Professor Fiona Walter is Director of the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, one of six Institutes at Queen Mary University of London’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. The Institute has six centres, and she contributes to leadership of the Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention & Early Diagnosis. Fiona joined Queen Mary in April 2021 as Professor in Primary Care Cancer Research after serving as Reader in Primary Care Cancer Research at the University of Cambridge. She also worked as a GP in the NHS over more than three decades.
Fiona’s research focuses on developing and evaluating new diagnostics and diagnostic approaches to all aspects of prevention, early detection, and diagnosis of cancer in primary care. She co-led the CanTest Collaborative, Cancer Research UK’s first Catalyst award, focussing on the transformative implementation in primary care of tests to support early detection of cancer, and delivering an annual CanTest International School for Cancer Detection Research in Primary Care. Fiona was also co-investigator on the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis.
She currently co-leads the CRUK-funded CanDetect programme, aiming to accelerate the detection of upper gastro-intestinal (UGI) cancers in primary care, including pancreatic, biliary tract, gullet/oesophagus, and stomach cancers as their outcomes remain very poor worldwide. Current UK research leadership roles include deputy-Chair for Cancer Research UK’s Early Detection and Diagnosis committee. Fiona contributes to cancer research in Europe and the US and co-leads an NIHR Global Research Group ‘Advancing Early Diagnosis of Cancer across Southern Africa’. Her international work is marked by an honorary academic role at the University of Melbourne, Australia.