Dr Elizabeth Orton

Elizabeth Orton is an Associate Professor in Public Health in the Division of 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 Masters in Public Health she was drawn back to academia and in 2010 was appointed a part-time lectureship in Public Health in the Division of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham, working as part of the Injury Epidemiology and Prevention group.  She continues to work half time in service public health work and half time in research.

Her research interests include injury epidemiology and prevention in children, adolescents and older people and also alcohol-related harm.  She has experience in a range of methods including database epidemiology, RCTs, observational studies and Cochrane reviews.