Dr Jane Smith
Senior Lecturer in Primary Care
Jane.Smith@exeter.ac.uk
5402
+44 (0) 1392 725402
Smeall building 107
Smeall Building, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Overview
Jane joined the Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) as a Senior Lecturer (Education & Research) in June 2017. Prior to that she worked as a Research Fellow and then Senior Research Fellow in Psychology Applied to Health after joining the University of Exeter Medical School in November 2012. Throughout this time, Jane has co-ordinated and contributed to teaching on psychology applied to health, research methods and evidence-based practice and has led and supported research primarily focussed on the development and evaluation of evidence-based behaviour change interventions to prevent and manage long-term conditions. Jane has skills in quantitative and mixed-methods health services and public health research and broad interests in psychosocial aspects of health and illness. Her research includes:
- systematic reviews
- randomised controlled trials of complex interventions
- mixed-methods process evaluations alongside interventions
- development and testing of outcome measures
- other related, mixed methods research investigating the role of behavioural and other psychosocial factors in health, illness and healthcare.
Since October 2022, Jane has also been Co-Director for Postgraduate Research for the Department of Health & Community Sciences and Department of Health & Care Professions
Qualifications
- 2009 PhD Health Psychology (University of East Anglia)
- 2006 PGCert Higher Education Practice (University of East Anglia)
- 2002 PGDip Health Sciences (University of East Anglia)
- 1995 BSc (Hons) Psychology (University of Nottingham)
Career
Jane is an honorary Lecturer, and was previously employed as a Lecturer in Health Psychology (from 2003) and researcher (from 1999), in the Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia where she also completed a part-time PhD in health psychology. This followed a period working in Australia as a Research Assistant as part of a Physical Activity and Health research group at Deakin University, and previously in project management and health administration roles at a Division of General Practice in Melbourne. Jane began her research career prior to that as a Research Assistant in a Research and Development Support Unit hosted by what was then the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Bristol.
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Jane’s research focuses primarily on developinng, evaluating and understanding mechanisms of action of behaviour change and other complex interventions to prevent and manage long-term conditions.
Jane has broad research interests in psychosocial aspects of health and healthcare, including management of chronic conditions (e.g. asthma, arthritis, diabetes, medication adherence and self-management, depression in chronic illness), chronic disease prevention (e.g. weight management, diabetes prevention), and approaches to supplement traditional care for long-term conditions (e.g. group-based programmes, digital interventions, social prescribing, use of additional healthcare worker roles).
All Jane's research has involved working with multi-disciplinary teams of academics, healthcare professionals and public and patient representatives across primary care, secondary care, public health and in recent times third sector and commerical organisations. She has led and supported randomised controlled trials, process evaluations, economic evaluations and systematic reviews of complex interventions, and used related quantitative and mixed methods research to investigate behavioural and other psychosocial risk factors for, and impacts of, long-term conditions.
Research projects
Project | Funder | Amount | Lead | Start | End |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Improving identification and management of Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia Nervosa within Primary Care | NIHR SPCR PhD studentship | £71k | Stella Kozmer | Sep 2022 | Sep 2025 |
Assessing the contributions of additional role practitioners to general practice in England | NIHR SPCR | £616k | Stavros Petrou (Oxford) | Apr 2022 | Mar 2025 |
Identifying digital healthcare solutions for young people with ADHD (DigitalHealth-ADHD) | NIHR SPCR | £52k | Anna Price | Oct 2023 | Sep 2024 |
Benefits, drawbacks and mechanisms of remote group-based interventions for the prevention and management of chronic physical conditions: informing new modes of delivering primary care post-pandemic | NIHR SPCR PhD studentship | £70k | Charlotte Reburn | Sep 2021 | Sep 2024 |
Development of the CONNECTPlus healthcare app with Health & Care Innovations (HCI) | UKRI Knowledge Transfer Partnership | £110k | HCI | May 2022 | Apr 2024 |
Post-doctoral fellowship for Anna Price: "Mapping ADHD services for young people in primary care" (MAP study) | NIHR 3 Schools Mental Health Programme | £175k | Anna Price | Jan 2022 | Mar 2024 |
Post-doctoral fellowship for Emma Cockcroft: "Development of a primary care based intervention to support physical activity in adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes" (ISPA-T1D) |
NIHR SPCR | £145k | Emma Cockcroft | Oct 2021 | Mar 2024 |
The use of community-based wellbeing activities for children and young people as a potential prevention and early intervention pathway to improve adolescent emotional and social development (CHOICES) | NIHR 3 Schools Mental Health Programme | £305k | Vashti Berry | Oct 2021 | Sep 2023 |
Feasibility study of a novel digital intervention promoting physical activity in young people with Cystic Fibrosis | NIHR RfPB | £250k | Sam Van Beurden | Aug 2021 | Mar 2023 |
Postdoctoral Fellowship for Samantha van Beurden: “Taking back control: dealing with impulsive processes in digital health behaviour change" | ESRC | £98K | Sam Van Beurden | Jan 2020 | Mar 2021 |
At-Risk Registers Integrated into primary care to Stop Asthma crises in the UK (ARRISA-UK) study | NIHR HTA | £2m | Andrew Wilson (UEA) | Dec 2014 | Jul 2020 |
The Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study. Delivering a realistic diabetes prevention programme in a UK community | NIHR programme grant | £2m | Mike Sampson (NNUH) | Mar 2011 | Mar 2018 |
Designing, evaluating and implementing novel interventions to promote and maintain weight loss: ImpulsePal | UEMS PhD studentship | £60,228 | Jane R Smith | Sep 2013 | Mar 2018 |
