Emma Healey

Biography

Emma is Reader in Long Term Conditions at Keele University, where she has worked since 2007. Her first first degree, BSc Exercise and Sport Science (Hons), was obtained from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000. She then continued her studies and obtained a PhD in Spinal Biomechanics in 2005.

Emma’s main research interest is the management of long term conditions in primary care and developing and evaluating interventions to optimise primary care management. She has experience of a range of research methodologies, including cross-sectional surveys, qualitative studies, systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials. As an exercise scientist by background she has specific expertise in developing primary care-based physical activity interventions and chairs the SAPC ‘Exercise and Physical Activity as Medicine’ Special Interest Group.

She is the Postgraduate Research (PGR) Lead for the School of Medicine and a member of the PGR committee for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She has been Principal Investigator for several studies including pilot randomised controlled trials, feasibility studies and mixed method research projects funded by Arthritis Research UK and the NIHR Collaborations for Leadership Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands and RfPB.

Research and scholarship

Over the past 20 years Emma’s research has focused on long term conditions, particularly musculoskeletal conditions. This research has been multidisciplinary, working together with individuals from the fields of diabetology, rheumatology, nursing, and general practice among others. Her main interest is developing and evaluating complex interventions in clinical trials. These trials have focused on improving primary care management and integrated care of long-term conditions and have included the screening and treatment of type II diabetes, physiotherapy and nurse led interventions for osteoarthritis and mental health and physical activity interventions for ageing populations with chronic pain.

Emma was part of a team working on a NIHR programme grant to optimise osteoarthritis care in line with national guidelines and her specific contribution was to bring a focus on the role of physical activity as key component of self-management.

Emma has over 60 publications, reviews for a range of journals and also acts as Associate Editor for BMC Primary Care. She has seen three PhD students through to completion and currently supervises a PhD titled ‘Primary care based interventions for those with multimorbidity: Taking health literacy into account’. She is also a member of SAPC Executive Committee and Chair of the SAPC Physical activity / Exercise is Medicine Special Interest Group which aims to promote evidence based physical activity interventions in primary care.

Teaching

• Medicine MBChB Quantitative Research Methods SSC: Intervention studies (2010 – present)
• Medicine -. MBChB Quantitative Research Methods SSC Measuring health outcomes (2010 – present)
• Public Health BSc: Investigating the course of disease (prognosis and cohort studies) (2019 – present)
• Public Health BSc: Testing ways to improve health (2019 – present)
• Medicine -. MBChB Evidence-based medicine: Randomised controlled trials (2013 - present)
• Medicine -. MBChB Lifestyle module: Physiological and psychological benefits of exercise (2013 – 2016)
• MSc Rheumatology: Practical issues around quantitative research design. (2013 – 2016)