Biography
Professor Farmer was a Fellow in Medicine at Exeter College from 2007 to 2024 and now an Emeritus Fellow of the College. He trained as a general practitioner and was a full-time general practitioner before completing his research training and moving to an academic post at the University of Oxford. His research interests continue to focus on improving the care of people with chronic and long-term health conditions and the use of digital technologies including the use of electronic health records to improve diagnosis, wearable devices and remote monitoring.
He is particularly interested in improving health care for people with diabetes. Much of his work has centred on improving the self-management of diabetes in general practice including researching where blood glucose monitoring is helpful, supporting people in making best use of their medicines, and developing and testing digital health systems, for example using mobile phones to collect data from personal monitoring devices and providing tailored feedback to help improve lifestyle and better use of medicines. His group uses a wide range of research methods, including qualitative research, analysing electronic health records, and clinical trials to produce evidence. He works closely with the Department of Biomedical Engineering to carry out many of these studies.
Professor Farmer was Director of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme, the largest UK funder of health-related clinical trials, from 2021 to 2025. He continues to research and teach on the design and delivery of efficient clinical trials.
Selected publications
Dambha-Miller H, Hounkpatin HO 23., Stuart B, Farmer A, Griffin S. Type 2 diabetes remission trajectories and variation in risk of diabetes complications: A population-based cohort study. PloS one. 2023;18(8):e0290791.
Farmer A, Allen J, Bartlett K, Chi Y, Jones L, Newhouse N, et al. supporting people with type 2 diabetes diabetes in effective use of their medicine through mobile health technology integrated with clinical care (SuMMiT-D pilot): results of a feasibility randomised trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies. 2024.
Hounkpatin H, Simpson G, Santer M, Farmer A, Dambha-Miller H. Multiple long-term conditions, loneliness and social isolation: a scoping review of recent quantitative studies. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2024:105347.
Khan N, Chalitsios CV, Nartey Y, Simpson G, Zaccardi F, Santer M, et al. Clustering by multiple long-term conditions and social care needs: a cross-sectional study among 10 026 older adults in England. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2023;77(12):770-6.
H Dambha-Miller, A Farmer, K Nirantharakumar, T Jackson, C Yau. Artificial Intelligence for Multiple Long-term conditions (AIM): A consensus statement from the NIHR AIM consortia. NIHR Open Res 3 (21), 21 2023
G Simpson, J Stokes, A Farmer, H Dambha-Miller. Social care need in multimorbidity. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 01410768231168382; 2023
R Conway-Jones, E Dunlop, S Kyle, D Ray, N Roberts, A Farmer. A scoping review of the evidence for the impact of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions on shift work related sleep disturbance in an occupational setting. Wellcome Open Research 6, 198. 2023
Armitage L, Davidson s, Mahdi A, Harford M McManus R, Farmer A, Watkinson P, Tarassenko L. Diagnosing hypertension in primary care: a retrospective cohort study to investigate the importance of night-time blood pressure assessment. Br J Gen Pract. 2022 Dec 21;73(726)
Farmer A, Shine B, Armitage L, Murphy N, James T, Guha N, Rea R. The potential for utilising in-hospital glucose measurements to
Bartlett KB, Farmer A, Newhouse N, Miles L, Kenning C, French D. Effects of Using a Text Message Intervention on Psychological Constructs and the Association Between Changes to Psychological Constructs and Medication Adherence in People with Type 2 Diabetes: Results From a Randomized Controlled Feasibility Study. JMIR. 2022 Apr 29; 6(4)
Thornton-Swan TD, Armitage LC, Curtis AM, Farmer AJ. Assessment of glycaemic status in adult hospital patients for the detection of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus: A systematic review. Diabet Med. 2021 Dec 24:e14777.
Zhang X, Yang Z, Zhang M, Zhu Y, Zhao Z, Huang Z, Li C, Zhou M, Farmer AJ, Tang J, Wang L. Independent effects of 2hPG, FPG and HbA1c on cardiovascular risk: analysis of a nationally representative sample from China. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2021 Jan 21:108672.
Armitage LC, Chi Y, Santos M, Lawson BK, Areia C, Velardo C, Watkinson PJ, Tarassenko L, Costa ML, Farmer AJ. Monitoring activity of hip injury patients (MoHIP): a sub-study of the World Hip Trauma Evaluation observational cohort study. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2020 May 22;6:70.
Bartlett YK, Farmer A, Rea R, French DP. Use of Brief Messages Based on Behavior Change Techniques to Encourage Medication Adherence in People With Type 2 Diabetes: Developmental Studies. J Med Internet Res. 2020 May 13;22(5):e15989.
Bobrow K, Farmer AJ, Springer D, et al. Mobile phone text messages to support treatment adherence in adults with high blood pressure (StAR): A single-blind randomized trial. Circulation. 2016; 9;133:592-600.
Hardinge M, Rutter H, Velardo C, Shah SA, Williams V, Tarassenko T, and Farmer A. Using a mobile health application to support self-management in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a six-month cohort study. BMC Med.Inform.Decis.Mak. 2015: June 1-10.
Farmer AJ, Perera R, Ward A, Heneghan C, Oke J, Barnett AH, Davidson MB, Guerci B, Coates V, Schwedes U, O’Malley S. Meta-analysis of individual patient data in randomised trials of self monitoring of blood glucose in people with non-insulin treated type 2 diabetes. BMJ. 2012;344:e486.
Holman RR, Farmer AJ, Davies MJ, Levy JC, Darbyshire JL, Keenan JF, Paul SK; 4-T Study Group. Three-year efficacy of complex insulin regimens in type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med 2009; 361:1736-47.
Campbell C, Murray E, Darbyshire J, Emery J, Farmer A, Griffiths F, Guthrie B, Lester H, Wilson P, Kinmonth AL. Designing and evaluating complex interventions to improve health care. BMJ 2007; 334: 455-9.
