Welcome to the next edition of our “Spotlight on a Researcher” series. If you have missed our previous editions you can find these here.

This week I have been chatting to Professor Emma France about how she got involved with NESSIE. Emma is based within the Centre for Healthcare and Community Research (CHeCR) at the University of Stirling and specialises in qualitative evidence synthesis.  Emma is a NESSIE investigator and recently led on our qualitative review looking at Mandatory drug and alcohol treatment orders which will be published soon. She has a key role in managing NESSIE relationships with our collaborators in the University of Stirling and told me about her introduction to NESSIE:

“ Alex and I worked in the same unit together so we had connections but never had the opportunity to work together so I was delighted when I was approached to be involved with NESSIE”

Emma brings lots of great experience to this NESSIE team, she is the lead author on reporting guidelines for a particular type of qualitative evidence synthesis called meta-ethnography. Meta-ethnography is a method of pooling together qualitative studies which are analysed and interpreted to provide an interpretation of a body of evidence. You can find more information on this method here.

I asked Emma about why it’s important to think about qualitative research within evidence synthesis:

“Qualitative evidence can complement a systematic review by exploring the acceptability of an intervention and considering why it worked. It can also be a stand-alone review – qualitative studies capture people’s experiences, perceptions and attitudes related to, for example, treatments, services and health conditions, and it’s important for that voice to be brought into the evidence base”

Emma is also a co-convenor of the Cochrane Qualitative & Implementation Methods Group which is a global group of expert methodologists and is an Associate Editor of the new Cochrane-Campbell Handbook for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis. Finally, Emma is jointly leading the development of a new evidence-based reporting guideline for a wide range of qualitative evidence synthesis methods, funded by the Medical Research Council.  You can find out more information here.

We will be continuing with our “Spotlight on a Researcher” series soon so why not subscribe to our blog to find out who will be featured next!

Blog by Dr Katie Thomson and Professor Emma France (photographed above)

Spotlight on researchers – Professor Emma France / NESSIE - NIHR Evidence Synthesis Scotland InitiativE by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0