Overview

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.

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

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Research

Research 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

Research projects

PALP-AF, Patient-led intervention to manage symptoms and episodes of atrial Fibrillation.University of Exeter.

BIHS Blood pressure Validation Review, University of Exeter.

SPCR Workforce and Wellbeing Systematic Review, University of Exeter.

UMPH: Understanding measurement of postural hypotension, University of Exeter.

RETAIN: Recruitment and retention of staff in rural dispensing practice, University of Exeter.

Digital Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure  (D REACH-HF), University of Exeter. Working within the Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) team to digitise the cardiac rehabilitation intervention, a health professional facilitated, home-based, self-help rehabilitation intervention to improve self-care and health-related quality of life in people with heart failure and their caregivers.

REtirement in ACTion (REACT) Study, University of Bath. A multi-centre, pragmatic, two-arm, parallel-group randomised controlled trial (RCT) with an internal pilot phase. It aims to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a community, group-based physical activity intervention for reducing, or reversing, the progression of functional limitations in older people who are at high risk of mobility-related disability.

Active, Connected, Engaged (ACE) Neighbourhoods Project, University of Birmingham. Project ACE is a 24-month pilot study using neighbourhood coordinators and activity promotion volunteers to promote active ageing in two neighbourhoods in Bristol.

Patient-led interventions to manage symptoms and episodes of atrial Fibrillation: a mixed-methods study. NIHR School for Primary Care Research (FR-9; grant no 706) £53,124 Co-PI alongside Chris Clark (2023)

Updating the BIHS register of validated blood pressure monitors: systematic review. British & Irish Hypertension Society/ SW GP Trust, £40,000 BIHS, Research Fellow (2022)

Well-being of the primary care workforce: evidence synthesis. NIHR School for Primary Care Research (FR-4; grant no 597) £278,108, Research Fellow (2022)

Understanding Measurement of Postural Hypotension in Primary Care. NIHR School for Primary Care Research (FR-3; grant no 580) £138,820, Research Fellow (2022)

School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) Summer Internship Supervision £1,000 (2022)

Recruitment and retention of staff in rural dispensing practice National Centre for Rural Health and Care £5,000 Research Fellow (2021)

Research networks

• UK Society for Behavioural Medicine (UKSBM) – Treasurer
• NIHR SPCR University of Exeter (APEx) Early Career Researcher
• Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) Physical Activity/ Exercise as Medicine Special Interest Group member and Cardiovascular Research Special Interest Group member
• SAPC’s primary care scientist group (PHoCUS) 
• International Society for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity Early Career Research Network
• British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS) Research Fellow
• Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC) Implementation Science Forum 

Research grants

• 2024 National Institute for Health and Care Research
  2024 National Institute for Health and Care Research Patient-led interventions to manage symptoms and episodes of atrial Fibrillation: a mixed-methods study (PALP-AF). £53,124. Co-principle investigator.

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Committee/panel activities

• Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Communications Team (December 2023 – Present)

• UK Society for Behavioural Medicine – Treasurer (September 2022 – present)

• Organising Committee - Changing Lives, Changing Worlds Postgraduate Conference 2017. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bath.

Media Coverage

International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity Student and ECR Spotlight, 2019

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Teaching

• Making Sense of Evidence special study unit tutor for BMBS undergraduate medical programme
• Supervision of NIHR SPCR summer internship research students/projects.

Previous teaching roles in Department for Health, University of Bath:

• Undergraduate Quantitative Research Methods (Undergraduate Sport, Exercise and Health programme, University of Bath)
• Undergraduate Qualitative Research Methods (Undergraduate Sport, Exercise and Health programme, University of Bath)
• Undergraduate Research Design for the Social Sciences (Undergraduate Sport, Exercise and Health programme, University of Bath)

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