个人简介

After graduating from the School of Pharmacy, University of London, I undertook my pre-registration year at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, staying on to establish a specialist medicines information centre. I was appointed to a senior clinical role to develop and manage pharmacy services on the newly opened Cardiac Wing. During this time, I also completed a master's in information science at City University. I then moved to a health district to carry out reviews of drug prescribing. With the introduction of evidence-based medicine in the mid-1990s, I was invited to take on a new role as adviser on evidence-based practice. The main remit was to support staff in developing the skills required for implementing evidence in practice. In 2003, I joined the University as project manager for a 4-year Department of Health funded project to identify and review the evidence on complementary therapies in a range of conditions. This resulted in a series of publications and an online database, with a subset of papers forming the basis of a PhD by publication. The work from this project contributed to the development of the National electronic Library for Complementary and Alternative Medicine which subsequently became part of the NHS Evidence service. Subsequently, my research has focused on the presentation, evaluation and interpretation of research evidence; conducting systematic reviews; reporting of safety in healthcare; online information-seeking behaviour and self-care. Specialist areas of interest: anxiety and depression, cancer, chronic conditions, complementary therapies and self-care interventions.