Patrons
Co-founders
Board of Trustees
Charity staff
Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford
Patrons
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant is an English actor and film producer. Among others, he has received a Golden globe award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary Cesar.
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is the main anchor of Channel 4 News. Having taught on VSO in Uganda, his first job was as a youth worker in a day centre for homeless teenagers in London's West End. He's been a journalist with ITN for 25 years and has reported from all over the world, Afghanistan to Antarctica. He's a school governor and the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University
Professor Sir David Weatherall
David Weatherall was the Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine from 1974 until 1992. In 1992 he was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. In 1979 he became Honorary Director of the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, and in 1989 he established the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford, of which he was Honorary Director (later renamed Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine). His main research interests have been in the application of molecular biology to clinical medicine, particularly the genetic disorders of haemoglobin. He was knighted in 1987, elected FRS in 1977 and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, USA in 1990. In 1992 he was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He became Emeritus Regius Professor in September 2000 upon his retirement.
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Lord Turnberg
Leslie Turnberg was Professor of Medicine in the University of Manchester from 1973-1997, and consultant gastroenterologist at Hope Hospital, Salford. He was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1986-1989, President of the Royal College of Physicians 1992-1997, Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges 1994-1998, and Chairman of the Specialist Training Authority 1996-1998. He has chaired the Board of the Public Health Laboratory Service 1997-2002, the UK Forum on Genetics and Insurance 1999-2002, Health Quality Service 2000-2004 and the Panel which reviewed the health sciences in London 1998. He was Vice President of the Academy of Medical Sciences 1998-2004. Currently he is President of the Medical Protection Society, a Trustee of the Wolfson Foundation, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Nations HealthCare and scientific advisor to the Association of Medical Research Charities. He has been a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science Technology since 2001. He was knighted in 1994 and raised to a peerage in 2000.
Co-founders
Ann McPherson
Ann McPherson qualified as a doctor in 1968 and was a general practitioner in Oxford for 30 years until 2008. She joined the Department of Primary Care, Oxford University - part-time in April 2001. She cofounded the Healthtalkonline website in conjunction with Andrew Herxheimer, and the Health Experiences Research Group in the University. The research that has been carried out is published by the DIPEx charity, on the award winning website
www.healthtalkonline.org as a multimedia resource. The website is aimed at patients and their carers as well for all health professionals including medical students, nurses and GP registrars. People’s experiences of over 50 different individual disease and health issues have now been researched and are available on the website. Subjects include cardiovascular diseases; cancers, neurological conditions; carers experiences; screening; intensive care, bones and joints; maternity and child issues; chronic diseases etc. A new site with the experiences of young people
www.youthhealthtalk.org was launched in 2005 and includes the stories about young people’s sexual experiences, young people with chronic health issues, and those with epilepsy, diabetes, and cancer. Ann also co hosts, with Aidan Macfarlane, a teenage ‘virtual doctor’s surgery’ for 10 -15 year olds
www.teenagehealthfreak.org which gives heath information available to young people in a innovatives including providing an extensive email question and answer forum.
She devised and co-edited the ’10 minute consultation’ series for the BMJ and recently stepped down as chair of the RCGP Adolescent Task Group. She has served on several National Committees including the Independent Advisory Committee on Teenage Pregnancy and is a founding Trustee of the Association of Young Peoples Health.
Ann sadly died on the 28th May 2011.
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Andrew Herxheimer FRCP
He spent most of his career teaching clinical pharmacology in London, most recently at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. For 30 years he also edited Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin, published by the Consumers’ Association. Since 1992 he has worked in the Cochrane Collaboration and is now Emeritus Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford.
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Lord Stone of Blackheath (Chair)
Lord Stone was raised to the peerage in 1997. He joined Marks and Spencer plc as a trainee in 1966 and retired from his position as joint Managing Director of the Company in 1999. His community work has been based around his fascination with the juxtaposition between Art and Science, healthcare, working with charities to help bereaved children and a lifelong interest in the process of creating understanding and working towards peace in the Middle East.
Fred Hucker
His alliance with the healthcare profession started in 2000 when he joined the Oxfordshire Health Authority as a non-executive director. He has since chaired the board and is now a non-executive director of the Thames Valley Strategic Authority. Prior to this, his business life has been in the professions of personnel director and/or chief executive in a number of businesses, oil, leisure and, for over 20 years, managing a shipping transport group. Since retiring he has remained active as advisor to a range of businesses; civil engineering, plastics and global internet. He is also involved with other charitable bodies and is a director and trustee of The Wooden Spoon Society and the Irish Youth Foundation.
