Lisa Hinton

Lisa is a senior social scientist in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, and Director of Oxford Qualitative Courses. She leads applied qualitative and mixed methods research aimed at improving healthcare in primary and secondary care. A major area of focus is women's health and maternity care (antenatal and postnatal), patient and staff experiences, inclusion, equity and diversity. She works with the Medical Sociology & Health Experiences Research Group and the Hypertension Group.

Lisa was a journalist and TV producer at the BBC and Channel 4 before joining the NDPCHS to complete her MRC-funded DPhil in medical sociology on experiences of infertility.  After completing her DPhil in 2010, Lisa worked with the Health Experiences Research Group (HERG) and took on the role of Director for Applied Research for HERG in 2017.

From 2019-2023 Lisa worked at the Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, at the University of Cambridge where she was co- investigator for the major research DHSC programme on avoiding brain injury in childbirth (ABC) and led the CORONET study, co-producing good practice for remote antenatal care. For THIS Institute's evaluation of the Care Quality Commission's maternity inspection programme, she led on equity and engagement with maternity service users.

She was a principle investigator for the RESPECT study, Kenyan-based research exploring the potential for using mothers’ experiences of pre-term birth to improve care in LMICs. She is currently co-investigator for the SNAP2 trial which seeks to optimize care for people after a hypertensive pregnancy, leading on evaluation and health equity, and co-investigator for the Children’s Surgery Outcome Reporting programme using routinely available data to reduce unwarranted variation in the health and wellbeing of children undergoing early surgery. 

Lisa is an expert in qualitative and mixed methods for applied health research. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles for clinical, sociological, policy and practitioner audiences. She regularly supervises masters and doctoral students and is happy to hear from prospective DPhil students interested in doing sociologically-informed studies of health experiences, healthcare improvement and digital innovations in the broad area of women’s health. She is Director of Oxford Qualitative Courses, the University of Oxford's expert-led programme of short courses in qualitative research.