Professor Una Martin PhD FRCP FBPS FBIHS

• FBHS Edinburgh 2014
• FBPS London 2012
• FRCP London 2007
• FRCPI Dublin 1998
• PhD University of Edinburgh 1992 (Drug disposition in Chronic Renal Failure)
• MRCPI Dublin 1986
• BSc Pharmacology (First Class Honours)
• University College Dublin 1985
• MB BCh BAO University College Dublin 1983 (Honours Medicine & Surgery)

Una joined the University in 1996 as a part-time Senior Lecturer in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences (MDS) and was promoted to Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in 2015. Key leadership roles within the University have been Programme Director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR)/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF) (2011-2015), Athena SWAN lead College of Medical and Dental Sciences (2009-2017), Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (DPVC) for Equalities 2015-2020.

Una has had an honorary contract with University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust as a consultant in General Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. She has led and delivered the Hypertension Service at the Trust since 1998, combining clinical care with research into assessment, diagnosis and management of patients with high blood pressure. She was President of the British and Irish Hypertension Society since September 2019 - October 2021.

Una took on the role of Head and Dean of the newly formed Birmingham Medical School in September 2019 and in August 2021 Una became Director of the Institute of Clinical Sciences. Una retired from the University in July 2022.

At undergraduate level, Una’s main contribution has been to develop and deliver the 5th year Therapeutics teaching programme and Prescribers’ Licence (previously the Therapeutics OSCE) as module lead for prescribing in the MBChB. The expertise gained was used to develop the National Prescribing Assessment which the College has now adopted. Una was lead for the Hypertension module in the postgraduate MSc in cardiovascular medicine with responsibility for programme design and recruitment of speakers. She is responsible for Clinical Pharmacology training in the West Midlands as Chair of the Specialist Training Committee.

Her national contribution to Clinical Pharmacology has been recognised by a Fellowship from the British Pharmacological Society in 2012. She has completed several terms as External Examiner for Therapeutics in the UK and Ireland.

Louisa Edwards. Sensory-motor function in hypertension British Heart Foundation PhD awarded 2003; Post Doctoral Research Fellow, 2004-2009 (Co-supervisor)

Tehreem Butt: Patient experiences of Adverse Drug Reactions; MD awarded 2012 (Co-supervisor)

Rebecca Branch: Peripheral neuropathy in hypertension; MPhil awarded 2011 (Principal Supervisor)

Jamie Coleman: Monitoring for adverse drug reactions; MD awarded 2008. (Co-supervisor). 

Abimbola Aiku:  Investigation of mechanisms underlying development of endothelial dysfunction in Asians.  PhD awarded 2020 (Second supervisor with Professor Janice Marshall)

Kyriakos Tsitoglou: Investigation of localised exercise training as a way of reducing cardiovascular risk with ageing in Caucasian and Asian populations. Funded by The Greek Foundation.  (PhD under joint supervision with Professor Janice Marshall)

Current projects

Una’s area of expertise is in hypertension and her contribution to the field has been recognised by a Fellowship of the British Hypertension Society. Her research has had a major impact on how hypertensive patients are diagnosed and treated both in the UK and Internationally.  Highlights include:

She has investigated ethnic differences in blood pressure measured by ambulatory, clinic and home monitoring.

Her clinical experience in ambulatory monitoring (ABPM) informed the design and interpretation of a systematic review published in the BMJ and subsequent cost effective analysis published in the Lancet which led to a major change in NICE guidelines in 2011 (NICE clinical guideline 127).

Her delivery of an ABPM service was used as a template in a subsequent NICE implementation guideline (NICE clinical guideline 127) and her team developed an instruction video on ABPM on behalf of the British Hypertension Society.

She has published several papers relevant to the day to day management of hypertension for example on the relationship between inter-arm blood pressure measurements to ambulatory readings, the problem of adverse drug reactions in antihypertensive treatment in patients aged >80 years, the worrying trend of prescription of inappropriate (and potentially teratogenic) antihypertensive agents to women of child bearing age and the challenges of non-adherence to prescribed medication in patients on long term antihypertensive medication

Equalities

Una has been an effective advocate for Athena SWAN at Birmingham. She led the MDS self-assessment team (SAT) which achieved a College, first Silver Award in 2014. As DPVC for Equalities (2015-2019) she established workstreams to include self-assessment teams for the Race Equality Charter (awarded 2020), University Athena SWAN and Stonewall applications. She set up a national network of Academic Equality leads to share good practice and facilitate developments across the sector.

Programme Director of the NIHR/WTCRF

Una was Programme Director of the NIHR/WTCRF, a partnership between the University of Birmingham and University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust from 2011-2015. This is a key strategic role for the delivery of Clinical Research in the College of MDS.