PhD Students

Heather Barrington

Heather Barrington is a PhD student in the Institute of Population Health Sciences at the University of Liverpool, UK, supervised by Professor Bridget Young and Professor Paula Williamson. The aim of Heather’s PhD is to explore and optimise the patient participant’s experience of taking part in core outcome set (COS) studies that use the Delphi method.  She will initially undertake a systematic review of recruitment and retention in COS studies, followed by a survey of COS developers.  Heather will use the think aloud method to understand COS participant experience of Delphi completion.  From these exploratory studies and informed by patient involvement, Heather will develop and evaluate interventions to optimise the patient participants’ experience of taking part in COS studies.

Alice Biggane

Alice is a PhD student from the Methods in Research on Research (MiRoR) Project. She is undertaking a PhD focusing on the inclusion of patients and members of the public in clinical outcome selection.  The aims of Alice’s PhD are to map the methods used to facilitate patient participation in COS development; explore participants’ experiences of these methods; and co-produce with relevant stakeholders an educational tool designed to aid participants in COS development. Additionally, Alice conducted an ethnography exploring patient and public involvement in clinical guideline development with a specific focus on clinical outcome selection.

Lucy Brading

Lucy Brading is a PhD student in the Institute of Population Health Sciences at the University of Liverpool. Lucy’s PhD explores patient and public involvement (PPI) in the development of COS. To understand the experiences and practices of PPI contributors and researchers in COS development, Lucy conducted: a year-long ethnographic case study of four COS development studies; qualitative interviews with PPI contributors; and a systematic review of published COS studies. Lucy is passionate about public engagement and has presented at the Pint of Science Festival two years in a row. The first year, Lucy’s talk on PPI and bringing democracy to health research was voted best early career researcher presentation by the audience.

Karen Hughes

Karen is undertaking a PhD focusing on methods to assess and improve the uptake of core outcome sets by clinical trialists. The aims of Karen’s PhD are to investigate an efficient method to assess uptake; assess the impact of an existing strategy to improve uptake; and carry out qualitative interviews with clinical trialists to explore the barriers and facilitators to uptake.

Bethan John

Jamlick Karumbi

Jamlick is a PhD student from the MRC/NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership Project. He is undertaking a PhD focusing on improving the uptake of Core Outcome Sets (COS) in Low and Middle Income countries (LMICs). The aims of Jamlick’s PhD will be to review the extent of involvement of members from LMICs in COS development. He will also review the approaches used in the currently already developed and ongoing COS; explore the degree of understanding, involvement, and application of COS in LMICs through an online survey and a stakeholder’s workshop; test the adoptability or adaptability of existing COS for renal care (with a focus on hemodialysis) to LMIC settings and apply a rapid development COS process for newborn care in neonatal sepsis, low birth weight with LMIC stakeholders.

Violeta Razanskaite

Violeta is exploring the collection and recording of clinical outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease, including the utilisation of structured outcome measures in routine clinical practice. Her aims are to explore how outcomes are collected and captured in electronic health records, and study the possible incentives, motivations and benefits of capturing structured information at point of care. The project includes direct ethnographic observation and interviews of front-line hospital teams, and retrospective analysis of electronic patient records.

Nisaharan Srikandarajah

Nish is a neurosurgical trainee at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. He completed his PhD at the University of Liverpool in developing a core outcome set for Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES), which received competitive funding through a Royal College of Surgeons Research Fellowship award, Industry and charity. He is on the steering committee for a multi-centre national prospective study in CES and is a global partner in the development of a core outcome set for degenerative cervical myelopathy. He is interested in core outcome set methodology, patient involvement, and its application in the field of neurosciences.