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Dr Ben Wheeler

Research Fellow

Email: ku.ca.dmcp@releehw.tcideneb

Telephone:01872 258130

Based: Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, TR1 3HD

Current Research

My main research interest is the interplay between environment, socio-economic status and public health, with particular regard to health inequalities and informing health and environmental policy. Key methodologies include the application of Geographic Information Systems and spatial analysis to study these issues and the use of large, national and international secondary datasets.  I am also interested in developing methods for applying Global Positioning System (GPS) and other technologies in the study of environment and health and wellbeing.

I am developing work in a number of areas with colleagues from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter, and elsewhere. These include:

• The Blue Gym (http://www.bluegym.org.uk)
• The Outdoors and Health Network (http://www.outdoorshealthnetwork.co.uk)
• Wellbeing and outdoor/aquatic environments
• The built environment, ecosystem services and public health
• Oceans and human health

Past Research

• Personal and Environmental Associations with Children’s Health (PEACH) http://www.bris.ac.uk/enhs/peach A project in Bristol funded by the National Preventive Research Initiative and the World Cancer Research Fund. My role included merging and analysing data from GPS receivers and accelerometers worn for several days by study participants.
• Using routine datasets to investigate the impact of pharmaceutical regulatory action on population health. A project funded by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) using large secondary datasets including the Hospital Episode Statistics.
• Worldmapper (http://www.worldmapper.org) – using novel methods to visualise international social and environmental datasets from sources such as the UN, WHO and the World Bank.
• Projects funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the geography of inequality in Britain (see http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/research/life_in_britain.htm and http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/research/transformation/index.html)
• Projects at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, working with the Ministry of Health on various issues including: geographical and ethnic inequalities in cancer screen services; geography of problem gambling and gambling opportunities; rural general medical services provision.
• The association between health inequalities and environmental inequalities in England and Wales (MRC-funded doctoral research, Bristol University).

Publications

Link to http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/bwwheeler