Pauline Droop
Pauline is a solicitor who worked for 15 years for the Citizens Advice Bureau, initially as a generalist but ultimately developing an employment law specialism. She then moved into private practice, becoming a partner in the employment department of Russell-Cooke LLP. She has now retired but continues as a Consultant. Pauline is an Honorary Solicitor to West London Action for Children, a charity providing counselling and support to disadvantaged children and their parents and/or carers in west London.
Andrew Herxheimer FRCP
Andrew is DIPEx co-founder. He spent most of his career teaching clinical pharmacology in London, most recently at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. For 30 years he also edited Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin, published by the Consumers’ Association. Since 1992 he has worked in the Cochrane Collaboration and is now Emeritus Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford.
Timothy Copestake
Timothy Copestake has worked in Television for 35 years. Starting as a trainee at BBC TV he became a film editor and subsequently a producer and director in their current affairs department.
After working on many major programmes including ‘Panorama’, he decided to go freelance in the early nineties. He has since made programmes for all the major broadcasters and most recently concentrated on historical documentaries for Channel Four, including an archaeological series about the pre-history of Britain; Britain BC, and a series about the birth of democracy in ancient Greece.
Dr Judy Kane
I qualified from St. Georges Hospital in 1968. After house jobs and children I started an audio-visual aids programme for teaching medical students at the hospital and, after a clinical attachment in respiratory medicine and entered general practice in 1974. I carried out drug trials on anti-hypertensive agents as well as gaining experience in general practice. I became a trainer in 1985 and also sat on the Trainer Selection Committee for the Surrey area.
Attachments to the National Heart and Lung Institute and to St. Georges Hospital medical school ensured a steady supply of pre and post grad students for our practice to teach.
For 15 years I was on the Elizabeth Nuffield Education trust committee and oversaw the giving of grants to students to enable them to pursue their chosen studies.
I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and I chair the South West London advisory committee for the appointment of magistrates.
I still do a couple of days in general practice but no admin!!
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Julia Cartwright
From 2008-2011, Julia was the Independent Chair of the Community Partnership Forum for north Oxfordshire, a national public engagement programme initiated by the Secretary of State for Health.
As a director of Flex Business Consulting Ltd, Julia works with private and public sector clients, coaching and advising individuals and teams in project management, leadership and conflict resolution skills. She has also been a strategic advisor to HealthQWest Scotland.
Julia spent five years at The Picker Institute, Oxford running research projects on various aspects of patient’s experiences of healthcare. She has also held research posts at The University of Oxford’s Health Services Research Unit and Oxford Brookes University, where she lectured on Attitudes to Health & Illness. BMJ Wiley-Blackwell recently published her co-authored book on Patient & Public Involvement in health.
Julia qualified as an investment surveyor and worked for Hillier Parker and Morgan Grenfell. As a senior surveyor with the Valuation office she was responsible for developing GP practices, which facilitated her transition from property to health.
Jane Kirk
Jane has been associated with Health throughout her career. A clinical pharmacologist by training, she started her career in research at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at the Hammersmith Hospital in London. On completing her PhD, she entered the pharmaceutical industry working in quality and project management roles before joining the Search and Intelligence consultancy, Armstrong Craven to establish their Healthcare & Life Sciences practice in 1997.
Since then, Healthcare & Lifescience has become a worldwide practice and Jane has gone on to establish the firms business development capability and was appointed to the board as their commercial director in 2007. Today, as a member of the leadership team, she is responsible for marketing and continues to support Health & Consumer clients all over the world. This includes the NHS, Charities and other organisations within Health and Social Care.
Mike Russell FCMA
Mike is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants, having qualified as an Accountant in 1979.
Mike has since 2006 been the Finance Director of the Zoological Society of London, the conservation Charity than runs London and Whipsnade Zoo, has a prestigious scientific arm, the Institute of Zoology, and runs over 50 conservation projects in Britain and worldwide.
Prior to that for over 20 years, Mike held various financial and general management roles within Oxford Instruments Plc including spells as FD of the Medical and Superconductivity Divisions and spent two years living and working in the USA.
From 1992 to 2006 Mike was a Non-Executive Director in the NHS in Oxfordshire with three terms (92-01) of office with the Oxfordshire Community Health (NHS) Trust and two (01-06) with the South West Oxfordshire PCT serving both trusts throughout this period as Audit Committee Chairman as a member of various other committees.
