University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UNEW)
Newcastle University is a world-leading university, advancing knowledge, providing creative solutions and solving global problems. Amongst our strengths, Newcastle University excels in tackling challenges in health and healthcare. We're at the forefront of the translational medicine revolution. We turn scientific advances into direct benefits for patients. PRUDENT brings together academic leaders across Newcastle University across our Dental and Business schools as well as our Population Health Sciences Institute. In oral health, our skills in conducting mixed methods research and across the life course, strengthens our abilities to answer key research priorities and questions. Together with our growing expertise in oral health economics and public health, our research contributes to the evidence base that underpins evolving health policy to improve the health and wellbeing of patients and populations.
Meet the Team
Chris Vernazza
Dr Chris Vernazza is Director of Research and Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at the School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University. His main interest is oral health services research, especially oral health economics, an area in which he has published extensively and secured over £2million in funding. His research group focusses on obtaining valuations of different dental services, adopting economic tools to aid resource allocation and undertaking economic evaluations. Chris currently practises as a paediatric dentist at Newcastle Dental Hospital and teaches across oral health programmes. He is associate editor for the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, editor of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, and trustee of the Alliance for a Cavity Free Future.
Jytte Seested Nielsen
Dr. Jytte Seested Nielsen is a Reader in Economics at Newcastle University. Her research centers on methodological issues related to preference elicitation for health gains and changes in mortality risk. She has extensive experience in the use of surveys and economic experiments to understand underlying mechanisms affecting how individuals make decisions affecting their economic welfare. Dr. Nielsen has been principal investigator as well as a project participant on several different funded research projects in the UK and Denmark. In addition, she has been working closely with policy makers and was recently involved in a scoping study for a consortium of eight UK Governmental Departments on the value of a life year.
John Wildman
John Wildman is an economist based in Economics group in the Business School at Newcastle University. He has considerable experience of applying economic analysis to oral health and dentistry. He was the principal investigator on an ESRC grant investigating oral health inequalities in Great Britain. He has also been involved in projects investigating resource allocation in dental services, priority setting and contract reform. His interests particularly focus on oral health inequalities and the application of empirical models to oral health and dentistry. He has published widely in the area of the economics of oral health and dentistry as well as in the area of health economics and economics more generally.
Helen Rogers
Helen Rogers is a Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at Newcastle University. Her research interests include child-centred research and oral health economics. Helen was awarded a Master in Clinical Research degree in 2017 and completed her consultant examinations in Paediatric Dentistry in 2022. Her PhD (2021) was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to develop CARIES-QC-U; a utility measure for children with dental caries, suitable for use in economic evaluation. She is currently undertaking an NIHR-funded Development and Skills Enhancement award in health data science, to explore the accessibility, quality and utilisation of oral health data. Helen has a passion for clinical academia and founded the award-winning CONNECT trainee-led research group in the UK.