Research
My main interests are in the field of Outcomes Research, with a current emphasis on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and on improving the use of healthcare data to support care delivery, quality improvement and research. My focus on the development and application of outcome measures maps to theme of Clinical Trials within my department and to Digital Health and Health Informatics across the wider University.
I would be pleased to hear from potential PhD students interested in research in the following areas: Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and/or analysis of routine health data (including electronic health records) in the area of gastroenterology and hepatology.
Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
A key focus of my research over the last ten years has been the development, validation and application of the IBD-Control Questionnaire - a simple, generic PROM designed to measure "disease control from the patient perspective". Since our original publication in 2014, IBD-Control has received growing recognition and international adoption in clinical practice, quality improvement and research. The questionnaire is offered licence-free to the IBD community (copyright reserved).
For more information, please visit our website:
IBD-Control Questionnaire Website:
Learning Health Systems: Improving the use of routinely collected data to support quality improvement
I have a longstanding interest in finding ways to improve the use of routinely collected healthcare data, particularly Hospital Episode Statisics. Recent work funded by the UK Government (Connected Health Cities, North West Coast) included the generation of a novel cohort-discovery and phenotyping algorithm for emergency admissions for alcohol-related liver disease - the Liverpool Alcohol-Related Liver Disease Algorithm (LAA). Our work has challenged the use of simplistic case definitions for generating statistics and benchmarking metrics. The LAA was recently deployed or case identification in the ALERT-UK audit, a nationwide evaluation care quality.
Connected Health Cities - Alcohol-related liver disease pathway
Liverpool Alcohol Related Liver Disease Algorithm - LAA
Towards a Learning Health System for ARLD
Independent endorsement of LAA methodology
Ten-year trends in outcome for first admissions for ARLD in England
National audit adopts the LAA for case identification - ALERT-UK
Improving Standardisation of Remote Assessment Questionnaires
I am Joint Lead for an NIHR-funded project which is focused on improving the use of remote assessment questionnaires in the NHS. Our work is seeking to describe variation in practice, develop a taxonomy and produce a tool kit to support better standardisation of questionnaire content. Part of the project will explore current stakeholder views on using validated, standardised generic questions where possible across chronic conditions.
Research grants
A Generic Standardised Item Set for remote assessments in people requiring specialist outpatient care: The GeneSIS Project
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE (UK)
December 2024 - November 2026
IBD Registry Research Analytical hub
IBD REGISTRY (UK)
April 2020 - September 2022
NIHR ARC 2 national social care implementation projects
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE (UK), LCCG - LIVERPOOL CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP (UK)
October 2019 - March 2026
Maximising the value of the UK IBD Registry for service delivery, audit and research
NAT ASSOC FOR COLITIS & CROHNS DISEASE (UK)
August 2015 - March 2019
Record keeping in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) within electronic patient record systems: Current practice and motivations for collecting structured data
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2017 - January 2021
Cost-effective modelling for benefit-risk assessment - PhD Studentship for Heather Catt
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2015 - December 2018