Peter Hall

Professor of Medical Oncology (Cancer Informatics)

  • Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh
  • Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital, NHS Lothian

Contact details

Address

Street

Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre
MRC Institute of Genetics & Molecular Medicine
The University of Edinburgh
Western General Hospital
Crewe Road South

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH4 2XR
Street

PA : laura.wood@ed.ac.uk

City
Post code

Availability

  • Mon - Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (University)
    Tue - Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit (University)
    Wed - NHS Lothian, St John's Hospital
    Thur - NHS Lothian, Western General Hospital
    Fri - Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (University)

Biography

Background

Professor Peter Hall is an academic Medical Oncologist with a research interest in Health Economics, Data Science and Health Technology Assessment in Cancer. He treats patients with breast cancer within the NHS at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre.

The focus of his research is on the development of improved methods for efficient research design, cost-effectiveness analysis and the measurement of clinical and socioeconomic outcomes using data obtained from clinical trials and routinely collected within health systems. He has contributed to the design of a series of pragmatic clinical trials in the UK that aim to address questions that are important to real-world patients with cancer treated by the NHS. He leads the Edinburgh Cancer Informatics Programme which provides healthcare data analytical capabilities for NHS Cancer Services in South East Scotland and the CRUK Scotland Centre's research.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 2003, undertaking general medical training in Fife and Dundee. He commenced specialist training in Medical Oncology with the Yorkshire Deanery in 2006. He undertook a NICE scholarship in 2007. He completed a PhD in Health Economics and Clinical Trial design at the University of Leeds in 2012. In 2014 he took up his current position in Edinburgh.

He leads the Edinburgh Health Economics Group within the University of Edinburgh. He has been a NICE Appraisal Committee member 2017-2020. 

Publications on Google Scholar  | ORCID ID 0000-0001-6015-7841 | Scopus Author ID: 7403693888 | Research Gate

Qualifications

MB ChB, MRCP, PhD

Responsibilities & affiliations

Health Economics Group Lead, Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit.

Chair, Cancer Informatics Programme

Undergraduate teaching

Watch my 4 part introduction to Health Economics in the UK NHS. Designed for Medical Students but may be useful for anyone.

Part 1 - Healthcare Expenditure and Health (Setting the Scene)

Part 2 - Health Economics (What's it all about?)

Part 3 - Reimbursement Decision Making (Core concepts)

Part 4 - Decision making in the NHS (Health Economics in action)

Postgraduate teaching

We run an annual 5 day course Cost-effectiveness Modelling course in collaboration with the Universities of Leeds, Aukland and Alberta which is supported by our contemporary textbook:

For training on the use of the R statistical programming package enrole on the HealthR course http://healthyr.surgicalinformatics.org/

Problem Solving in Oncology Series:

Current PhD students supervised

 

Esther Downham, University of Glasgow               "Advanced lung cancer care and the impact of socioeconomic deprivation in Greater Glasgow and Clyde"

Emanuela Molinari, University of Edinburgh        "Long-term outcomes in childhood cancer survivors"

Mark Baxter,             University of Dundee                "Identifying and validating predictive Biomarkers in advanced oEsophageal adenocarcinoma – a springboard to REAListic medicine (BE-REAL)"

Robert Nagy ,          University of Edinburgh           "Methods for Budget Impact Analysis for for new cancer medicines"

Kenneth Haining,  University of Edinburgh            "Socioeconomic outcomes measurement in survivors of major illness using public sector data"

Joanna Mair,            University of Edinburgh           "Using existing patient data to model the impact of a  novel investigational diagnostic device"

Past PhD students supervised

Giovanni Tramonti             (University of Edinburgh, PhD, 2022)    "Cost-effectiveness of pre- and on-treatment molecular testing for neoadjuvant therapy in early breast cancer"

Katharina Diernberger      (University of Edinburgh, PhD, 2022)    "Outcomes measurment for economic evaluation in palliative and end of life care"

Eleanor Anderson Reid     (University of Edinburgh, PhD, 2022)    "The value of palliative care in low resource"

Katie Spencer                       (University of Leeds, PhD, 2019)              “The cost-effectiveness of the palliative radiotherapy treatments delivered within the English NHS”

Alison Smith                          (University of Leeds, PhD, 2020)              “Methods for the incorporation of pre-analytical and analytical factors within economic decision models”

