Margaret Cupples BSc(Hons), MD, FRCGP DRCOG DCH

Professor Margaret Cupples is Professor of General Practice at Queen’s University, Belfast, working in the Department of General Practice and Primary Care, is a member of the University’s Centre for Public Health and is a Principal Investigator within the UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health research in Northern Ireland. She has worked with partners in Woodbrooke Medical Practice in West Belfast since 1992 and before that worked for almost 10 years in Markethill, a small rural market town in Co Armagh. She is very aware of health inequalities and the impact of people’s social and physical environments on their health. Having shown the benefits, for secondary prevention, of regular review of patients with cardiovascular disease in general practice, she has continued to have personal research interests in the management of cardiovascular disease, with a focus on physical activity within prevention and rehabilitation. She leads the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network in Primary Care, promoting high quality research in Northern Ireland and, as a nucleus member of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, works with international colleagues to increase the evidence base for best practice in prevention and rehabilitation. Current research projects include community-based programmes relating to cardiovascular risk reduction, using theoretical frameworks in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions for promoting and sustaining healthy lifestyle behaviours.