Collaborators

Paul Aveyard

Sue Ziebland

Liz Stokoe

Helena Webb

Jack Joyce

Liliia Bespala

I am interested in supervising DPhil (PhD) students on projects which focus on communication in clinical settings. Potential project titles are advertised here: 

https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/study/dphil/graduate-research-projects

I am also happy for potential students to get in touch to discuss other project ideas. 

Researchers find GPs mostly tell patients to 'eat less and do more' - Daily Mail

The Qualitative Research Series - Uncovering the machinery behind interaction through conversation analysis with Dr Charlotte Albury. The Words Matter Podcast 

Why didn’t people follow the government’s advice on COVID-19? Research on Language and Social Interaction, Guest Blog

Talking Meds: Finding the words to communicate Covid-19 travel risk. Somerville College, Guest Blog

Teaching Conversation analysis to clinicians. Research on Language and Social Interaction, Guest Blog

I am a medical anthropologist specialising in qualitative research methods, particularly conversation analysis. I am interested in using qualitative methods to explore how communication in clinical settings supports changes to health behaviours.

Research

My research mostly focuses on understanding relationships between clinical communication and behaviour change, including weight loss, smoking cessation, and treatment adherence. I currently hold both a Mildred Blaxter Fellowship, from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, and a Fulford JRF at Somerville College to explore communication about weight loss in primary care. 

My research has contributed to national guidelines, and I have advised government and policy makers. I am a member of the NICE Adoption and Impact Reference Panel, and an honorary member of the University of Oxford's Faculty of Linguistics. In 2022 I was the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) Principal Investigator of the Year.

I currently lead a project, in collaboration with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, researching how to optimise risk communication in case of infectious disease, and also a 3-year British Heart Foundation funded project developing evidence and training in communication about weight loss in primary care. In my FSHI fellowship I am examining how primary care staff can best communicate about tier-2 weight-management referrals with people living with obesity.

I also lead substantive qualitative work-packages on large programmes of work, including NewDawn, an NIHR funded programme of research exploring diabetes remission, and SLIM-CARD a British Heart Foundation-funded trial, looking at relationships between weight loss and surgery outcomes.

I am qualitative research lead for the Health behaviours Research Group, and design and lead research using a range of qualitative methods to better understand behaviour change in clinical settings, clinical trial processes, and implementation.

Research Interests  

Behaviour change communication in clinical settings

Conversation analysis

Qualitative methods

Qualitative methods in clinical trials

Teaching

I hold a postgraduate certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCert Teaching and Learning in HE), awarded with Distinction.

From 2018-2022 I was course Director for Oxford Qualitative courses. I currently teach qualitative methods on a range of courses across the University, as well as offering bespoke training.

• Course Co-lead: Introduction to NVivo (IT Services, Oxford)
• Course Lead: Introduction to Qualitative Interviewing (Oxford Qualitative Courses)
• Tutor: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods  (Oxford Qualitative Courses)
• Tutor: Introduction to Analysing Qualitative Interviews (Oxford Qualitative Courses)