Dr Fiona Scheibl

Nottingham Systematic Review Course, University of Nottingham, 2019    

PhD, Economics, University of Hertfordshire, 1997

B.A., (Hons) Sociology with Research Methods 1st Class, University of East London, 1991

Fiona is a sociologist with a breadth of experience in the fields of public health and primary care. She has expertise in qualitative research methodologies and is interested to use these skills to advance the improvement of transitions in care within and across organisational boundaries. Fiona has contributed to research programmes addressing the challenges GP’s face de-prescribing medication among older people, the roll out of diagnostic tests to improve early cancer detection and older people’s lived experience of making a transition into residential care toward the end of life. 

Research interests: Transitions in care within and across organisational boundaries.

Current projects: Fiona is coordinating qualitative data collection in the Quantifying, Understanding and Enhancing Relational Continuity of Care (QUERCC) study. RCC is the extent to which patients see the same clinicians over time. Considered a core feature of general practice, it is linked to patient satisfaction and better health outcomes, especially for older patients, those with long-term conditions and the vulnerable. Although current NHS policy is to maintain continuity for patients with long-term conditions, it has been declining for at least a decade. Contributing factors are thought to include growth in practice size, more part-time working, greater staff and patient turnover. It may also be because practice policies have focused on access, rather than continuity. The QUERCC study aims to understand how to optimise relational continuity of care (RCC) in primary care.

Fiona has wide experience of working with patient and public representatives and supporting their engagement in research. For example, while in post at UEA Fiona collaborated with the East Anglian artist Rebecca Goss who used the media of poetry to expand the breadth of data communication strategies for an end of project event at the close of the PEFECTED study.

Fiona has wide research experience including:

• Qualitative lead in mixed methods teams on clinical trials at the University of Cambridge.
• Regional case studies of failing hospitals in post at LSHTM.
• Survey and review of models of inter-professional working in post at the University of Hertfordshire.
• Evidence Based Co-design working closely with lay members and patient representatives on the CareCoach study led by the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit (uea.ac.uk). Fiona used co-design methods to adapt the Dutch partner in balance Caregiver Balance - Homepage (partnerinbalans.nl) for the UK context. Fiona was awarded the UEA Special Merit in Research Award (2022) in recognition of her leadership and outstanding creative, sociological, academic and collaborative skills in leading this phase of the CareCoach project.

Fiona leads seminars in medical sociology and ethics as a supervisor of Medical Tripos graduates on the Social and Ethical Context of Health and Illness paper, University of Cambridge. She has been active in this role since 2017.

Fiona is active in fundraising for local charities and recently helped to organise an art exhibition to raise funds for the upkeep of local community buildings in Suffolk where she is currently based.