I am a mixed methods research associate working in the field of developing digital tools to improve general practice (GP) healthcare services. I have been working closely with Professor Tjeerd van Staa, Professor of e-Health, since I joined the university in March 2022. Prior to joining UoM, I was working as a statistician in the health industry.

General practice is a high-demand, low-resource setting that is growing increasingly responsible for the management of patients with complex health needs (for example, people with multiple chronic conditions, or mental health needs where secondary care services are needed but unavailable). Within a limited time frame, staff must navigate often large amounts of data within a health record, understand patient needs and provide appropriate support (e.g. referrals, review of medicines, etc.) With decreasing continuity and fragmented care, patients often have to repeat their health history to new staff and may not have their needs met within the time constraints of an appointment. Each clinical area has its own unique challenges, and care varies across practices and practitioner.

My research interests lie in understanding how digital knowledge support tools, enhanced by large-scale analyses of routinely collected healthcare data and lived-experience perspectives, can be used to optimise the management of complex patients within UK GP services. I am increasingly interested in the benefit of using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to design digital interventions, and the inclusive involvement of people with lived experience (co-development).

I am co-PI on an NIHR-funded Programme Development Grant to develop a knowledge support tool for self-harm. Co-development is embedded into my approach; I am working closely with healthcare professionals and people with lived experience (via Battle Scars, a survivor-led charity providing support around self-harm, https://www.battle-scars-self-harm.org.uk/). I am also working on the NIHR-funded BRIT2 project, which aims to explore whether the use of dashboards and a knowledge support system can optimise the prescription of antibiotics in primary care settings. My role has been in co-developing dashboard content and analysing the randomised clinical trial data (see the protocol:  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076296).  I am also working on developing support tools for polypharmacy within the NIHR-funded DynAIRx project (https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/dynairx/).

Alongside my research role I supervise Kahasse Gebrekidan, a HDRUK-funded PhD student investigating algorithmic bias in the prediction of medication-related harm in polypharmacy patients. I also teach on the UCL-UoM Health Informatics MSc programme, and am developing an introductory R workshop for students and academic staff in maternal and fetal health.