Simon Hall
Simon has spent 25 years as a strategy, transformation and change consultant. Simon was the Managing Partner of Corporate Value Associates (UK and US), and prior to that was one of the youngest ever Vice-Presidents of Mercer Management Consulting.
Simon has worked on around 150 exercises with 30 clients in 15 countries, across 20 private, public and charity sectors. He now runs a small team of strategic and organisational development consultancy called New World. He is also a visiting tutor at Warwick Business School running an EDP course on the topic of “Delivering Strategic Transformations”, and has an MBA from INSEAD.
Simon is a semi-professional musician and a 3 times world-war games champion and lives near Epsom with his wife and 3 children.
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Graham Shaw – Chief Executive
Graham Shaw was formerly managing director of high-technology businesses engaged in publishing, finance and software security. Graham has worked overseas in France and the USA and has particular experience in funding new business ventures. Graham is a trustee of Ryder-Cheshire Volunteers (activities for disabled people).
Tracy Noble – Administrator
Tracy is an experienced office manager/administrator with a progressive career record that has embraced general, sales office and HR management in a broad range of high-technology, consumer, business and industrial sectors. She has worked in large multi-national corporations, medium size blue-chip organisations and VC funded start-ups.
Adam Barnett - Webmaster
Adam Barnett joined DIPEx in 2008 from his former position as operations team leader at a web based, VC funded company. His current role as webmaster includes improving and maintaining the DIPEx charity websites, and producing multimedia materials.
Wale Oyeleye - Digital media assistant
Wale Oyeleye has been working for DIPEx since Autumn 2010. Wale's current role involves aiding Adam and Jo in the development of the both Dipex charity sites and producing multimedia.
Jo Kidd - Youth engagement officer
Jo Kidd has been working for DIPEx since Autumn 2010. Jo is responsible for the development of our Youthhealthtalk website and MyYouthhealthtalk and for supporting our Board of young volunteers. In previous roles, Jo has supported young people to campaign on global issues, carried out research for campaigns on Autism and developed websites for HIV & Aids charities in Lahore, Pakistan.
The condition sections on Healthtalkonline and Youthhealthtalk are based on qualitative research carried out by a team of experienced social science researchers. The research programme is led by the Health Experiences Research Group at the University of Oxford, sometimes with collaborators from other Universities.
Research Director
Sue Ziebland - Research Director
Sue is Research Director of the Health Experiences Research Group and a Reader in Qualitative Health Research in the Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford. She has worked in the academic, voluntary and NHS sectors since completing her MSc in Social Research Methods in 1986.
Sue has published over 100 peer-reviewed research papers, articles and chapters and runs regular courses in qualitative research methods. She is responsible for the research standards, career development and line management of the research group.
From 2005 - 2009 Sue has worked on a part time secondment as a Professorial fellow at the University of Stirling to help Professors Sally Wyke and Kate Hunt develop a programme on research on self-care.
Deputy Director
Louise Locock- Deputy Research Director
Louise Locock is the Deputy Research Director of the Health Experiences Research Group, and a University Research Lecturer in the Department of Primary Healthcare, University of Oxford.
Louise's research interests include qualitative research into personal experiences of health and illness, especially in the field of pregnancy and antenatal screening, motor neurone disease, evidence-based medicine and clincial trials. Since April 2009 she has taken up a joint fellowship in Health Experiences with the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.
Medical Advisor
Helen Salisbury - Medical Advisor
Helen is a GP and also teaches medical students about communication. She joined the HERG as medical adviser in June 2011.
Director of learning and teaching
Dr Suzanne Shale - Director of learning and teaching
Suzanne’s career has (so far) spanned legal scholarship, learning and teaching development, leadership in healthcare, and medical ethics. A large part of her career has been spent at the University of Oxford where she was initially appointed as a fellow of New College and a university lecturer in law. Coming to realise that her interest in student learning was greater than her interest in the the law, she started working with the University on development of learning and teaching across all of its schools and faculties. She started in a small way introducing the University’s Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and went on to found the Oxford Learning Institute. As the Institute’s director, she commissioned the University’s first formal research into student experiences of tutorial teaching. In 2003, thinking she was leaving academia behind, she joined The Health Foundation to develop their healthcare leadership programme. In peculiar and unexpected ways this led her back into scholarship and research, this time in medical ethics. Based at King’s College London she was awarded funding by the Wellcome Trust to carry out empirical research into NHS medical directors’ experiences of the moral dimension of healthcare leadership, which is now published as Moral Leadership in Medicine: Building Ethical Healthcare Organizations (Cambridge University Press 2011).
