Supervised by Dr. Marco Bardos and Prof. Peymané Adab, together with Birmingham Community HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust.
To apply for this studentship, please submit your application using this link
Birmingham Community HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC) provides community health services to 1.1 million people in Birmingham to 6.5 million in the West Midlands. They aim to care for vulnerable individuals in healthy communities, aligning with the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board’s strategy. To further this mission, BCHC offers a wide array of digital health services and is launching a new patient portal. This portal will allow patients to access electronic health records (EHRs), message providers, and connect with wearable devices, improving patient engagement, streamlining communication, and enhancing the overall healthcare experience. In one of England's most diverse regions, it is imperative to understand how to encourage patient portal use and sustained utilisation, especially among different socioeconomic groups and underserved populations.
This project aims to understand why and how patients start, maintain, or stop using a patient portal and other digital health services BCHC offers. The project also aims to identify how this adoption can be improved and whether digital health services are linked to improved clinical outcomes, quality of life, and cost savings.
We are seeking highly talented applicants with a first or upper second-class honours degree (or equivalent experience) in a relevant health, life sciences or quantitative subject with strong computational and communication skills. A postgraduate qualification in the field of Public Health, Health Research Methods, Health Communication is desirable. Previous experience with patient portals, or digital health interventions is desirable.
Informal enquiries about the project prior to application can be directed to Dr. Marco Bardus m.bardus@bham.ac.uk