Dr. Merlin Willcox
University of Southampton, UK

Dr. Merlin Willcox qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford in 1998 and completed training as a General Practitioner in 2004. Since then, he has combined clinical work as a GP with research. He works as a GP in a specialist health centre for patients experiencing homelessness in Oxford, and for the Oxfordshire urgent care service. Since October 2016 he has been a Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Southampton, and he was promoted to Principal Research Fellow in August 2024. His main research interests are primary health care (in particular antimicrobial stewardship and herbal medicine) and global health. He conducted his first clinical study of a herbal medicine for malaria in 1998 (in Uganda) and since then he has led or co-led ten clinical trials of herbal medicines. These have included trials of local herbal products for malaria in Uganda, Madagascar, Mali, and Brazil, and trials of standardised phytomedicines for common infections in the UK and China. He has also led and/or co-authored over 10 systematic reviews of clinical trials of herbal medicines.