Dr Agnieszka Ignatowicz BSc (Hons), MA, PGCE, PhD

Profile image of Dr Agnieszka Ignatowicz

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Assistant Professor in Health Research Methods

Contact details

Address
Murray Learning Centre
Institute of Applied Health Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT

Agnieszka Ignatowicz is an Assistant Professor in Health Research Methods.

She is an experienced applied health researcher with a unique profile through her previous experiences of leading and working on projects at the interface between health services, education and clinical ethics. Her scholarship is grounded in qualitative methodology with application to organisation and delivery of care (particularly acute care) and healthcare work and professions. To date, her research has been focusing on new models of care, technology in healthcare, clinical decision-making, and patient and clinician experiences. Agnieszka has expertise in conducting systematic reviews, clinical research studies, and service model and policy evaluations using qualitative research designs.

Research Gate profile

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Aston 2012
  • PGCE, University of Birmingham 2011
  • MSc in Sociology, University of Birmingham 2008
  • BSc (Hons) in Combined Sociology and Human Psychology, Aston University 2007

Biography

Agnieszka past research examined: (1) integrated care initiative for people with diabetes and those over 75 years through qualitative studies of change at organisational, clinician, and patient levels; (2) novel model of GP-led urgent care centre co-located within an emergency department using interviews and focus groups with healthcare staff; and (3) intervention around referral and admissions to intensive care though reviews of literature, observation of decisions and interviews with intensive care unit clinicians, referring clinicians, and patients and their families. Her research has led to significant advances in the understanding of how different initiatives deliver (or fail to deliver) expected benefits and support translation of the evidence for service changes, practice, and policy.

Agnieszka’s current work ties together these lines of research by investigating the optimal acute care delivery models. One of her research projects examines how acute medical services should be configured to meet the needs of patients during peaks of COVID-19 infections and more generally during periods of intense acute care activity in the NHS. Her other research explores the hospital at home (H@H) model and how it can deliver more acute non-COVID and COVID care for newly or already vulnerable homebound groups of patients. Her focus is on generating an iterative programme theory to describe and explain the complex processes and the effects of these models to learn which approaches are more likely to be associated with ‘resilience’ – the ability to meet the healthcare needs of the acutely ill population during times of high demand for care.

In addition to these projects, Agnieszka is collaborating with Prof Justine Davies and colleagues in four LMICs on research that aims identify needs, expectations and preferences of patients that have been injured and seek acute care. Specifically, she is co-leading a work package that explores the need for involvement of different stakeholders in developing and prioritising solutions, and the barriers and facilitators to their involvement. She is also leading on the research capacity building for this collaborative award.  

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Agnieszka has supervised two doctoral research students to completion and is currently supervising other.

Agnieszka is interested in supervising further doctoral research students who are planning to use qualitative methods within their research. Projects should focus on questions relating to her research interests. If you are interested, please contact Agnieszka directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Research

Research interests

Organisation and delivery of care; healthcare work and professions across a wide range of settings, implementation of evidence-based practice; adoption and use of different technologies; application of ethics to clinical practice; and qualitative health research

 Current projects

  • NIHR Global Health Group on Equitable Access to Quality Health Care for Injured People in Four Low- or Middle-Income Countries: Equi-injury – co-applicant and capacity building lead (funded by NIHR Global Health Groups Programme)
  • Models Of Acute Care Resilience – co-applicant and project manager (funded by NIHR Policy Research Programme)
  • Improving QUality of Anaemia Diagnosis – co-applicant and academic co-lead (funded by Vifor Pharma UK Ltd)
  • How to utilise the potential of Hospital at Home to deliver more acute non-COVID and COVID care outside of hospital – co-applicant (funded by NIHR Policy Research Programme)
  • Equitable access to quality trauma systems in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries. Assessing gaps and developing priorities – co-applicant (funded by NIHR Global Health Policy and Research Programme)
  • Predictors and consequences of paid work following retirement in Sweden – co-applicant and lead for the qualitative component (funded by Swedish Research Council for Health and Working Life)
  • Multi-centred validation of digital whole slide imaging for routine diagnosis – co-applicant and lead for the qualitative component (funded by NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme)

Other activities

Membership of committees

  • Scientific Advisory Committee, NIHR/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (non-clinical scientist)
  • Qualitative Workstream, NIHR Methodology Incubator 

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Chen, H, Ignatowicz, A, Skrybant, M & Lasserson, D 2024, 'An integrated understanding of the impact of Hospital at Home: a mixed-methods study to articulate and test a programme theory', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 24, 163 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10619-7

