Supervision

Geoff's research interest is in the use of realist approaches to make sense of and/or understand the implementation of complex health and social interventions. Only students who are interested in using realist synthesis and/or realist evaluation in their DPhil research (on a full or part-time basis at the Department in Oxford) are invited to contact him.

Current DPHil students

Angille Heintzman

Michelle Treacy

Rosie Cooper

Babar Akbar

Devon McConnell

Katherine Zippel

Courses

Realist Reviews and Realist Evaluations

Geoff joined the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences team in March 2015. He is a highly experienced and internationally recognised expert in realist synthesis and evaluation and works closely with researchers in the field of evidence syntheses of complex health and social interventions.

Clinically he works as a salaried General Practitioner (GP) in London. His previous academic appointments were at University College London and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

He gained his first degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Cambridge and his MBBS from Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital. He undertook his vocational training in north London and was a GP Principal for almost two decades and a GP Trainer. His MD(Res) on the use of the Internet in medical education was supervised by Professors Trish Greenhalgh and Ray Pawson.

Geoff’s research centres on making sense of complex health and social interventions in which context and human agency are key. His work focuses on using realist synthesis and realist evaluations to explain and understand these types of interventions.

Researchers interested in realist syntheses or realist evaluations may wish to join the RAMESES JISCMail email list or visit the RAMESES Projects website.

Current research projects:

• Supporting existing international medical graduates working in the NHS to become consultants and GPs: A realist approach (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Engaging Communities to Improve MMR Uptake: A Realist Evaluation of Public Health Outreach Approaches in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) (funder: Three NIHR Research Schools Programme)
• Implementing relational continuity in general practice - understanding who needs it, when, to what extent, how and why: a realist review (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Understanding why junior doctors leave the NHS and what can be done to retain them: A realist synthesis (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Optimising delivery of integrated palliative care and heart failure services: A realist evaluation (PalliatHeartSynthesis II) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• What makes health checks acceptable and implementable in primary care for people with a learning disability and for autistic people? (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Supporting mothers with severe mental illness during pregnancy and after birth: a realist evaluation of the Action on Postpartum Psychosis peer support model (RAPPORT) (funder: Three NIHR Research Schools Programme)
• Understanding and improving compound pressures (CP) in primary care (PC): a realist review, appreciative inquiry, and three embedded studies within a review (SWAR)  (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Trauma-informed Care in Children’s Homes: A Realist Co-production Development Study (NEST) (funder: NIHR RfSC Programme)
• Getting better community engagement and participation of adults with learning disabilities: Realist synthesis, evaluation and co-production (CONNECT) (funder: NIHR HTA Programme)
• Building Bridges: A Realist Synthesis To Understand The Needs Of Men At Risk Of Suicide (funder: Three NIHR Research Schools Programme)
• Optimising care pathways in Motor Neurone Disease for family carers: A realist evaluation (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• Evaluating the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (NHS-CPCS) (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• Independent prescribing in community pharmacy; what works for whom, why and in what circumstances (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Optimising the deLIvery of Mental health support to adolescents in care vIa low-inTensity LifE Story work: a realist evaluation with co-deSign and feasibility trial [LIMITLESS 2] (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Evaluating the Implementation of a Mental Health Joint Response Car with Young People and Families (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Optimising general practice support for autistic adults: A realist review (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)
• A Pre-implementation Study to develop and test an Integrated Discharge Intervention (PreSIDInt study) (funder: PDG Programme)
• Food Glorious Food: A mixed methods evaluation of food-related practices in post-diagnostic community-based group support for people affected by dementia (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)
• The future of care at First Referral Hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa - place, people, technologies and task-sharing (funder: Wellcome Trust)
• Using Realist Evaluation and Participatory Action Research Approaches to Co-Design a Mindfulness-Based Literacy Intervention for use in Early Years Settings (The Little Minds Project) (funder: The Joyce Morris Research Programme)
• How might Physician Associates help (or not) address the workforce crisis in the NHS? (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• REAL2 – realist review of participatory engagement (funder: Wellcome Trust)

• Developing Realist Economic Evaluation Methods (REEM) and Guidance to Evaluate the Effectiveness, Costs, and Benefits of Complex Interventions (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• The clinical, social and cost effectiveness of a decision support tool to optimise community-based tailored management of sleep (TIMES) for people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment and sleep disturbance: TIMES –TaIlored ManagEment of Sleep (funder: NIHR PGfAR)

Completed research projects:

