Dr Dawn Swancutt

Expertise

Patient experience, mixed-methods research

Biography

I have been a Research Fellow within the PenARC team since their earlier days of PenCLAHRC in 2014, managing new projects that are prioritised by their question generation system. My background is in understanding, and looking for improvements in patient’s experience of their care. I work with qualitative and quantitative methods to explore how local health services are being used and developed and how that influences their use by patients.

Currently, my main role is as the manager for the NIHR funded PROGROUP research programme, ‘Improving group treatment for people with severe obesity’. This programme of research investigates the delivery of services for people with severe obesity. It comprises a large multidisciplinary team of clinicians, psychologists, dietitians, evaluators, implementation scientists, clinical trials experts, qualitative researchers and patient representatives. This is the first major programme of its kind in specialist weight management services.

I have a wide range of skills that apply to different healthcare settings. The projects I have led include; mapping intermediate community care, perceptions about getting up following a fall, evaluating how GPs are trained to discuss multimorbidity and delivery of services for people with severe obesity.

I typically work across multidisciplinary teams that comprise scientific, social and economic researchers together with front-line clinical staff and patients. I enjoy the challenge of bringing together different views to gain a holistic picture of health improvement.

I am also a member of the Making Sense of Evidence (MSE) steering committee and teaching team.