Matthew has worked at the University of Bristol since 2002. During his time at the Centre of Academic Primary Care, he has held an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship (2004-2009), an NIHR Clinical Lectureship (2009-2013), an NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship (2013-2014) and an NIHR Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2015-2019).  In recognition of his contribution to the discipline of general practice through research and publishing, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and awarded the RCGP John Fry award in 2016.

His research interests include skin and allergy problems diagnosed and managed in primary care, mainly focusing on childhood eczema

Current and recently completed projects include:

• BEE (Best Emollients for Eczema): Pragmatic, primary care, multi-centre, individually randomised superiority trial of four emollients in children with eczema
• TEST (Trial of Eczema allergy Screening Tests): feasibility randomised controlled trial with economic scoping and nested qualitative study
• Eczema Care Online (ECO): Supporting self-care for eczema in the community
• Spironolactone for Adult Female Acne (SAFA): pragmatic multicentre double-blind randomised superiority trial to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of spironolactone for moderate or severe persistent acne in women
• ATLANTIS (Amitriptyline at low-dose and titrated for irritable bowel syndrome as second-line treatment): a double-blind placebo-controlled trial
• TRIUMPH (TReating Urinary symptoms in Men in Primary Healthcare using non-pharmaceutical and non-surgical interventions)
• Surgical interventions to treat severe pressure sores (SiPS)

He has previously led or worked on:

• BEEP: Barrier Enhancement for Eczema Prevention“
• One in a Million”: electronic archive of routine patient consultations with GPs and linked data
• APACHE: Actions Plans for CHildren with Eczema
• BATHE: Bath Additives for the Treatment of Childhood Eczema
• COMET (Choice Of Moisturiser in Eczema Treatment) - a feasibility RCT comparing four emollients in the treatment of childhood eczema
• CREAM (ChildRen with Eczema, Antibiotic Management) - a three arm RCT assessing the value of topical or oral antibiotics in clinically infected childhood eczema
• POPPIE (Predictors of Onset, Persistence and Psychological Impact of childhood Eczema) - using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth cohort)
• Continuity and Detection of cancer in Primary Care (CaDoc-PC), a retrospective cohort study investigating whether seeing the same general practitioner promotes the earlier diagnosis of breast, lung and/or colorectal cancer in adults.
• DeafHealth: A UK Collaborative Study into the Health of Deaf People
• Complex Consultations - a study using video-recorded consultations to examine the impact of multimorbidity on primary care consultations:)
• Shared Decision Making in the Antenatal Clinic - quantifying the range of decisions and the degree of shared decision making that takes place in obstetric clinics)
• Eczema and acne treatment research prioritisation exercise - identifying uncertainties and setting research priorities for treatments of eczema and acne.