• Primary Care Under Pressure: mapping the provision of staff wellbeing strategies and interventions for the primary care workforce in England (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• Carer involvement in the transfer of medicines-related care for patients moving from hospital to home: a realist review (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)
• Tailoring cultural offers with and for diverse  older users  of social prescribing (TOUS): A realist evaluation (funder: UKRI)
• How interventions to facilitate help-seeking for anxiety and/or depression work among community dwelling older adults: a realist review (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• Integrated Palliative Care in Oncology: a Realist Synthesis (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Developing interventions to reduce ‘missingness’ in health care (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Post-Diagnostic Dementia Support within the ReCOVERY College Model: A Realist Evaluation (DISCOVERY) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• REalist Synthesis Of non-pharmacologicaL interVEntions for antipsychotic-induced weight gain (RESOLVE) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Optimising the delivery of remediation programmes for doctors: A participatory co-design and realist evaluation approach (RESTORE 2) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Assessing the impact of introducing online postal self-sampling for sexually transmitted infections into sexual health provision within the UK on health inequalities, access to care and clinical outcomes (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Care Under Pressure 3: Optimising the delivery and impacts of interventions to reduce hospital doctors’ mental ill-health in the NHS (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Sustaining locally-driven social care for those affected by dementia: A realist evaluation of successful Meeting Centres (funder: NIHR RfSC Programme)
• Realist Review: Health visiting in light Of the COVID-19 Pandemic Experience (RReHOPE) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Understanding the implementation of link workers in primary care: A realist evaluation (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• ESMI-II: The Effectiveness and cost effectiveness of community perinatal Mental health services (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Integrating Palliative Care and Heart Failure: a Realist Synthesis (PalliatHeartSynthesis) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Community Pharmacy and General Practice collaborative and integrated working: a realist review (COMPANION) (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• Evidence base to inform health service configuration for abortion provision (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• MEDIcation optimisATion in severE mental illness (MEDIATE) (funder: NIHR PDG Programme)
• Improving the mental health and mental health support available to adolescents looked-after via low-intensity life story work: A realist review (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)
• Reducing Health Inequalities through General Practice: A Realist Review (EQUALISE) (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Using Health Information Systems to address patient concerns in GP consultations: a feasibility study (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)
• NHS Health Check programme: a realist review (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
• Optimising cultural provision to improve older people’s well-being through social prescribing in the context of COVID-19: Realist review and evaluation (funder: UKRI)

• Safety-netting in Primary Care: A realist review of the contexts and mechanisms of its effectiveness (funder: NIHR RfPB Programme)

• A realist review of community engagement with health research (funder: Wellcome Trust)
• A rapid realist review of community pharmacy support for the public health agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic and future health emergencies (funder: MRC)
• Optimising a whole-person-centred approach to stopping medicines in older people with multimorbidity and polypharmacy: the Tailor Medication Synthesis (funder: NIHR HTA Programme)
• Improving the evidence-base for primary care: NIHR Evidence Synthesis working group (funder: NIHR SPCR)
• NIHR Systematic Review Fellowship (supervision of Fellow - funder: NIHR TCC)

• Remediating doctors’ performance to restore patient safety: A realist review (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• Care Under Pressure: a realist review of interventions to tackle doctors’ mental ill-health and its impacts on the clinical workforce and patient care (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)
  

• Effective Psychotherapy in Integrating Care (EPIC) Study (funder: Health Services Research & Development, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs)

• Independent Evaluation of SITA Africa: Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (funder: DFID)

• Developing a framework for a novel multi-disciplinary, multi-agency intervention(s), to improve medication management in older people on complex medication regimens resident in the community - the MEMORABLE project (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• Optimising hearing-Related Communications for Home Care Residents with Dementia (ORCHARD): a realist synthesis (funder: RfPB Programme)

• RAMESES II: Realising the potential for realist research for improving the delivery of health services (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• Interventions to improve antimicrobial prescribing of doctors in training: A realist review (funder: NIHR HS&DR Programme)

• Internet-based learning for training health care professionals in service: A realist review (funder: World Health Organization)

• Does therapeutic writing help people with long term conditions? Systematic review, realist synthesis and economic modelling (funder: NIHR HTA Programme)
  
• RAMESES (Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards): A project to develop methodological guidance and publication standards for realist and meta-narrative forms of systematic review and provide support to teams undergoing such reviews (funder: NIHR SDO Programme)
  
• Research synthesis in action: This project explored the potential for using Realist synthesis in partnership with NICE and was refined to focus on understanding the use of legislative interventions in public health policy (funder: ESRC)
  
• The use of the Internet in Medical Education: A project that used realist synthesis to understand the ‘in what circumstances, for whom and how to best to use’ the internet in medical education (funder: NoCLoR)