Suzanne returned to Oxford to work with the Health Experiences Research Group in 2011. Her interest in health experiences parallels her interest in experiences of learning, and she views her current work as a unique opportunity to draw the two together. Alongside activity developing health experiences research as a resource for professional learning, she is investigating the relationship between patient experience and healthcare education, and researching the ‘moral resilience’ that patients, service users and family caregivers demonstrate when they dealing with challenging situations.
Besides her work with the Health Experiences Research Group she teaches medical ethics on the intercalated BSc at King's College London, and carries out consultancy in the field of healthcare ethics and healthcare leadership. She is a member of the National Social Care Research Ethics Committee, a GMC Associate, and a member and former chair of the College of Emergency Medicine Lay Advisory Group.
Research Staff
Fiona Barlow - Qualitative Researcher
Fiona Barlow has recently joined the Department of Primary Health Care, Health Experiences Research Group as National Cancer Action Team (NCAT) Research Fellow.
Fiona is currently looking at breast cancer patients’ experiences of prosthesis provisions within the NHS and cancer patients use of Accident and Emergency services.
Fiona has just completed her PhD looking at the impact of Spiritual healing as a complementary therapy on women with breast cancer, who were struggling with the side effects of cancer treatments. Her PhD, which used a qualitative methodology, was based at Bournemouth University. Whilst undertaking her research Fiona was a member of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Research Group at the University of Southampton. Fiona also has a MSc in Gender Studies from the University of Southampton and a BA (Hons) in Social Sciences from. Nottingham Trent University.
Whilst undertaking her research Fiona also facilitated the Inter-Professional Learning Unit for University of Southampton & Portsmouth University and taught on the post-graduate Qualitative Methodology module at University of Southampton. Fiona has also presented her her research at many conferences both national and international.
Prior to undertaking her PhD research Fiona worked as the lead lecturer of Behavioural Sciences at the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic(2000 – 2004) and as a Open University tutor (1999 – 2002). Fiona also taught Social Sciences at Solent University (1996 – 2002).
Outside of her academic career Fiona is also a qualified counseller/ psychotherapist and has a small private practice. Fiona is a qualified counseling supervisor and provides supervision and guidance to other counselors.
Anne-Marie Boylan - Qualitative Researcher
Anne-Marie previously studied and worked at Queen’s University Belfast. Since joining the Health Experiences Research Group in 2010, she has been working on the Autism site, adding information about siblings’ and grandparents’ experiences. Her background is in psychology and her research interests include people’s experiences of acquired disability. She is especially interested in social outcomes following acquired brain injury and children’s research.
Dr Alison Chapple - Senior Research Fellow and Research Lecturer
Alison Chapple is a medical sociologist, and a University Research Lecturer. She was an undergraduate at The London School of Economics, obtained an MA in Health Research at Lancaster University, and completed a PhD at the University of Manchester.
Since joining the Department of Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford in 2000 she has been working with the Health Experiences Research Group,
www.healthtalkonline.org, and has had particular responsibility for studies on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, lung cancer, terminal illness, the PSA test and screening for bowel cancer. Alison has also been responsible for the modules about bereavement due to suicide and bereavement due to traumatic death.
Abi Eccles - Research Assistant
Abi is working as a research assistant and gaining valuable experience with the Health Experiences Research Group. She has recently completed her BSc reading Sociology and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. While at university she was involved in a qualitative research project exploring international students’ experiences in British universities and also spent some time in Madagascar as a research assistant for MSc Primatology students. Abi thoroughly enjoyed her university experience and is enthusiastic about continuing to study and work in a similar field.
Julie Evans - Senior Researcher
Julie Evans has spent most of her working life in the cancer field. Her current research interests are: personal experience of health and illness; cancer, especially women's cancers and haematological cancers; breast and cervical cancer screening; and qualitative research methodology.
Although she has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methodology, Julie has chosen to specialise in qualitative research. She is currently working on a Healthtalkonline study of leukaemia having previously produced the lymphoma and ovarian cancer modules and contributed towards the breast cancer module.
Dr Laura Griffith - Senior Researcher
Laura Griffith is a Senior Qualitative Researcher in the Health Experiences Research Group. Laura's research interests include qualitative research into personal experiences of health and illness, especially in the field of mental health and the provision of health services to address social inequalities. Laura did her DPhil concerning the emotional experiences of Bangladeshi mothers in the East End of London. She then coordinated a study for the National Institute for Mental Health in England on the experiences of acute psychiatric care amongst BME communities in Birmingham, based at Warwick Medical School. Other projects have included coordinating a project based at Aston Business School investigating how multi professional teams function in the NHS.She is currently conducting a study about the personal experiences of people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia for Healthtalkonline.org Laura's research areas include Personal Experiences Of Health And Illness; Ethnicity and Mental Health; Social Inequality and Health and Multi-professional Team Working in the Health Services.
