Profile

I work in Cambridge and live with my partner, Bik-ki. My best friend is a three year old Shih tzu dog called Butters – he says hi!

Outside of  work I like to compete in Ironman triathlon races – 2.4-mile swimming, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon, all in the same day !!!

I live in the cracks between the National Health Service and research – I’m a GP and Clinical Lecture in the Department of Public health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge

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I identify uncertainties in clinical practice and try to answer them.

My work mostly focuses on preventing cardiovascular disease and diabetes; informing the how we provide high quality clinical care for patients in the NHS.

My work has taken me all around the world and  I’ve event spent time working at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

You can see my work profile here if you are interested:

Dr Greg Irving

My typical week is divided between research and clinical work. I usually do my research on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and I do my clinical work on a Friday.

A typical research day

This is the building where I often spend my time on a research day. At the moment I’m helping to run a clinical trial in three European countries – The UK, The Netherlands and Denmark. In the morning I may join a teleconference with other researchers from these countries. We discuss how the scientific study is progressing and how many patients we have recruited. The research group is made up of statisticians, data managers, study co-ordinators and other doctors like me. In the afternoon I analyse data gathered from thousands of GP computer systems in the NHS. The data covers millions of patients and tells me what problems people presented with and what eventually happened to them. I use this to develop tools so other doctors and identify diseases earlier. I write a lot of scientific papers and reports.Getting constructive criticism on your work is important in science so I often share what I write with my boss, Professor Griffin – he’s a GP too!

A typical clinical day

This is GP practice where I do my clinics. I normally do two clinics, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and see around 40 patients. When you’re a GP anything and everything can walk through the door; from a simple cough to a life threatening brain tumour. I only have 10 minutes to decide what’s wrong with each patient and treat them – that can be challenging, especially when people have more than one disease and take lots of drugs.