Staff Profile

I currently hold an Epilepsy Research Institute UK Emerging Leader Fellowship Award and lead the RISE project which has the aim of Reducing InequalitieS in Epilepsy. This project is trying to understand the determinants of why people living in our most deprived and disadvantaged communities are more likely to develop epilepsy, and more likely to die early, or have poor outcomes. You can find out more about this project here or watch my YouTube video.

I am studying for a PhD examining socioeconomic health inequalities in people with epilepsy. My main interest is in using epidemiology and big data/ routinely collected data sets to examine and prevent inequalities in health, with a focus upon epilepsy and neurological diseases.

I am a medical doctor by background and am currently a Public Health Registrar training in the Northern Deanery (Health Education England North East). I previously trained as a Neurologist and completed my training in Newcastle in 2017. Between 2017-2018 I worked at the University of Edinburgh with UK Biobank data developing algorithms to identify people with neurological disease in routinely collected health data - my love of data and public health was born and I've never looked back!

Qualifications

Membership of the Faculty of Public Health (MFPH) (2023)

Diplomate Membership of the Faculty of Public Health (2022) 

Public Health MSc Degree with Merit (2021)

Certificate of Completion of Training Neurology (2017)

Speciality Certificate Examination in Neurology (2016)

Member of the Royal College of Physicians MRCP (2011)

Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne – MBBS Graduation with Merit (2006)

Professional Registration

General Medical Council

Faculty of Public Health

Previous Positions

NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow (2021-2023)

Speciality Registrar Public Health (2019- present)

Clinical Research Fellow - Edinburgh University (2017-2018)

Speciality Registrar Neurology (2012-2017)

Expedition Medic Raleigh International Borneo (2010)

Foundation and General Medical Training (2006-2012)

Memberships

Faculty of Public Health

Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh

Association of British Neurologists

Society for Social Medicine

International League Against Epilepsy (British)

• Articles

  • Bush KJ, Papacosta AO, Lennon LT, Rankin J, Whincup PH, Wannamethee SG, Ramsay SE. Influence of neighborhood-level socioeconomic deprivation and individual socioeconomic position on risk of developing type 2 diabetes in older men: a longitudinal analysis in the British Regional Heart Study cohort. BMJ open diabetes research & care 2023, 11(5), e003559.
  • Bush KJ. Epilepsy and deprivation, How does socioeconomic inequality affect deprivation. Epilepsy Professional 2023, (70), 16-21.
  • Wilkinson T, Schnier C, Bush K, Rannikmäe K, Lyons RA, McTaggart S, Bennie M, Sudlow CL. Drug prescriptions and dementia incidence: a medication-wide association study of 17000 dementia cases among half a million participants. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2022, 76, 223-229.
  • Wilkinson T, Schnier C, Bush K, Rannikmäe K, Henshall DE, Lerpiniere C, Alan NE, Flaig R, Russ TC, Bathgate D, Pal S, O'Brien JT, Sudlow CLM. Identifying dementia outcomes in UK Biobank: a validation study of primary care, hospital admissions and mortality data. European Journal of Epidemiology 2019.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Bush KJ, Pickrell WO, Cullen E, Mills S, Thomas RH, Ramsay SE. Assessing the extent and distribution of socioeconomic inequalities in Epilepsy, in the United Kingdom; a systematic evidence review. In: ILAE British Branch Annual Scientific Meeting. 2023, Gateshead.
  • Bush KJ, Papacosta AO, Lennon L, Rankin J, Whincup PH, Wannamethee SG, Ramsay SE. The influence of neighbourhood-level socioeconomic deprivation on developing type 2 diabetes in older men: a longitudinal analysis of the British Regional Heart Study cohort data. In: Public Health Science 2021. 2021, Online: The Lancet Publishing Group.