vCardDr Tim Rapley

Dr Tim Rapley
Staff Scientist

  • Email: tim.rapley@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0)191 222 5665
  • Fax: 0191 222 6043
  • Address: Institute of Health & Society
    Newcastle University
    21 Claremont Place
    Newcastle Upon Tyne
    NE2 4AA
    United Kingdom

Research Interests

My research interests focus on detailed empirical studies of medical practice and research. I’m interested in identifying, describing and understanding the everyday, taken-for-granted, aspects of medical and research work. A focus on what people actually do - as opposed to just what they tell that they do - can offer unique, practical and tailored solutions. My research focuses on two related questions:

  • How is medical work shaped by new and existing forms of interaction, knowledge and technology?
  • How is research-based knowledge produced, disseminated and integrated?

My main expertise is in:

  • Sociology of medical work, knowledge and practice
  • Qualitative methodology and methods

I’m currently fascinated by four substantive areas:

  • Musculoskeletal Medicine, especially in paediatric contexts;
  • Health Services and Medical Research, especially in relation to social studies of/for randomized controlled trials;
  • Medical technologies, especially mundane, taken for granted, technologies;
  • Professional and Patient interactions, especially in how to make sense of the distributed nature of decision making and relational autonomy.

Other Expertise

  • Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
  • Sociology of Social Scientific Knowledge

Current Work

JULIA – Delay in access to care for children with JUveniLe Idiopathic Arthritis - exploring the barriers and drivers to referral.
Arthritis Research Campaign 2008-2011

We know that optimal management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) requires *prompt* referral to an experienced paediatric rheumatology multidisciplinary team. However we also know that there is considerable delay in children with JIA accessing the appropriate care. This study focuses on pathways to care for patients with JIA. It traces the various routes that children and their families or guardians take, from the first time a parent or guardian notices something is not quite right, or a child complains that they are not feeling well, to the actual meeting with the paediatric rheumatology team when a diagnosis of JIA is made or confirmed.

We are looking at the accounts of parents, guardians, and where appropriate children themselves, to establish what routes they took and there experiences along the way. We are also looking at the accounts of those health and social care practitioners that took some part in the referral process, be it a teacher or nursery nurse who also noticed something and talked to the parents, the GP who sees the child and feels they need to be referred on to hospital services, as well as the broad range of secondary health care professionals that see the children.

This work will improve our understanding of the factors that promote or inhibit referral and help develop strategies to facilitate access to care and ultimately improve the outcome for children with JIA.

NERDS - North East Research Design Services - Qualitative Advisor
I am a member of the NERDS team, where I offer support and advice on the application of qualitative research methods to health and social care research, especially in relation to qualitative research for clinical trials.

Selected Publications

More Publications

Projects

Future Research

Over the next five years I’m very interested in developing an international research profile in ‘Social Studies of Musculoskeletal Medicine’. To date, the majority of social science focuses on patients’ experiences of musculoskeletal problems. Relatively little research directly focuses on the work, skills and knowledge of health professionals involved in short and long term musculoskeletal care.

I’m also very interested in collaborating with clinical researchers who are undertaking clinical trials (especially complex interventions) or who face practical, service-orientated, problems. I’m keen to work with them to design and deploy appropriate and methodologically rigorous qualitative research that directly feeds into the development or enactment of their clinical work or research. Theoretically and pragmatically speaking, I really want to further develop the ideas and practices of social studies *for*, *with* and *as* clinical research.

Research Roles

I am a member of:

Health Technologies and Human Relations (HTHR) Faculty Research Group
North East Research Design Services (NERDS)
Newcastle Musculoskeletal Education Research Group
Risk Communication and Decision Making (RCDM) Faculty Research Group

I am an associate member of:

Newcastle Centre for Social and Business Informatics

Postgraduate Supervision

Co-supervising, Lynne Stobbart, Department of Health Research Capacity Development Research Fellow, 'Processes and practices of the enrolment of patients to hyperacute randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of stroke treatment: decision making by patients, careers and professionals'

Co-supervising, Ben Thompson, Arthritis Research Campaign Educational Research Fellowship, 'What do patients with ankylosing spondylitis need and want to know about their condition?'

Co-supervising, Jo Patterson, Department of Health Research Capacity Development Research Fellow. ‘Swallowing in head and neck cancer following (chemo)radiotherapy’

Esteem Indicators

2008 - Member of Consultative Group for Life Sciences, Biology and Medicine, Research Information Network (www.rin.ac.uk)

2009 Scientific Committee Member, International Shared Decision Making Conference

Visiting Researcher, Computing Department, Lancaster University, 2006

Plenary Speaker at 'Advances in Qualitative Research', Qualitative Methods Research Network, European Sociological Association, Cardiff University, 2006.

I have given invited papers in Berlin (HU), Essex, Keele, Lancaster and Warwick.

Funding

Normalizing New Health Technologies: Building a Web-Enabled Toolkit for Implementation Practitioners
ESRC, Follow on Funding Scheme, 2009-2010
Carl May, Elizabeth Murray, Tracy Finch, Francis Mair, Shaun Treweek, Tim Rapley.
£99, 973

Development of an evidence based regional musculoskeletal examination for school aged children (CHLOE)
Arthritis Research Council 2005-2008
Helen Foster, Carl May, Lesley Kay and Tim Rapley
£121,758

Qualifications

PhD Sociology/Conversation Analysis(London)
MA Sociology with special reference to qualitative research - awarded with distinction (London)
BA (Hons) Human Geography (London)

Memberships

British Sociological Association

Undergraduate Teaching

Medicine in the Community, MBBS Module

Postgraduate Teaching

Further Research Methods, MSc Module
Health and Society, MSc Module
Research Study Design & Data Interpretation, Postgrad Certificate of Clinical Research