I am a medical anthropologist interested in healthcare organisation and professions.

My research is on the social organisation of healthcare, including: 

• Remote, rural and coastal healthcare systems
• The quality and safety of hospital care
• Medical leadership, innovation and organisational change
• Systems leadership and collaborative governance 
• Policy enactment

My research is multidisciplinary and translational (theory into practice). I work with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to develop healthcare professionals and services in North Wales and contribute to international learning.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an executive member of the Society for Studies in Organising Healthcare, and a member of the Scientific Committee for the international conference on Organisational Behaviour in Health Care. I am on the editorial board of the Journal of Health Organisation and Management and the editorial collective of Critical Public Health

Welsh Crucible Fellow

Blogs

How do medical directors improve care? Through ‘translation work’, ‘diplomatic work’, and ‘repair work'

Anthropology, healthcare, and healthcare improvement

Why social science can help us better understand organisational change in healthcare

Governments want healthcare staff to change patients' behaviour - but that's unlikely to work

Current projects:

Supporting medical leaders for sustainable remote, rural and coastal healthcare systems 

 Funded by the Academy for Health Equity

 Lorelei Jones, Bangor University 

Emma Jane Hosking, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the North Wales Medical School  

The aim of this study is to understand the context, views and experiences of medical leaders in remote, rural and coastal communities and how they can be supported in their role.  

The Response Study

Study funded by the NIHR evaluating the implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. 

Overall Research Aim: To explore the implementation of a new national patient safety policy, the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), within the English NHS across the multiple layers of the regulatory and health service context, to understand how to support future patient safety policy development and implementation.

Background: Large numbers of patients continue to be harmed as a result of safety incidents, and current approaches to responding to and learning from safety incidents are increasingly questioned for their effectiveness in reducing harm. Many types of incident are frequently repeated across the NHS and organisations struggle to implement policies to improve safety and share learning. As a result, NHS England is launching a new national policy framework (PSIRF) that has far-reaching implications at all levels of healthcare by seeking to create incident response and learning processes that are more proactive, proportionate, flexible, learning-focused, equitable and fair. The launch of PSIRF offers a unique opportunity to explore and learn from the real-time implementation of a new national patient safety policy, including the logics and objectives underlying the policy, how the policy is interpreted and enacted across a range of stakeholder groups, what the policy changes and improves, and what lessons might be learned for future policy design and implementation.

Methods: This multilevel, mixed-methods evaluation will explore PSIRF implementation nationally with a longitudinal survey and documentary analysis, and organisationally through in-depth ethnography at six case study organisations from three NHS regions.

More information

How do chief medical officers understand, experience and carry out new system leadership roles (ICS CMO) and what impact do they have?

Research funded by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management

[email protected]