United Kingdom
I’m a Senior User Researcher with 13+ years post-PhD healthcare research experience, mostly in health-tech for mental health. I recently moved to UKHSA to research in a more applied setting, so this is my first research post outside academia! I’m doing user research relating to infectious disease outbreak systems (and other environmental hazards). Massively enjoying it so far! I’m a methods geek, lover of learning and passionate about inclusivity and health inequalities. I bring a strong user-focus throughout design processes and am versed in methods, not just to carry out research, but also involve users in designing it to maximise impact and explore the right problems. In my previous role I worked in implementation research to maximise uptake and adoption of mental health tech. In a nutshell, we helped make them better fit people’s needs! This was done through collaboration with users throughout, developing a close understanding of needs, constraints, and which outcomes really matter. I was also Service User Involvement Lead for £4.75M NIHR infrastructure grants. I championed user involvement and helped develop infrastructure to embed it throughout research. I’m a big fan or Res Ops and infrastructure generally! If this sounds of interest or you’d like to know more, get in touch! For my full list of publications see my Google Scholar profile (link in contact section): https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Z1CYgUkAAAAJ
Senior Research Fellow at MindTech Medtech Co-operative, leading and conducting qualitative and mixed methods research relating to new technologies for mental health. This includes exploring how new technologies are experienced by staff and service users, how technologies change the receipt and delivery of care, and what factors might help or hinder their successful implementation. Central to all research is understanding people's needs and experiences and, where possible, letting these guide the design and use of new technologies. My activities vary from conducting research to designing, leading and/or supervising it. I've also got extensive experience of PPI (Patient and Public Involvement), which is the involvement of people with relevant lived experience in the prioritising, design, and delivery of research. I held the role of PPI lead for two major NIHR infrastructures (MindTech Medtech Co-operative and Nottingham BRC's Mental Health and Technology theme) over a period of 5 years. This included developing new infrastructure, processes and policies to embed PPI throughout research, as well as method innovation, training, and upskilling staff.