Dr Elizabeth Orton

Elizabeth Orton is a Professor in Public Health in the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Nottingham and a Consultant in Public Health at Leicestershire County Council.

She began her career in the field of hearing research at the University of Keele, where she completed a PhD in 1996, investigating the cellular mechanisms of sensory hair cell degeneration and repair. After a short-term lectureship in neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, she moved to the Loeb Research Institute, Canada, as a postdoctoral fellow to study the genetics of inner ear development and then continued this work back in the UK at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research at the University of Nottingham.  In 2003, she left research and joined the senior management team of the National Newborn Hearing Screening Programme, where she led aspects of its implementation in England and established the programme’s quality assurance systems.  Working in the NHS, in screening, opened up doors in public health, and in 2008, she began public health specialty training in the East Midlands as a non-medical Registrar. 

Whilst undertaking her Master's in Public Health, she was drawn back to academia and in 2010 was appointed a part-time lecturer in Public Health in the Division of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham, working as part of the Injury Epidemiology and Prevention group.  Her research has expanded to include public health evaluations as Chief Investigator of the NIHR PHIRST-light team, theme lead for healthy ageing in the East Midlands Applied Research Collaboration and academic lead for the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration, Leicestershire.  She has experience in a range of methods, including database epidemiology, RCTs, observational studies, and Cochrane reviews.