Dr Rosina Cross

About me:

Rosina is a mixed-methods early career researcher (ECR) with interests in physical activity (PA) promotion, primary care research, intervention development, process evaluation and public engagement. She completed her BSc in Genetics at Queen Mary University of London, she then moved to the University of Bristol to complete her MSc in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health. After working within the Exercise Nutrition and Health Sciences Department on a number of physical activity related projects, she decided to pursue a PhD in the area and graduated from the University of Bath with a PhD in Health in 2022. With a strong focus on health psychology, her PhD focused on the process evaluation of the Retirement in ACTion (REACT) Study, a community based physical activity intervention to prevent mobility-related disability for retired older people. She specialises in the design and evaluation of health behaviour change interventions in health settings with a particular focus on better understanding processes of behaviour change, and incoporating PPI into the design process with a view to improving intervention outcomes and the translation of health intervention findings in the real world.

In 2020, Rosina joined the University of Exeter Medical School Primary Care department as a Postdoctoral Research Associate where her research focused on the design, adaptation and the implementation of a digitised home-based cardiac rehabilitation programme (REACH-HF) in the NHS. Since she led on several qualitative projects within primary care, PA and health services research, including; the NIHR SPCR-funded Understanding measurement of postural hypotension (UMPH) project, the British Heart Foundation-funded, Digital Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure (DREACH-HF) project, and the Recruitment and retention of staff in rural dispensing practice (RETAIN) study. Most recently she has been awarded funding by the NIHR SPCR to co-lead on the PALP-AF study, co-designing a patient-led intervention to manage symptoms and episodes of atrial fibrillation.

Interests:

• Physical activity promotion in Primary Care
• Behavioural Health Psychology
• Development, evaluation, process evaluation of health interventions
• Implementation Science
• Qualitative methodology
• Mixed-methods approaches to Health Research
• Heart failure and cardiac rehabilitation
• Health service research (Access to primary care, recruitment and retention of workforce n primary care)
• Access to primary care
• Rural healthcare

Qualifications:

• PhD Health (2022) University of Bath
• MSc Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health (2012) University of Bristol
• BSc Genetics (2008) Queen Mary University of London