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Dr Lisa Hinton - Senior Researcher
Lisa is a Senior Qualitative Researcher currently working on a module about conditions which threaten women’s lives in pregnancy and childbirth. This study is part of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit ‘s (NPEU) NIHR funded programme of research,
Beyond Maternal Death: Improving the quality of maternity care through through national studies of “near miss” maternal morbidity.
She joined the Health Experiences Research Group in 2006 to undertake her MRC-funded DPhil in experiences of infertility, which will be a as developed as a module about infertility for the Healthtalkonline website in 2011. She has developed particular interests in the information and support needs of those going through treatment for infertility, men’s experiences, the role of Primary Care and more broadly, the role of Internet use in health care. As part of the MRC fellowship, Lisa was seconded to the Health Committee of the House of Commons where she acted as a Committee Specialist from September 2009-March 2010.
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Dr Jenny Hislop - Senior Researcher
Jenny Hislop is a sociologist with research interests in women’s health, ageing, the sociology of sleep, and qualitative methods. She holds an MSc in Social Research and a PhD from the University of Surrey. Jenny’s research on the EU-funded Sleep in Ageing Women at Surrey has been disseminated widely at national and international conferences as well as in academic journals and in the media. Before joining the Health Experiences Research Group as a Senior Researcher in October 2008, Jenny was a lecturer at Keele University where she directed the MA in Gerontology programme as well as co-ordinating and teaching on undergraduate sociology courses. Jenny is currently interviewing women about their experiences of the menopause for the Healthtalkonline website.
Dr Nic Hughes - Senior Researcher
Nic Hughes took a BA degree in English and History before starting professional education in nursing in 1981. After qualifying as a Registered General Nurse in 1984 Nic worked in surgical nursing and then as a community nurse for five years, with special interest in dementia and in palliative care. He studied part-time for a Masters degree in nursing at the University of Bradford from 1989-92. In 1992 Nic moved into nurse education, working as a nurse tutor at the Leeds College of Health and subsequently, from 1996, as a Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Leeds. In 1997 Nic held a part-time Research Fellowship in the Academic Department of Primary Care at the University of Leeds, working on a literature review of dying peoples’ needs and wishes for food.
From 1999-2006 Nic worked in a unit based at the University of Leeds, funded by Macmillan Cancer Support as part of a UK-wide initiative to provide educational development for specialist practitioners in cancer and palliative care. During this time Nic also developed research expertise in oral history methods through collaboration with a Hospice History Project, funded by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and led by medical sociologist Professor David Clark at the University of Sheffield. In 2005 Nic began part-time PhD studies with Professor Clark, exploring the experiences of older people living with cancer. From 2004-2007 he collaborated with Oxford-based palliative care physician Dr. Bee Wee in editing a book on global education in palliative care.
Nic’s research interests revolve around subjective experiences of illness and ways in which those experiences are interpreted, by self and others. He has a long-standing interest in qualitative research methods. Nic joined the Health Experiences Research Group soon after completing his PhD in 2011, to lead a study exploring the experiences of family members and friends of people with Multiple Sclerosis.
Susan Kirkpatrick - Senior Researcher
Susan Kirkpatrick joined the Health Experiences Research Group in January 2010 to work on a module about experiences of minor stroke.
Susan graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a first class honours degree in Sociology and Educational Studies in 1998, having studied as a mature student once her three children were all in full time education. She went on to gain an MA (distinction) in Family Research in 2000 specialising in qualitative methods, whilst working as a part time tutor in Sociology at Oxford Brookes. She began her research career as a research assistant at the Department of Social Policy, University of Oxford in 2001, working on an evaluation of a parenting programme aimed at families with 'hard to manage' children. Since then Susan has worked on a variety of studies looking at the effectiveness of early interventions in the primary prevention of mental health problems and in the prevention of child abuse at both Oxford and Warwick universities, including work on both the local and National Evaluation of Sure Start.
Susan also works as an freelance qualitative researcher with a number of independent social research organizations primarily on government commissioned projects, conducting interview based research evaluating the impact of health and social welfare initiatives, and as a facilitator at public consultation events on a wide range of social issues.
