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Catherine Pope

Catherine Pope

Catherine Pope

Professor of Medical Sociology

Catherine Pope is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.  She is also a senior research fellow at Green Templeton College, and was made Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2016.

An internationally recognised researcher and teacher, Catherine spent thirty years working in Higher Education in London, Leicester, Bristol and Southampton, before moving to Oxford in July 2019.

Catherine is an expert in qualitative and mixed methods for applied health research, and a key contributor to developing methods for evidence synthesis. She has published empirical, theoretical, and methodological work, including over 160 peer reviewed journal and conference papers for clinical, sociological, policy and practitioner audiences.  She is co-editor of  ‘Pope and Mays’ Qualitative research in health care (Oxford: Wiley, Japanese translation, 2001; Portuguese translations, 2005, 2007) and has recently been preoccupied preparing the 4th edition of this popular book, due for publication in 2020. She is co-author of Organisational innovation in health services: lessons from the NHS treatment centres (2011, Bristol: Palgrave) and Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative health evidence (2007, Buckingham: Open University Press, translated into Japanese in 2009).

Catherine’s current research projects include:

  • Versus Arthritis PACFIND – a programme of work led by colleagues in the University of Aberdeen, investigating the organisation and delivery of care for people with fibromyalgia and co-producing better models of care.
  • NIHR HS&DR NHS111 Online - building on a 10 year programme of research focusing on urgent care and triage and assessment services this project will examine the new online version of NHS 111.
  • ESRC S3W – this adventurous Transforming Data project is exploring the creation of semantically linked data for health research, using the ELSA longitudinal cohort on ageing and the Great British Class Survey for proof of concept.

Her research interests encompass organisational change in health care, service delivery and reconfiguration, workforce and work in health services, and the impact of digital and Web technologies on health care and services.

She is a past editor of Sociology, a world-leading, international journal of the British Sociological Association and current Chair of the Editorial Board of Sociology of Health and Illness, and is a founding cohort member of the Health Foundation Q Initiative.

Catherine is happy to hear from prospective DPhil students, especially those interested in health care work and understanding how organisational change and digital innovations are implemented in the NHS.