Dr Bethan Treadgold (She/her)

Bethan Treadgold is a Chartered Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Primary Care Research Group, University of Exeter Medical School. Bethan joined the University of Exeter in 2021, while finalising her PhD research at the Univeristy of Southampton.

Bethan's research interests are interdisciplinary, with a focus on digital health services research, explored through qualitative research methods. She is particularly interested in patients' and carers' views of and experiences with health services and in self-managing long-term conditions. Bethan is passionate about embracing the world of peer online support groups, in patients' and carers' journey of self-managing their health.

As part of her NIHR School for Primary Care funded PhD studentship conducted at the University of Southampton (2017-2021), titled: Parents and carers’ views and experiences of eczema in the online world: a mixed-methods exploration, Bethan carried out a mixed-methods (though primarily qualitative) exploration into the online health resources used by parents and carers of children with eczema. Bethan explored the nature of advice exchanged in online support groups about eczema, how parents and carers made sense of and acted upon online advice and support, and the quality of advice exchanged in online communities. (Treadgold et al., 2020, Treadgold et al., 2023). Bethan has since provided guidance for a charity to improve their online support services for families of children with eczema. Alongside her studies, Bethan worked as a qualitative research assistant at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, in maternal health (Lawrence et al. 2020). Bethan's interest in health services research and patients' and carers' experiences began before her PhD research, while undertaking a MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Southampton (2016-2017), where she conducted a mixed-methods national service evaluation of rehabilitation services for children after treatment for a brain tumour (Treadgold et al. 2019). 

Bethan is currently conducting a NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR)  funded postdoctoral research fellowship.

Title: Accessibility, acceptability, and accuracy of online support groups for primary care conditions

Supervisors: Dr Emma Pitchforth, Professor John Campbell, Professor Neil Coulson, Dr Jeff Lambert

Building on her PhD research and passion in promoting safe and benefical use of peer online support groups in self-managing long-term health conditions, Bethan is currently exploring the acceptability of, and potential procedures for, primary healthcare professionals taking more of an active role in  in quality approving peer-generated health information and advice exchanged in online support groups. As part of this programme of research, Bethan is conducting 4 research phases:

• Phase 1: Scoping review of the literature to understand the quality of information and advice in online support groups about various health conditions.
• Phase 2: Quality appraisal study of information and advice exchanged in online support groups about common conditions managed in primary care, to understand the degree of medical accuracy or innacuracy of content.
• Phase 3: Qualitative interviews with primary healthcare professionals and users of online support groups, to explore the acceptability of, and potential procedures for, primary healthcare professionals contributing to the quality assurance of information and advice exchanged in online support groups.
• Phase 4: Preperation of future research aimed at informing primary healthcare professionals' and patients' understanding of and engagemen with, peer online support groups.

Since joining the Primary Care Research Group at the University of Exeter Medical School in 2021, Bethan has also worked as a qualitative research fellow on three collaborative National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded projects:

1. Digital Facilitation in Primary Care (DI-FACTO): investigated the benefits and challenges associated with different models of digital facilitation currently in use in general practice across England (Abel et al., 2024, Parsons et al., 2024)

2. Investigating Clinical Excellence Awards (INCEA): developed a revised scoring scheme for the assessment of National Clinical Excellence Awards for doctors and dentists in England and Wales (Treadgold et al., 2023, Abel et al., 2024)

3. Understanding the measurement of postural hypotension in primary care (UMPH): explored how postural hypotension testing was currently organised in primary care in England.