Angela Martin
Angela Martin has recently joined the Health Experiences Research Group as the programme co-ordinator for a 5 year, NIHR funded, multi-centre study which aims to advise whether, when and how the NHS should incorporate peoples’ health experiences into online health information.
Prior to this, Angela worked in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford as the research co-ordinator for a clinical study of patients with developmental eye anomalies such as anophthalmia (absent eye), microphthalmia (small eye) and coloboma (a gap in the eye structure). The project predominately aimed to identify genes associated with these conditions thereby enabling affected families to be given more informed genetic counselling and leading to a greater understanding of the condition.
Angela’s career in research management followed a post-doctoral career in microbial molecular biology in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford. Her research centred on the genetics of the chemosensory pathways of Rhodobacter sphaeroides, an important alternative model organism to Escherichia coli for the study of bacterial motility and chemotaxis. She also spent some time in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, USA. She obtined her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 1997 for her work on the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
Dr Lesley Powell - Senior Researcher
Lesley Powell’s research career spans 14 years, she is a Chartered Health Psychologist and was Reader in Applied Health Psychology at Coventry University prior to joining the Health Experiences Research Group in January 2010. Lesley’s research interests are gaining understanding of the experiences of young people with life-long conditions and disability, their families and carers, self-management, and qualitative research. Lesley has developed and evaluated interventions that comprise yoga and massage for parents/carers and their children and young people directly. She has trained many complementary therapists in England and has one training course accredited to 20 CPD points. She has over 60 publications.
Dr Suman Prinjha - Senior Researcher
Suman Prinjha is an anthropologist and obtained her PhD in 1999 from the London School of Economics. She has been a Senior Researcher for the Health Experiences Research Group, based at the University of Oxford, since 2001 (
www.healthtalkonline.org). She has produced 6 Healthtalkonline modules: breast screening, breast cancer, DCIS, epilepsy, patients' experiences of intensive care, and relatives' experiences of intensive care.
Since 2001, Suman has conducted over 250 qualitative interviews across the UK, over 100 of which have been on women's experiences of breast screening and breast cancer. All of this research has been made available to patients and health professionals via the Healthtalkonline website and peer-reviewed papers. Currently, she is working on a new module on women’s experiences of CIN 3 and CGIN (precancerous cervical conditions).
Suman's research interests include patients' experiences of breast cancer, intensive care, and South Asian health and cultural identities.
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Ulla Räisänen - Senior Researcher
Ulla Räisänen is a senior qualitative researcher in the Health Experiences Research Group at the Department of Primary Health Care. Ulla joined the research group in February 2007 to lead the project “Young people’s experiences of epilepsy”. She’s currently the PI and lead researcher in a Comic Relief funded project “Young people, depression and low mood”.
Ulla’s background is in discourse analysis, health communication and applied linguistics. Her research experience and interests include the discursive construction of (mental) health and illness, health and identity, young people’s health, the experience of chronic illness and health discourses of the media. Ulla holds an MA in English Philology and Applied Linguistics from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She is currently finalising her PhD: “Discourses of Young people’s mental health in the Finnish newsprint media”.
Dr Sara Ryan - Senior Researcher
Sara is a Senior Qualitative Researcher in the Health Experiences Research Group. She has a background in sociology and anthropology and gained her PhD from the University of Warwick. Her doctoral research focused on the experiences of mothers of children with learning difficulties in public places. Sara was a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Oxford Brookes University before joining DIPEx and has also taught at the University of Warwick and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Sara has conducted qualitative research in the areas of disability, autism spectrum disorders, mothering, young offenders, social housing and public space/order. She has published widely in social science journals.
Dr Maria E. Salinas - Senior Researcher
Maria E. Salinas is a social anthropologist and a senior researcher in the Health Experiences Research Group. Maria obtained her D.Phil from the University of Oxford in 2000. She has worked in health research, refugee studies and gender relations in the academic, voluntary and business sectors for the last fifteen years. Her main tasks have been to manage young people's health modules: sexual health of young people, teenage cancer, diabetes type 1 and long term conditions. Maria has just completed an adult module on osteoporosis and is currently working on the young people's weight and health module.
Administrative Staff
Ruth Sanders - Research Delivery Project Manager
Ruth Sanders joined the group in February 2002. Ruth was Website Manager for 5 years. Her new role - Research Delivery Project Manager - includes the scheduling, training and project management of the data and multi-media resources created within the Health Experiences Research Group.
Francie Smee - Administrator
Vanessa Eade - Administrative assistant