Mechanisms of Action of Group Interventions (MAGI) study | NIHR/MRC EME | £158,360 | Jane R Smith | Jan 2016 | Aug 2017 |
Community-based Prevention of Diabetes (ComPoD) Study | NIHR SPHR PHPES | £249,369 | Jane R Smith | Jul 2014 | Jun 2016 |
Can a practice-based approach using Significant Event Audit identify key factors that might reduce avoidable non-elective hospital admissions? A feasibility study | NIHR RfPB | £228,223 | Rob Fleetcroft (UEA) | Jun 2014 | Feb 2016 |
Investigating the use of smartphone and Web 2.0 technologies used in behavioural interventions for weight management (post-doc mobility fellowship) | Swiss National Science Foundation | £58,000 | Marco Bardus | May 2014 | Oct 2015 |
GW4 Initiator funding for cross-university meetings to discuss establishing a GW4 Health-Related Behaviour Interventions (HeRBI) research collaboration (follow up bid to establish unsuccessful) | GW4 Building Communities | £2815 | Jane R Smith | May 2014 | Sep 2014 |
Research networks
Member of Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx)
Member of Behavioural Science Research Group
Research grants
- 2022 InnovateUK
Development of the CONNECTPlus healthcare app - 2022 National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research
Identifying digital healthcare solutions for young people with ADHD (DigitalHealth-ADHD) - 2021 National Institute for Health Research, Research for Patient Benefit
Feasibility study of a novel digital intervention promoting physical activity in young people with Cystic Fibrosis - 2021 National Institute for Health Research Three Schools Mental Health Programme
The use of community-based wellbeing activities for children and young people as a potential prevention and early intervention pathway to improve adolescent emotional and social development. - 2021 National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research
Assessing the contributions of additional role practitioners to general practice in England - 2015 MRC/NIHR Efficacy and Mechanisms Evaluation (EME) programme
Mechanisms of Action in Group Interventions (MAGI) study - 2014 NIHR School for Public Health Research
Community-based Prevention of Diabetes (ComPoD) trial - 2014 NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
At-Risk Registers Integrated into primary care to Stop Asthma crises in the UK (ARRISA-UK) trial - 2014 GW4
GW4 Building Communities Initiator funding - 2013 Swiss National Science Foundation
Early post-doc mobility fellowship for Dr Marco Bardus - 2013 NIHR Research for Patient Benefit
Significant Event Audit feasibility study - 2012 British Psychological Society
British Psychological Society seminar series on process evaluation - 2012 NIHR Programme Grant
The Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study (NDPS) - 2006 Asthma UK
At-Risk Registers In Severe Asthma (ARRISA) trial - 2001 NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Systematic review of psycho-educational interventions in severe and difficult asthma
Publications
Journal articles
Chapters
Conferences
External Engagement and Impact
Administrative responsibilities
Exeter co-lead for training and capacity development within the NIHR School for Primary Care Research
Teaching
Jane's teaching roles at the University of Exeter Medical School include:- Making Sense of Evidence Lead for the BMBS undergraduate medical programme (since 2017), involving co-ordination and contribution to delivery of small group critical appraisal sessions, lectures and workshops across 5 teaching blocks in Years 1 and 2 (e.g. on randomised trials, systematic reviews, observational studies).
- BMBS discipline lead for Psychology (since 2018), involving development, co-ordination and delivery of psychology teaching, learning and assessment, primarily in Years 1 and 2.
- Contributing to delivery and assessment of Special Study Units on the BMBS programme.
- Supervision of final year research projects on the BSc Medical Sciences programme.
- Teaching on critical appraisal, research methods and psychology and involvement in assessment on various modules on the BSc Medical Sciences programme.
- Contributing to teaching on process evaluation, behaviour change in implementation science and supervision of projects as part of the MSc in Applied Health Services Research
Jane is also contributes to training of health and other professionals as part of the Peninsula Applied Research Collaboration (PenARC) Making Sense of Evidence team.
Previous teaching duties at the University of East Anglia included:
- Developing and co-ordinating a Masters module on “Promoting Behaviour Change and Lifestyle Improvement” (formerly “Psychosocial Aspects of Health”).
- Developing teaching, learning and assessment in the Psychology Domain of the undergraduate medical programme curriculum, including the review and development of learning outcomes in line with “Tomorrow’s Doctor’s 2009”.
- Deputy Co-ordinator for a 4th Year Growth & Development (Paediatrics) module on the undergraduate medical programme.
- Problem based learning (PBL) tutor on the undergraduate medical programme.
- Teaching on a range of health psychology topics (e.g. introduction to the psychology of health, health-related behaviour change, stress and health, psychosocial impacts of disease) and research methods/skills (e.g. systematic review, literature searching) on various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
- Contributing to the development and marking of assessments (e.g. essays, oral presentations, short answer and multiple choice questions) on postgraduate and undergraduate programmes.
- Acting as a research supervisor and personal advisor to a range of postgraduate and undergraduate students.
Supervision / Group
Postdoctoral researchers
- Leon Poltawski
- Rachel Winder
Postgraduate researchers
- Dima Arafah Primary supervisor for ongoing full-time PhD funded via studentship from Qatar university
- Nikki Garner Primary supervisor for ongoing part-time PhD
- Stella Kozmer
- Charlotte Reburn Primary supervisor for full-time PhD
Alumni
- Jamie Murdoch Supervisory team member for PhD awarded 2010
- Amy Nicol Secondary supervisor for PhD awarded 2009
- Martin Strawbridge Secondary supervisor for ClinPsyD awarded 2008
- Samantha Van Beurden Co-primary supervisor for PhD awarded 2018
- Steven Watson Secondary supervisor for PhD awarded 2013