Professor Louise Locock

FAcSS PhD MPhil

Professor in Health Services Research

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Email Address

louise.locock@abdn.ac.uk

Office Address

Health Services Research Unit
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Room 204

2nd Floor, Health Sciences Building
Foresterhill
Aberdeen
AB25 2ZD

School/Department

School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition

Biography

I joined the Health Services Research Unit (now Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation, ACE) in 2017 as Professor in Health Services Research. Previously I spent 14 years with the Health Experiences Research Group, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, where I was Director of Applied Research. I am a qualitative social science researcher interested in personal experience of health and illness; patient-centred quality improvement and co-design; patient and family involvement in research and care; remote and rural healthcare. A major recent focus of my work has been how we can better use different types of patient experience data to improve care.

As of January 2024 I am now partially retired, and work mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays only

Qualifications

MA Modern Langauges (French and German)
1984 - University of Oxford
M Phil Comparative Social Policy
1995 - University of Oxford
PhD Explicit rationing within the NHS quasi-market: the experience of health authority purchasers, 1996-97
1998 - London School of Economics
http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/98/

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships: School Patient and Public Involvement working group member
External Memberships: Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Board Member, Care Opinion

Member of the NIHR BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre Methods Panel

Research

Research Overview

Patient and staff experience; quality improvement using patient experience data; patient and public involvement; experiences of research participation (particularly clinical trials and biobanking); qualitative methods; motor neurone disease and other neurological conditions; long term conditions; pregnancy and parenting experiences; rural and remote health

Research Areas

Applied Health Sciences

Supervising

View Research Area

Research Specialisms

Health Studies
Health and Social Care
Social Policy

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is , published under the licence.

Current Research

From 2024-2029 I am co-investigator on a new interdisclinary programme grant funded by the Chief Scientist Office, Building Rural-Urban healthCare Equity for Scotland (BRUCES) – a multi-methods research programme in cancer, musculoskeletal health and frailty. The programme is co-led by Prof Peter Murchie and Dr Rosemary Hollick; I will be co-leading the qualitative work package with Prof Lorna Philip from the Geography Department.

I was recently a co-investigator on a UK-wide study of pregnancy and multi-morbidity led by PI Prof Krish Nirantharakumar, University of Birmingham (). At Aberdeen we jointly led a programme of interviews with people with multiple conditions who are or have recently been pregnant, partners and health professionals. I was also a co-investigator on Dr Mairead Black's NIHR study to develop a decision-aid around elective caesarean birth planning, Plan-A.

I'm also involved in the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (Aberdeen), a partnership led by Aberdeen City Council.

Past Research

As principal investigator I have led two studies on recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in remote and rural areas. One, funded by the Chief Scientist Office of Scotland, investigated the motivations and experiences of doctors with regard to practising remote and rural medicine with a view to enhancing recruitment and retention of rural doctors in Scotland. The second study, funded by the NIHR, focused on community-led initiatives to improve healthcare recruitment and retention in remote and rural areas, in both Scotland and England.

I was co-investigator on two Versus Arthritis programmes of research, one on PAtient-centred Care for FIbromyalgia: New pathway Design’ (PACFIND), led by Professor Gary MacFarlane and one on Vasculitis (VOICES) led by Dr Rosemary Hollick. Both studies have also produced new Health Experiences Insights modules on and .

As a co-investigator, I was involved in a study on experiences of , led by Prof Kate Hunt at the University of Stirling and funded by the Chief Scientist Office, and a linked study funded by NIHR on , led by Prof Sue Ziebland at the University of Oxford, and a further ESRC/UKRI funded study also led by Sue Ziebland, ''. All three studies have produced new Health Experiences Insights modules.

Other recently completed studies include:

ACORN (Asynchronous Consultation Research for the NHS), examining the role of asynchronous consultation methods in secondary care after COVID-19, funded by the Health Foundation.(Joint PI with Prof Craig Ramsay)

An inter-disciplinary study of funerals as a form of care and how they have been affected by the pandemic, led by Prof Vikki Entwistle.

A study based in NHS Grampian on how staff feel about and respond to online patient feedback on Care Opinion Scotland. A wider qualitative study on Care Opinion Scotland with a PhD studentship funded by THIS Institute, Cambridge, ended in 2023 (with PhD student Emma Berry, viva passed with minor corrections December 2023).

The experiences of families with inherited motor neurone disease. The awarded funding for 2019-22 to make interviews conducted as part of this PhD into a . (With PhD student Jade Howard, viva passed with minor corrections March 2023).

I was also co-investigator on two further Oxford-led studies:

: support through mobile messaging and digital health technology for diabetes. NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research (PI Andrew Farmer)

: Understanding experiences of urogynaecological conditions and health services. NIHR Policy Research Programme (PIs Abi McNiven and Francine Toye)

and two studies led by Manchester Metropolitan:

Bridging the translation gap between learning disability policy and practice in search of flourishing lives. NIHR Schhol for Social Care Research. (PI Sara Ryan)

Understanding and using people’s experiences of social care to guide service improvements:could an effective and efficient co-design approach be translated from health to social care? NIHR Health Service and Delivery Research (PI Sara Ryan)

As Principal Investigator I completed the US-PEx project, a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Service and Delivery Research programme 14/156/06. This project aimed to get a better understanding of how NHS frontline staff use different types of patient feedback to improve health services and develop tools to help them make better use of these data.

I was also co-investigator on the INQUIRE project led by Professor John Powell at the University of Oxford on how the NHS can use online patient feedback.

During 2020-21 i collaborated with Prof Judith Smith and Emily Burn at the University of Birmingham and Dr Becks Fisher at the Health Foundation on a study of .

