BSMS > About BSMS > Contact us > Staff > Vicki Welsh

Vicki Welsh

Clinical Associate Professor of General Practice
E: V.Welsh@bsms.ac.uk

Area of expertise: General Practitioner, Frailty and Proactive Care.

Research areas: Main research interests are in the management of chronic pain in our oldest old populations, taking a proactive approach to frailty, pharmacogenomic interventions in care home settings.

Other relevent positions: Vice Chair NICE Indicator Advisory Committee; Clinical Lead for Integrated Neighbourhoods, Frimley ICB; member of the Pharmacogenomics and Medicines Optimisation Genomic Network of Excellence.

Biography

Vicki started as a Clinical Associate Professor of General Practice for Brighton and Sussex Medical School in March 2026. Vicki qualified from University of Birmingham Medical School and undertook combined clinical and academic Foundation Year and General Practice Speciality Training in North Staffordshire. An NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship investigating multi-site and falls in older people followed at Keele University Medical School, which led to NIHR Clinical Lectureship and Senior Lectureship roles also at Keele.

Research

Vicki’s main research interests span across the spectrum of primary care: the proactive management of frailty, prescribing (and deprescribing) in care homes, and, more broadly, health services delivery. Previous research includes an epidemiological PhD investigating pain and falls in older people, using big-data to understand the care of people presenting to general practice with musculoskeletal conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and qualitative research into the use of opioids for chronic pain in the oldest old population.

Vicki is currently:

Chief Investigator: Optimising Prescribing in care homes Using pharmacogenomicS: a mixed methods exploratory study (The OPUS Study) NIHR208907

Co-Chief Investigator: Building an evidence base for the use of ADvice and Guidance at the primary-secondary care intERface: a multi-stage mixed-methods study (BADGER) NIHR158681

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Teaching

Vicki has experience of teaching medical students in clinical practice and in medical school. Vicki enjoys supporting colleagues in the generation of research grants, and supervising a wide range of dissertations and student projects set within general practice; she is open to new PhD students, please get in touch viaV.Welsh@bsms.ac.uk.

Selected publications

Mason KJ, Jordan KP, Bailey J, Bajpai R, Clarson LE, Faux-Nightingale A, Hadley-Barrows T, Haines J, Harrison R, Helliwell T, Hider SL, Jinks C, Knight N, Mallen CD, Welsh VK, Burton C. Trends and inequalities in Advice and Guidance versus direct referral in NHS primary care: a population-based study, 2015–2023. medRxiv; 2025. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.25.25336644. PPR:PPR1092296. In press with BMJ Medicine

Legha A, Bailey J, Welsh VK, Jordan KP, Holdsworth C, Wynne-Jones G. Trajectories of Work Absence in England due to a Musculoskeletal or Mental Health Condition: An Electronic Health Record Cohort Study. J Occup Rehabil. 2025 Nov:. doi: 10.1007/s10926-025-10342-y. PMID: 41313417.

Faux-Nightingale A, Saunders B, Burton C, Chew-Graham CA, Somayajula G, Twohig H, Welsh V. Perceptions and Significance of Long Covid Diagnoses From the Perspectives of Children and Young People With Long Covid, Their Parents and Professionals. Health Expect. 2025 Jun;28(3):e70318. doi: 10.1111/hex.70318. PMID: 40469004.

Faux-Nightingale A, Saunders B, Burton C, Chew-Graham CA, Somayajula G, Twohig H, Welsh V. Experiences and care needs of children with long COVID: a qualitative study. BJGP Open. 2024 Apr;8(1):BJGPO.2023.0143. doi: 10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0143. PMID: 37914226.

Faux-Nightingale A, Somayajula G, Bradbury C, Bray L, Burton C, Chew-Graham CA, Gardner A, Griffin A, Twohig H, Welsh V. Coproducing Health Information Materials With Young People: Reflections and Lessons Learned. Health Expect. 2024 Jun;27(3):e14115. doi: 10.1111/hex.14115. PMID: 38879786; PMCID: PMC11180295.

Pradhan AB, Nicholls E, Edwards JJ, Welsh V, Paskins Z. Bone health assessment in adults with fragility fracture risk factors between 2002-2014: a retrospective cohort study. BJGP Open. 2024 Apr;8(1):BJGPO.2023.0084. doi: 10.3399/bjgpo.2023.0084. PMID: 37648258.

Welsh VK, Mason KJ, Bailey J, Bajpai R, Jordan KP, Mallen CD, Burton C. Trends in consultations and prescribing for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: an electronic primary care records study. Br J Gen Pract. 2023 Nov;73(736):e858-e866. doi: 10.3399/bjgp.2022.0648. PMID: 37722859; PMCID: PMC10523337.

Burton C, Bajpai R, Mason KJ, Bailey J, Jordan KP, Mallen CD, Welsh VK. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on referrals to musculoskeletal services from primary care and subsequent incidence of inflammatory rheumatic musculoskeletal disease: an observational study. Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2023;7(2):rkad044. doi: 10.1093/rap/rkad044. PMID: 37251663; PMCID: PMC10219787.

Welsh VK, Mallen CD, Ogollah R, Wilkie R, McBeth J. Investigating multisite pain as a predictor of self-reported falls and falls requiring health care use in an older population: A prospective cohort study. PLoS One. 2019;14(12):e0226268. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226268. PMID: 31826023; PMCID: PMC6905547.

Welsh VK, Clarson LE, Mallen CD, McBeth J. Multisite pain and self-reported falls in older people: systematic review and meta-analysis. Arthritis Res Ther. 2019 Feb;21(1):67. doi: 10.1186/s13075-019-1847-5. PMID: 30795790; PMCID: PMC6387492.