The Health Technologies and Human Relations Research Programme is led by Professor Carl May.
Scope
The Health Technologies and Human Relations Research programme brings together social and clinical scientists to conduct basic, applied and policy research using the methods and theoretical perspectives of the social sciences. We focus on: (i) how professionals and patients interact with each other; (ii) how these interactions are structured by different kinds of knowledge and shaped by particular techniques and technologies in practice; and (iii) how new knowledge, techniques and technologies can be made workable and integrated in clinical practice. This gives us a focus on (iv) understanding complex interventions in health care.
Interdisciplinary and collaborative
research
The theoretical and methodological perspectives that inform our research are
mainly drawn from sociology and psychology, but we are an interdisciplinary
research programme interdisciplinary research
programmeand also seek opportunities to include and develop perspectives
from clinical and other disciplines.
Understanding Complex Interventions in health care
Current research includes ethnographic studies of the social shaping of health technology assessment trials funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. This work also includes studies of the design and implementation of HTA trials, and of the experiences of researchers, clinicians and patients funded as components of large trials in the NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme. These studies involve major collaborations with the Clinical Trials Unit and the School of Surgical and Reproductive Sciences at Newcastle.
Understanding how people experience health, health care, and health research is important. A study funded by the Medical Research Council is exploring patient decision-making around prosthetic implants in dentistry, while an NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme funded study is exploring the experiences of people with irritable bowel syndrome. Professional patient interaction is an important focus of our research and a unique study supported by the Arthritis Research Campaign is examining both the practice and the evidence base that informs regional examinations in paediatric rheumatology.
Our unique and longstanding programme of work on telemedicine and telecare continues to have a national and international impact. Two major projects funded by the NHS Service Delivery and Organization R&D Programme and the Department of Health Policy Research Programme continue this programme of work by examining how health care professionals, service users, and others seek to make these new technologies workable in practice and integrate them, not only in clinical settings but also in everyday home life.
The range of these studies is important. In seeking to understand and evaluate particular health care settings we seek to develop a robust understanding of the processes in which complex interventions can be integrated and made workable in the NHS and other health care systems.
Collaborations
We collaborate widely. Current collaborations include the Universities of Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Dundee and London in the UK. International collaborations include NUI Galway, Melbourne, Victoria and Oslo Universities.
Postgraduate research
Interdisciplinary research marks our formal collaborations, but also the postgraduate
studies that we supervise. We focus on the ways that theory and methods from
the social sciences can illuminate both clinical and HSR topics. These studies
range from surgery, through new technology design and implementation, to the
experiences of people with chronic illness. We welcome enquiries from clinicians
and social scientists interested in pursuing research degrees.