A study in collaboration with the University of Leicester and THIS Institute, University of Cambridge, on Developing A Visual Identification Method For People with Cognitive Impairment in Hospital () has recently been completed.

Supervision

My current supervision areas are: Applied Health Sciences.

Please note that from 1 January 2024 I am partially retired and will no longer be taking on new PhD students.

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

I currently supervise 3 PhD students, and teach on using qualitative patient experience research for quality improvement.

From January 2024 I am partially retired and no longer taking on new PhD or Masters projects

Publications

Update

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Biography

Qualifications

Memberships and Affiliations

Research Overview

Research Areas

Applied Health Sciences

Research Specialisms

Current Research

Past Research

Supervision

Teaching Responsibilities

Antenatal outcomes for women with multiple long-term conditions in pregnancy: a UK-wide retrospective cohort study

Mapping the benefits and harms of antenatal and newborn screening programmes

Maternity care bundle for UK women with multiple long-term health conditions: coproduction workshops

“It was a bit of a now or never situation”: Experiences of preconception care and support for women with multiple long-term health conditions

What are the information and decision-support needs of women planning mode of birth in routine antenatal care in high-income countries? A qualitative evidence synthesis

Experiences of women from ethnic minorities and underserved, marginalised and disadvantaged groups in communicating with health professionals during antenatal care: An overview of qualitative systematic reviews

‘A little bit of support really, that's all I was looking for’ a qualitative study of the biographical disruption of fibromyalgia at work in the UK

Biographical Disruption

Involvement of older adults in shared decision-making on care transitions in the UK: An interpretative qualitative systematic review

Chronicity rhetoric in health and welfare systems inhibits patient recovery: a qualitative, ethnographic study of fibromyalgia care

'Come and work here!’ Qualitative research exploring community-led initiatives to improve healthcare recruitment and retention in remote and rural areas

‘Get away from it all’ or ‘Too good to be true?’: a qualitative exploration of job advertisements for remote and rural posts

"Why should anyone want to make things better for me particularly?": A qualitative exploration of Care Opinion and NHS care improvements Patient Experience Journal

What are the influences on women’s preferences and decision-making when planning mode of birth in high-income countries? A qualitative systematic review

‘Come and work here!’: A qualitative exploration of local community-led initiatives to recruit and retain health care staff in remote and rural areas of the UK

Experiences of using SuMMiT-D, a digital brief messaging intervention to support oral medication adherence for people living with type 2 diabetes in England: a qualitative process evaluation

Exploring rural Scottish GPs’ migration decisions: a secondary qualitative analysis considering burnout

Co-design of the Structured Personalised Assessment for Reviews after Cancer (SPARC) Intervention

Experiences of predictive genetic testing in inherited motor neuron disease: Findings from a qualitative interview study

Why does funeral attendance matter?: Revisiting 'Configurational Eulogies' in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

Young adults’ experiences of biographical retrogression whilst living with Long Covid

Perspectives of patient and public partners on their involvement in research

Understanding and using experiences of social care to guide service improvements: translating a co-design approach from health to social care

Lost in the system: responsibilisation and burden for women with multiple long-term health conditions during pregnancy

Implementation of a Web-Based Outpatient Asynchronous Consultation Service: Mixed Methods Study

Identifying key health system components associated with improved outcomes to inform the reconfiguration of services for adults with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a mixed methods study.

Rurality, healthcare and crises: investigating experiences, differences, and changes to medical care for people living in rural areas

‘Moving to the countryside and staying’?: Exploring doctors migration choices to remote and rural areas

Geographical variations in delivery of intravenous treatments for ANCA-associated vasculitis

Fluctuating salience in those living with genetic risk of motor neuron disease: a qualitative interview study

Supporting people with type 2 diabetes in effective use of their medicine through mobile health technology integrated with clinical care (SuMMiT-D pilot): results of a feasibility randomised trial

Hybrid funerals: how online attendance facilitates and impedes participation

Visual identifiers for people with dementia in hospitals: a qualitative study to unravel mechanisms of action for improving quality of care

Care in Funerals Casebook

The development of a core outcome set for studies of pregnant women with multimorbidity

Key outcomes for reporting in studies of pregnant women with multiple long-term conditions and their children: a qualitative study

Implementation of a web-based asynchronous consultation service in a hospital in Northeast Scotland: a multi-method multi-lens assessment

Care Opinion and NHS Scotland:: NHS Staff findings from a case study research project on using online patient feedback

Is bureaucracy being busted in research ethics and governance for health services research in the UK?: Experiences and perspectives reported by stakeholders through an online survey

Implementing a text message-based intervention to support type 2 diabetes medication adherence in primary care: a qualitative study with general practice staff

Negotiation of collective and individual candidacy for long Covid healthcare in the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic: Validated, diverted and rejected candidacy

Research Project Briefing: Enhancing recruitment and retention of doctors in rural Scotland

Treatment burden in survivors of prostate and colorectal cancer:: a qualitative interview study.

Revisiting funeral recordings during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK

Polypharmacy during pregnancy and associated risk factors: a retrospective analysis of 577 medication exposures among 1.5 million pregnancies in the UK, 2000-2019

‘Language has been granted too much power’: Challenging the power of words with time and flexibility in the precommencement stage of research involving those with cognitive impairment

The Baby Box Scheme in Scotland: A Study of Public Attitudes and Social Value

'Valuing place in doctors’ decisions to work in remote and rural locations

Health inequalities, ethnic minorities and COVID19: interactive theatre workshop drawing on a qualitative interview study

Practising in a pandemic: A real time study of primary care practitioners’ experience of working through the first year of COVID-19

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