Dr Karen Louise Shaw PhD, PGCert, BSc (Hons)

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 8370
Email: k.l.shaw@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @CLAHRC_WM

Address: Institute of Applied Health Research
CLAHRC West Midlands (Theme 1 – Maternity and Child Health)
The Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Karen Shaw is an experienced Research Fellow and Research Psychologist in the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research where she manages Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) for the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Precision Cellular Therapeutics. This is a collaboration with the University of Oxford that seeks to develop new kinds of cell therapies for blood disorders and cancer, and create better ways to follow-up patients receiving treatment.

Karen’s latest appointment follows many years of leading and supporting mixed-methods research to inform healthcare practice and policy. This has focused on long-term and life-threatening conditions – in both paediatric and adult populations. Central to this has been a commitment to user-involvement and a special interest in the transitions of care; including changes in the setting (e.g. paediatric to adult), place (hospital to home) or goals of care (e.g. curative to end-of-life). As such, her work answers challenging questions about how patients, families and professionals can work together to improve care and outcomes at existentially difficult times in the illness journey.

Karen's work consistently has impact. For instance, her Marie Curie Funded study to evaluate the Child and Young Person’s Advance Care Plan supported revision of the national document endorsed by NICE, development of new professional guidance and an Educational Standards Framework. She has also produced a wide array of patient and educational resources, data collection tools, validated outcome measures and more than 50 papers, reports and book chapters.

Qualifications

PhD in Psychology, Coventry University, 2001.
PGCert in Information Technology & Research Methods (Psychology), University of Leicester, 1995.
BSc (Hons) in Psychology, Teeside University, 1994.

Biography

Dr Karen Shaw joined the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research in 2022 where she manages Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) for the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Precision Cellular Therapeutics. As such, she is responsible for developing and implementing the PPIE strategy to ensure that patient and public voices are fully represented in the research undertaken across the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford.

Karen is a long standing member of the University, as she was originally appointed in 2000 as the National Programme Co-ordinator for a project to develop and evaluate a programme of transitional care for young people with long-term conditions. This won a BUPA Clinical Excellence Award and informed national policy in transitional care. She was subsequently awarded a Birmingham Research Fellowship and led various projects, including the first ever study to explore generic prognostic indicators in children’s end of life care, and research to develop the Spectrum of Children’s Palliative Care Needs; a prognostic based framework to facilitate the collection of standardised data.

Karen moved to the Institute of Applied Health Research in 2014 to join the NIHR CLAHRC West Midlands Team. Here she led several projects in children’s health and palliative care. During this time she was awarded Marie Curie Funded study to evaluate the Child and Young Person’s Advance Care Plan (a national document endorsed by NICE). Findings from this study supported revision of the main documents, development of new professional guidance and an Educational Standards Framework. Karen also led the first national survey of advance care planning in perinatal care settings.

She was also co-applicant of NIHR funded research to develop a toolkit to support parental involvement in the Child Death Review (CDR).

Karen has also worked on a range of adult-orientated (NIHR) studies to provide methodological expertise, ranging from home monitoring in cystic fibrosis, health inequalities in home dialysis, health seeking behaviour in arthritis.

Postgraduate supervision

Karen has experience in supervising at postgraduate level at both Master’s and PhD level.

She is interested in supervising projects related to:

Transitional health care
Children’s palliative care (health service development)
Lay health beliefs
Psychosocial interventions in children’s health care

Research

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Karen has significant experience of developing, managing and disseminating practice and policy-relevant research. She also has a strong commitment to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE).

Karen's work has generally focused on children’s healthcare, including themes of transition and anticipatory planning. However, she also contributes to adult-focused studies, providing methodological expertise.

CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITY

PPIE Manager for NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Precision Cellular Therapeutics.

Co-applicant on NIHR RfPB Study - Improving Parental Engagement in Child Death Review.

Co-applicant on CAR-T Patient Experience Study funded by Anthony Nolan.

Other activities

Karen is a member of The British Psychological Society