Prof Suzanne Richards

I joined the SAPC executive as an elected member in 2016, becoming the joint lead for the Primary Health Care Scientists (PHoCuS) Group with Dr Julia Hiscock in January 2018 and am Conference Chair for the ASM 2020 in Leeds.

In terms of background, I am a social scientist who has worked in academic primary care for over 15 years. In November 2017 I joined the University of Leeds as a professor of primary care research. Before that, I was the Deputy Director of the Exeter Clinical Trials Unit (ExeCTU) and senior lecturer in at the University of Exeter Medical School. 

As a primary health care scientist, I work extensively alongside clinical colleagues providing methodological support for primary care research. From a methodological perspective, I specialise in quantitative methods that support the design and evaluation of complex interventions in applied health care settings (clinical trials and observational methods), the development and testing of participant reported outcome measures, and the evidence synthesis (systematic reviews).

My research focuses on two areas: (i)  ‘Ageing Well’ - evaluating the quality and effectiveness of health and social care interventions for older people, and the provision of innovative services to improve health and well-being in later life (e.g. intermediate and rehabilitation services; mentoring and social interventions); and (ii) assessing user experiences and quality of care, including developing and measuring patient views relating to the quality of health care services (e.g. user experiences of out-of-hours services; patient satisfaction with intermediate care; quality indicators for older people’s care) and the monitoring of receipt of access to quality-indicated care.