I was approached by Marie Curie to create new content for their Palliative Care Knowledge Zone. This is their resource for health and social care professionals providing end of life care. It gives comprehensive information for those who don’t have specialist training. It involved writing clear, evidence-based guidance using straight-forward language.
A long-term collaboration with Veterinary Prescriber resulted in them commissioning me to write an article on ‘What pet owners need to know about veterinary medicines’. This drew attention to the differences in the way medicine information for pet owners falls well short of that produced for human patients. We called for veterinary medicines regulators and pharmaceutical companies to do more to ensure that all package leaflets are clear and easy for pet owners to understand, and be readily accessible online.
I am working with King Edward VII Hospital to completely redesign and update their in-house patient information leaflets. This has involved working with specialist designers to create a new suite of templates to complement KEVII’s branding and information needs. It also requires the re-writing of their information library to bring it up to date and in line with the latest health policies and practice.
The LOC website has recently been redesigned and I have been working with them to create new public-facing content. This has included information on their services as well as explanations of oncology treatments and terminology.
HCA have asked me to work with them on a number of information projects, both for online and printed information. This has included content targeted at patients (for example, on The Portland Hospital’s colposcopy unit) and referrers (for example, to showcase services such as oncology at The Wellington Hospital). In each case, this has involved consultation with those running particular services to learn what key points they think are important.
www.bupa.co.uk/health-information
Bupa have engaged me to carry out user consultation on a few projects where they needed to understand the needs and concerns of their audience. This included, for example, focus groups with specialist nurses to consider what information they need for patients undergoing heart surgery; with the public to investigate what online formats they engage with the most; and with carers to learn about their experiences of dementia and what information they think should be available. Such research provides crucial early insight to ensure information fulfils the needs of users.
Guide to Health Records Access
www.pifonline.org.uk/pif-phr-guide
This guide was commissioned by the Patient Information Forum and Microsoft to take a comprehensive look at what record access means, and the challenges and potential solutions to implementation. This Guide to Health Records Access explores these issues from the perspective of patients and citizens, health and social care professionals and policy makers and commissioners. It includes a wide range of UK and international case studies.
Keeping your online health and social care records safe and secure
www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/records/healthrecords/Pages/overview
The government has called for patients to have online access to their GP medical records. These records contain potentially sensitive personal information, so it’s important that individuals know how to keep them safe. This guide was commissioned by the Department of Health and the British Computer Society to help people understand what an electronic health and care record is, how to access it safely, who they may want to share it with and how to perform these actions securely. I worked as an Associate of Mynors Suppiah to produce this guide using extensive consultation and collaboration with stakeholders, the public, health professionals and opinion leaders.
This guide was runner up in the BMA’s 2013 Patient Information Awards, in the ‘Information that aids decision making’ category.
Consumation is a leading authority on information design and usability testing. I have worked as an Associate of Consumation since 2006. During this time I have carried out projects for many pharmaceutical companies including Bayer-Schering, BMS, Gilead, GSK, HRA Pharma, Janssen, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Organon and Wyeth. During that time I have gained considerable experience in developing and testing information to ensure readability of
patient leaflets about medicines.
www.consumation.com/
Other work has included:
- Patient guides to kidney and liver transplants (20,000 words each) for NHS renal units, commissioned by HealthEd
- Medical newsletters on international clinical trials
- Series of patients leaflets on infection control issues for UCLH NHS Fundation Trust, including Acinetobacter, Clostridium difficile and MRSA
- Rapporteur for advisory board meetings, commissioned by Jackel Solutions
- Updating of patient information websites
- Editing of medical textbooks.