Research
Mark's research examines how new forms of (big) data (e.g., images, text, loyalty card records) can supplement traditional administrative datasets (e.g., mortality records, surveys, hospital admissions data) for understanding the social and spatial drivers of health inequalities.
Geographical determinants of health
A geographer at heart, Mark's research has also sought to understand the ways in which features of the neighbourhoods we live and interact with daily imprint on our health. This has involved: building the largest and most comprehensive small area database of geographical measures of health - the Access to Health Assets and Hazards - which has been used by Public Health England; exploring the communities who were engaged in asymptomatic COVID-19 testing during the "mass testing" pilot in Liverpool; and examining whether the density of fast food outlets has an effect on body weight and obesity. Research funded by the Drivers of Food Choice programme and the MRC (2016-2019) has identified the extent unhealthy and healthy foods sold and advertised across Ghana and Kenya, and has been used to support strategies to regulate and restrict planning to promote health. The ESRC funded 'Local Data Spaces' project saw Mark co-producing data resources for Local Authorities to help generate evidence to support urgent policy decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Big data, machine learning and health
The growth in availability of data in scope and size has yielded new exciting opportunities for understanding health behaviours, particualrly when combined with maturing data mining approaches. Mark's research has investigated the contribution of new forms of (big) data in this field including: reviewing big data approaches in obesity-related research; examining the contribution of loyalty card records for understanding self-medication behaviours; and using Twitter to examine how misinformation trends reacted to the 2021 UK lockdown. Their 'Understanding Society Biomedical Data Fellowship' (2018) utilised deep learning and decision tree algorithms to evaluate how useful different data types (e.g. biomakers, genetics, social measures) for predicting an individual's risk of future ill health.
Research groups
Research grants
Food for added life years: Putting research into action (Food+ REACT) or (FoodAdd React) or (Food4Years)
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2022 - March 2025
Food for added life years: Putting research into action (Food4Years)
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2022 - March 2025
Inclusive Ageing
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
June 2022 - May 2025
Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity - improving sustainable and healthier food choices in the retail FOOD environment. (FIO-FOOD)
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2022 - August 2025
Covid-SMART Release & Return
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE (UK)
February 2022 - July 2022
GroundsWell: Community-engaged and Data-informed Systems Transformation of Urban Green and Blue Space for Population Health
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2021 - September 2026
Supporting Post Pandemic Recovery and Resilience through New Forms of Data
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2022 - July 2023
Linking Quality of Urban Environments with Nature-Connectedness and Health Network (EQUI-Food)
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
November 2021 - October 2022
Using data to improve public health: COVID-19 secondment
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2021 - September 2022
NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (HPRU EZI)
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE (UK)
April 2020 - March 2025
Health inequalities in the care pathways for people living with young- and late-onset dementia in Liverpool
LCCG - LIVERPOOL CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP (UK)
November 2019 - April 2020
Business and Local Government Data Research Centres (Big Data)
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
February 2014 - March 2026
The aim of the fellowship is to apply a novel machine learning approach to identify the relative contribution of personal, social, health, biomarker and genetic data as predictors of individual-level health.
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX (UK)
February 2018 - December 2018
Dietary transitions in African cities: leveraging evidence for interventions and policy to prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
April 2017 - March 2019
Protein for Life: Towards a Focused Dietary Framework for Healthy Ageing
BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 2017 - December 2018
Dietary transitions in Ghanaian cities: mapping the factors in the social and physical food environments that drive consumption of energy dense nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods, to identify interventions reaching women and adolescent girls throughout the reproductive life-course
BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION (USA)
January 2017 - January 2019