Dr Sophie Spitters

Dr Sophie Spitters

Health Services Management Centre
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
s.j.i.m.spitters@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Health Services Management Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sophie is a social scientist at the BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre, part of the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. In her research, she explores the co-creation, implementation and evaluation of innovations aimed at improving people’s health, care, and wellbeing. Interests are digital innovations, integrated care, and child health. 

Prior to joining the Health Services Management Centre, Sophie worked on the NIHR-funded ModCons study exploring triage and decision-making about consultation modality in primary care. During her PhD, she studied the improvement and integration of children’s allergy services across four case study sites. 

Sophie specialises in Quality Improvement, Human Factors, and qualitative methodologies. And she enjoys working in interdisciplinary teams, collaborating with patients, healthcare professionals and mixed-methods researchers to understand real-world problems and implement creative solutions.

Qualifications

PhD, Health Services Research, Imperial College London

MSc, Human Factors and Engineering Psychology, University of Twente

Other activities

The Thinking In Between podcast explores how social theory and qualitative methods can illuminate the messy world of health and healthcare. In each episode, we invite a researcher working at the borderlands of social science and health to choose three “big ideas” that have influenced their research journey and the way they think. In this episode, Sophie speaks about her journey from physics to psychology to the social sciences, and how ‘Systems Theory’, ‘Dialectical Critical Realism’, and ‘Boundary Spanning’ have influenced her work and thinking

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Rybczynska‐Bunt, S, Byng, R, Spitters, S, Shaw, SE, Jameson, B & Greenhalgh, T 2024, 'The reflexive imperative in the digital age: Using Archer’s ‘fractured reflexivity’ to theorise widening inequities in UK general practice', Sociology of Health & Illness. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13811

Payne, R, Clarke, A, Swann, N, Dael, JV, Brenman, N, Rosen, R, Mackridge, A, Moore, L, Kalin, A, Ladds, E, Hemmings, N, Rybczynska-Bunt, S, Faulkner, S, Hanson, I, Spitters, S, Wieringa, S, Dakin, FH, Shaw, SE, Wherton, J, Byng, R, Husain, L & Greenhalgh, T 2023, 'Patient safety in remote primary care encounters: multimethod qualitative study combining Safety I and Safety II analysis', BMJ Quality & Safety. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016674

Lennox, L, Barber, S, Stillman, N, Spitters, S, Ward, E, Marvin, V & Reed, JE 2022, 'Conceptualising interventions to enhance spread in complex systems: a multisite comprehensive medication review case study', BMJ Quality and Safety, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 31-44. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2020-012367

Warner, J & Spitters, S 2017, 'Integrating care for children with allergic diseases: The United Kingdom experience', Current Allergy and Clinical Immunology , vol. 30, no. 3.

Bruijnes, M, Akker, ROD, Spitters, S, Sanders, M & Fu, Q 2015, 'The recognition of acted interpersonal stance in police interrogations and the influence of actor proficiency', Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, vol. 9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-015-0189-0

Review article

Warner, JO & Spitters, SJIM 2024, 'Integrating Patients Into Programmes to Address the Allergy Knowledge Practice Gap', Clinical and Experimental Allergy . https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.14563

Farooq, HZ, Whitton, L, Mwendera, C, Divall, P, Spitters, SJIM, Anderson, J & Thornhill, JP 2024, 'Virtual care pathways for people living with HIV: A mixed‐methods systematic review', HIV Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/hiv.13701

Spitters, S, Warner, JO & Reed, JE 2023, 'Beyond clinical guidelines: how care pathways and quality-improvement methods can support better allergy care', Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 226-232. <https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-caci-v36-n4-a3>

View all publications in research portal