Agastya Silvina                      (University of St Andrews, EngD)            "Facilitating the Analysis and Management of Data for Cancer Care"

Research summary

Our research programme is cross-disciplinary and resides at the interface between Cancer Research, Health Economics and Clinical Trials Research. Our aspiration is to improve clinical outcomes for the cancer population and we undertake research to provide robust evidence for the real-world evaluation of new interventions for cancer. The focus of our research includes:

  • Economic evaluation of new interventions for cancer
  • Economic evaluation of biomarkers and personalised medicine strategies
  • The use of routine NHS data through clinical informatics to measure the costs of care
  • Methods for the measurement of the financial burden of cancer on patients and carers
  • Outcomes measurement in elderly and non-trial-eligible cancer patients
  • Bayesian decision analysis for efficient research design

 Read about Real World Data for HTA   

We maintain the development of the "UK Cancer Costs Questionnaire" as a tool to measure economic and cost endpoints in clinical trials, and the composite cancer outcomes measure "Overall Treatment Utility".

Project activity

Real-World Data and Informatics Projects

  • SATURNE     A natural experiment using Scottish clinical data to estimate the real-world effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.(CSO HIPS/16/26)
  • Bowel Cancer Intelligence UK    Our health economics workstream is creating a comprehensive UK-wide linked healthcare data resource for bowel cancer researchers who wish to study costs and economic aspects of bowel cancer (CRUK). Read about CORECT-R on the Bowel Cancer Intelligence website
  • The Allocative Efficiency in End of Life Care project is an econometrics collaboration between England, Scotland and Switzerland. We are study the efficient allocation of budgetary resource between health and social care sectors. Details on the Health Foundation website.
  • The use of comprehensive patient records (CPR) to define the impact of cancer, co-morbidities and late effects on individuals and the health service - a MacMillan funded project based in Leeds.
  • Info-BC Supporting shared decision making in early and advanced breast cancer: What matters to patients in an era of personalised care. [Discrete choice experiment]
  • National audit of Eribulin for metastatic breast cancer

Clinical Trials and Cost-effectiveness analysis

  • OPTIMA   Early breast cancer clinical trial is studying the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new genomic tests that may help women decide whether chemotherapy is the right choice for them after curative surgery.  OPTIMA on the NIHR HTA webpage | Model code available on Github
  • MAMMO-50  A multi-centre, randomised, controlled, phase III trial of annual mammography versus 2 yearly for conservation surgery patients and 3 yearly for mastectomy patients. Mammo-50 on the NIHR HTA webpage
  • PERSEPHONE - duration of trastuzumab study with chemotherapy in early breast cancer: six versus twelve months. Persephone on the NIHR HTA webpage
  • GO-2     Chemotherapy options for frail and elderly patients with advanced gastro-esophageal cancer: A UK Randomised controlled trial. CRUK The GO-2 trial 
  • c-TRAK-TN  ctDNA to Detect Cancer Cells After Standard Treatment to Trigger Immunotherapy in Early Stage Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients c-TRAK-TN
  • ACUFOCIN  Randomised controlled trial of acupuncture plus standard care versus standard care for chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).2 NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, incollaboration with the Christie Clinical Trials Unit, Manchester.
  • EMT2  Omega-3 fatty acid (EPA) after liver resection surgery for colorectal cancer metastasis . Yorkshire Cancer Research. The EMT2 study.

  • ENeRgy  Exercise and Nutritional Rehabilitation in patients with advanced cancer, with Marie Fallon and Barry Laird

  • CardiacCARE  Cardiac protection during adjuvant chemotherapy for early breast cancer, initiated by Troponin I. EME - 15/48/20

  • Finding My Way UK: Adaptation and Replication Testing of the Benefits of Online Psychological Support for Cancer Survivors

 

View all 150 publications on Research Explorer

More video

In the press

Is accelerating drug trials a good idea? 

Acceleration of drug trials offers the potential to bring life-prolonging treatments to patients more quickly, but some physicians warn that research risks being dumbed down. These issues are discussion in the Financial Times special edition Raconteur supplement  https://www.raconteur.net/healthcare/accelerating-drug-trials

Find out about the group on our team blog. The Edinburgh Health Economics Group supports the work of the Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit and the Usher Institute and maintains its own research portfolio. The focus of our expertise is on methods for the us of real world data in addition to clinical trials research to inform Health Technology Assessment.  

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