Kennedy, C, Ignatowicz, A, Odland, ML, Abdul-Latif, A-M, Belli, A, Howard, A, Whitaker, J, Chu, KM, Ferreira, K, Owolabi, EO, Nyamathe, S, Tabiri, S, Ofori, B, Pognaa Kunfah, SM, Yakubu, M, Bekele, A, Alyande, B, Nzasabimana, P, Byiringiro, J-C & Davies, J 2024, 'Commonalities and differences in injured patient experiences of accessing and receiving quality injury care: a qualitative study in three sub-Saharan African countries', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 7, e082098. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-082098

Equi-Injury Group 2024, 'Equitable access to qualacity injury care; Equi-Injury project protocol for prioritizing interventions in four Low- or Middle-Income Countries: a mixed method study', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 24, 429. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10668-y

Equi-Injury Group, Davies, J, Ignatowicz, A, Sitch, A & Ghalichi, L 2024, 'Health System Governance for Injury Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a survey of policymakers and policy implementors', BMJ Global Health.

Weis, C, Spiliopoulos, G, Ignatowicz, A, Conroy, S, Mannion, R, Lasserson, D & Tarrant, C 2024, 'Help-seeking and access to care for stroke and heart attack during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study', Sociology of Health and Illness. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13848

Ignatowicz, A, Greenfield, S, Gaddu, P, Prince, C, Toshner, M, Robinson, G, Rodrigues, J, Jowett, S, Noble, S, Newnham, M, Turner, A & Lasserson, D 2024, 'Interventions that challenge established and accepted clinical practice: lessons learned from a process evaluation of the STOP-APE trial', NIHR Journals Library.

Rwanda912 RIGHT Group 2024, 'Mapping the processes and information flows of a prehospital emergency care system in Rwanda: a process mapping exercise', BMJ open, vol. 14, e085064. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-085064

Lasserson, D, Gaddu, P, Mehta, S, Ignatowicz, A, Greenfield, S, Prince, C, Cummins, C, Robinson, G, Rodrigues, J, Noble, S, Jowett, S, Toshner, M, Newnham, M & Turner, A 2024, 'Stopping anticoagulation for isolated or incidental pulmonary embolism: the STOPAPE RCT protocol', Health Technology Assessment. https://doi.org/10.3310/HRCW7937

Lasserson, D, Gaddu, P, Mehta, S, Ignatowicz, A, Greenfield, S, Prince, C, Cummins, C, Robinson, G, Rodrigues, J, Noble, S, Jowett, S, Toshner, M, Newnham, M & Turner, A 2024, 'Stopping anticoagulation for isolated or incidental sub-segmental pulmonary embolism: the challenges and lessons from the STOP-APE RCT ', Health Technology Assessment.

Nzasabimana , P, Ignatowicz, A, Alayande, B, Abdul-Latif, A-M, Davies, J, Bekele, A & Byiringiro, JC 2023, 'Barriers to equitable access to quality trauma care in Rwanda: a qualitative study', BMJ open, vol. 13, no. 9, e075117. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-075117

Ignatowicz, A, Tarrant, C, Mannion, R, El‑Sawy, D, Conroy, S & Lasserson, D 2023, 'Correction: Organizational resilience in healthcare: a review and descriptive narrative synthesis of approaches to resilience measurement and assessment in empirical studies', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 23, no. 1, 731. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09636-9

Odland, ML, Abdul-Latif, A-M, Ignatowicz, A, Bekele, A, Chu, K, Howard, A, Tabiri, S, Byiringiro, JC & Davies, J 2023, 'Governance for injury care systems in Ghana, South Africa and Rwanda: development and pilot testing of an assessment tool', BMJ open, vol. 13, no. 9, e074088. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-074088

Ignatowicz, A, Tarrant, C, Mannion, R, El-Sawy, D, Conroy, SP & Lasserson, D 2023, 'Organizational resilience in healthcare: a review and descriptive narrative synthesis of approaches to resilience measurement and assessment in empirical studies', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 23, no. 1, 376. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09242-9

Owolabi, EO, Ferreira, K, Nyamathe , S, Ignatowicz, A, Odland, ML, Abdul-Latif, A-M, Byiringiro, JC, Davies, J & Chu, KM 2023, 'Social determinants of seeking and reaching injury care in South Africa: a community-based qualitative study', Annals of Global Health, vol. 89, no. 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4003

Review article

Harris, C, Ignatowicz, A, Knight, T, Willis, BH & Lasserson, D 2024, 'Do tools aimed at avoiding hospital admission operate at different mortality thresholds? A systematic review', Acute Medicine, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 152-165. https://doi.org/10.52964/AMJA.0990

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