55th Annual Scientific Meeting
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters

  • Population attributable risk of tobacco and alcohol for upper aerodigestive tract cancer

    Anantharaman, D., Marron, M., Lagiou, P., Samoli, E., Ahrens, W., Pohlabeln, H., Slamova, A., Schejbalova, M., Merletti, F., Richiardi, L., Kjaerheim, K., Castellsague, X., Agudo, A., Talamini, R., Barzan, L., MacFarlane, T., Tickle, M., Simonato, L., Canova, C., Conway, D. I., McKinney, P. A., Thomson, P., Znaor, A., Healy, C. M., McCartan, B. E., Hashibe, M., Brennan, P., Macfarlane, G. J.
    Oral Oncology, vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 725-731
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • A genome-wide association study of upper aerodigestive tract cancers conducted within the INHANCE consortium

    McKay, J. D., Truong, T., Gaborieau, V., Chabrier, A., Chuang, S., Byrnes, G., Zaridze, D., Shangina, O., Szeszenia-Dabrowska, N., Lissowska, J., Rudnai, P., Fabianova, E., Bucur, A., Bencko, V., Holcatova, I., Janout, V., Foretova, L., Lagiou, P., Trichopoulos, D., Benhamou, S., Bouchardy, C., Ahrens, W., Merletti, F., Richiardi, L., Talamini, R., Barzan, L., Kjaerheim, K., Macfarlane, G. J., MacFarlane, T., Simonato, L., Canova, C., Agudo, A., Castellsagué, X., Lowry, R., Conway, D. I., McKinney, P. A., Healy, C. M., Toner, M. E., Znaor, A., Curado, M. P., Koifman, S., Menezes, A., Wünsch-Filho, V., Neto, J. E., Garrote, L. F., Boccia, S., Cadoni, G., Arzani, D., Olshan, A. F., Weissler, M. C., Funkhouser, W. K., Luo, J., Lubiński, J., Trubicka, J., Lener, M., Oszutowska, D., Schwartz, S. M., Chen, C., Fish, S., Doody, D. R., Muscat, J. E., Lazarus, P., Gallagher, C. J., Chang, S., Zhang, Z., Wei, Q., Sturgis, E. M., Wang, L., Franceschi, S., Herrero, R., Kelsey, K. T., McClean, M. D., Marsit, C. J., Nelson, H. H., Romkes, M., Buch, S., Nukui, T., Zhong, S., Lacko, M., Manni, J. J., Peters, W. H. M., Hung, R. J., McLaughlin, J., Vatten, L., Njølstad, I., Goodman, G. E., Field, J. K., Liloglou, T., Vineis, P., Clavel-Chapelon, F., Palli, D., Tumino, R., Krogh, V., Panico, S., González, C. A., Quirós, J. R., Martínez, C., Navarro, C., Ardanaz, E., Larrañaga, N., Khaw, K., Key, T., Bueno-de-Mesquita, H. B., Peeters, P. H. M., Trichopoulou, A., Linseisen, J., Boeing, H., Hallmans, G., Overvad, K., Tjønneland, A., Kumle, M., Riboli, E., Välk, K., Vooder, T., Voodern, T., Metspalu, A., Zelenika, D., Boland, A., Delepine, M., Foglio, M., Lechner, D., Blanché, H., Gut, I. G., Galan, P., Heath, S., Hashibe, M., Hayes, R. B., Boffetta, P., Lathrop, M., Brennan, P.
    PLoS Genetics, vol. 7, no. 3, e1001333
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Life-course influences on chronic pain in adults

    Macfarlane, G. J.
    Chronic Pain Epidemiology: From Aetiology to Public Health. Oxford University Press (OUP)
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Response to Mental Stress Predicts Chronic Widespread Pain Onset: Results from the SPICE Study

    Jones, G., Waiter, G. D., Beasley, M., Gkazinou, C., Macfarlane, G.
    Arthritis & Rheumatism, vol. 62, no. S10, pp. 649
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts

  • Fatigue: A principal contributor to impaired quality of life in ANCA-associated vasculitis

    Basu, N., Jones, G., Fluck, N., MacDonald, A. G., Pang, D., Dospinescu, P., Reid, D. M., Macfarlane, G.
    Rheumatology, vol. 49, no. 7, pp. 1383-1390
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Few clinical parameters mark out anti-TNF use among patients with ankylosing spondylitis: Data from the Scotland and Ireland registry for ankylosing spondylitis (SIRAS)

    Jones, G., Beasley, M., Marshall, D., Gibson, J., Steven, M. M., Sturrock, R. D., Macfarlane, G. J., SIRAS Steering Comm
    Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 621
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts

  • Fibromyalgia (FM) is not a clinical characteristic of ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (AAV) in Northern Scotland

    Basu, N., Dospinescu, P., Macdonald, A., Fluck, N., Jones, G., Reid, D., Macfarlane, G.
    APMIS, vol. 117, no. s127, pp. 161
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts

  • Musculoskeletal pain is associated with a long-term increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular-related mortality (vol 48, pg 74, 2009): corrigendum

    McBeth, J., Symmons, D. P., Silman, A. J., Allison, T., Webb, R., Brammah, T., Macfarlane, G. J.
    Rheumatology, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 459
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Musculoskeletal pain is associated with a long-term increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular-related mortality

    McBeth, J., Symmons, D. P., Silman, A. J., Allison, T., Webb, R., Brammah, T., Macfarlane, G. J.
    Rheumatology, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 74-77
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Unexplained orofacial pain - Is an early diagnosis possible?

    Aggarwal, V. R., McBeth, J., Zakrzewska, J. M., MacFarlane, G. J.
    British Dental Journal, vol. 205, no. 3
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Active exercise, education, and cognitive behavioral therapy for persistent disabling low back pain: a randomized controlled trial

    Johnson, R. E., Jones, G. T., Wiles, N. J., Chaddock, C., Potter, R. G., Roberts, C., Symmons, D. P. M., Watson, P. J., Torgerson, D. J., Macfarlane, G. J.
    Spine, vol. 32, no. 15, pp. 1578-1585
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Cerebral emboli as a potential cause of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: case-control study

    Purandare, N., Burns, A., Daly, K. J., Hardicre, J., Morris, J., MacFarlane, G. J., McCollum, C.
    British Medical Journal, vol. 332, pp. 1119-1124
    Contributions to Journals: Editorials

  • Managing low back pain presenting to primary care: where do we go from here?

    MacFarlane, G. J., Jones, G. T., Hannaford, P. C.
    Pain, vol. 122, no. 3, pp. 219-222
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Predicting persistent disabling low back pain in general practice: a prospective cohort study

    Jones, G., Johnson, R. E., Wiles, N. J., Chaddock, C., Potter, R. G., Roberts, C., Symmons, D. P. M., MacFarlane, G. J.
    The British Journal of General Practice, vol. 56, no. 526, pp. 334-41
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Predictors of persistent neck pain after whiplash injury

    Atherton, K., Wiles, N., Lecky, F. E., Hawes, S. J., Silman, A. J., MacFarlane, G. J., Jones, G. T.
    Emergency Medicine Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 195-201
    Contributions to Journals: Editorials

  • Does physical trauma lead to an increase in the risk of new onset widespread pain?

    Wynne-Stones, G., Macfarlane, G. J., Silman, A. J., Jones, G. T.
    Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 391-393
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Predicting New Onset of Widespread Pain Following a Motor Vehicle Collision

    Wynn, J., Jones, G. T., Wiles, N., Silman, A. J., MacFarlane, G. J.
    Journal of Rheumatology, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 968-974
    Contributions to Journals: Editorials
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