SAPPHIRE

Our research encompasses understanding problems in clinical and healthcare quality and safety, informing the design of interventions that could help, and conducting process evaluations of improvement programmes and interventions. We have significant expertise in the use of qualitative research methodology, particularly  ethnographic methods, to provide insights about what is valuable to different groups of stakeholders, where improvement is needed and how interventions are working in ‘real-world’ practice. We capture stakeholder perspectives and track systems and processes that span different healthcare settings. Working within diverse contexts across primary, community, secondary, tertiary and social care, we contribute to better understandings of what works (and doesn’t work), for whom, and how. We also conduct clinically focused translational research to improve outcomes for populations with complex health needs across the care continuum, in partnership with clinical colleagues at NHS partner organisations.

Our work is underpinned by four crosscutting conceptual themes:

• Competing logics and priorities in the organisation and delivery of healthcare
• Critical examination of healthcare design
• Power, discrimination and marginal voices in health and social care delivery
• Theory and application of healthcare improvement and implementation

Our work spans across a multitude of clinical areas: 

• Critical and acute care
• Emergency medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Maternity and women’s health
• Mental health and psychiatry
• Palliative care
• Public health
• Renal and kidney medicine

SAPPHIRE members lead the Enhancing Cultures Of Safety theme within the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC). 

We also work closely with the highly respected LOROS Hospice Centre for Excellence in end of life care, hosting academic staff involved with LOROS education and research activity.

See the People page for more information on research interests and experience.

Keep up-to-date with SAPPHIRE news and events:

• Twitter/X - @SocSciHealth
• BlueSky – SocSciHealth.bsky.social