Dr Mohammad Ali

Dr Ali is an Epidemiologist and Health Data Scientist at the Leicester Real World Evidence Unit, Leicester Diabetes Centre, University of Leicester. His research focuses on ethnic health inequalities, cardiometabolic disease, and heart failure, using large-scale routinely collected healthcare datasets to generate real-world evidence that informs policy and improves patient outcomes.

He has extensive experience working with complex UK electronic health records, including the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), UK Biobank, and other longitudinal cohort studies. His work spans advanced statistical modelling and trial emulation methods, with applications across diabetes, obesity, multiple long-term conditions, and inequities shaped by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and deprivation. He is committed to improving the quality, accessibility, and interpretation of real-world data for population health research.

Dr Ali has strong global health interests and serves as Co-Chair of the Pakistan Special Interest Group and a member of the Global Health Committee at the Faculty of Public Health, where he contributes to national efforts addressing international health challenges and advocating for equity-driven public health policy. Beyond this, he is engaged in interdisciplinary research on misdiagnosis of type 1 diabetes and the impact of advanced diabetes therapies such as SGLT2 inhibitors and incretin-based therapies (commonly referred to as weight-loss drugs).

Dr Ali’s research programme leverages large-scale routinely collected healthcare data to generate real-world evidence (RWE) that informs clinical guidelines and public health policy. His primary areas of investigation include:

Cardiometabolic Disease Epidemiology

• Investigating the burden and progression of heart failure, resistant hypertension, and obesity.
• Examining the long-term impact of cardiometabolic risk factors across different demographic groups.
• Ethnic Health Inequalities
• Analysing disparities in health outcomes, access to care, and disease trajectories among minority ethnic groups in the UK.
• Exploring how socioeconomic deprivation intersects with ethnicity to shape health inequities.
• Diabetes and Novel Therapies
• Assessing the real-world effectiveness and safety of advanced diabetes therapies, including SGLT2 inhibitors and incretin-based therapies (GLP-1 receptor agonists).
• Researching the misdiagnosis and classification of Type 1 versus Type 2 diabetes in diverse populations.
• Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC)

Methodological Expertise

• Data Sources: Extensive experience with the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), UK Biobank, and linked hospital episode statistics (HES).
• Methods: Advanced statistical modelling, target trial emulation, and longitudinal cohort analysis.

Dr Ali's current students:

• PR - Investigating resistant hypertension using data from the UK Biobank.
• SG - Investigating heart failure and pharmacoepidemiological methods using CPRD.

He is open to enquiries from prospective doctoral students interested in:

• Ethnic health inequalities.
• Pharmaco-epidemiology of diabetes and cardiovascular drugs.
• Using routine health data to model long-term condition trajectories.

Dr Ali actively contributes to medical education at the University of Leicester. He teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, with a focus on epidemiology and health data scienceh. His teaching aims to equip students with the skills to understand complex healthcare datasets and interpret real-world evidence for clinical decision-making.

Faculty of Public Health (FPH)

• Co-Chair: Special Interest Group (Pakistan).
• Member: Global Health Committee.

In these roles, Dr Ali contributes to national efforts addressing international health challenges and advocates for equity-driven public health policy.

Dr Ali is a regular contributor to the academic community, presenting findings at both national and international conferences. His presentations focus on the application of real-world evidence to cardiometabolic disease and the addressing of ethnic health inequalities.

• Cardiometabolic Diseases: Heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, overweight and obesity.
• Diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes outcomes and therapies (SGLT2 inhibitors, incretin-based therapies [Weight loss drugs]).
• Health Inequalities: Ethnic health disparities and socioeconomic deprivation.
• Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC): Epidemiology of multimorbidity.
• Real-World Evidence: Methodological research using UK Biobank, Our Future Health and CPRD.

• PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
• MRes (Master of Research)
• BSc (Bachelor of Science)