Inaugural Lecture Catherine Pope, Professor of Medical Sociology

21 June 2013 | 17:30 – 20:00

Lecture programme:  5.30pm Tea & coffee; 6.00pm Inaugural Lecture; 7.00pm Drinks reception

All welcome! RSVP at: http://catherinepopelecture.eventbrite.co.uk

For further details, please contact Tim Lees (t.lees@southampton.ac.uk)

Inaugural Abstract

Medical Sociology is one of the most successful branches of Sociology, applying as it does the study of society and social experience to the vital matters of what happens when we are ill or injured. Understanding ‘medicine’ by exploring the experience of health and sickness, and explaining the activity of healthcare organisations and professionals, is important not just because these things matter deeply to us and our loved ones when we are ill or injured, but also because this understanding gives us the power to intervene.

This lecture explores why Medical Sociology matters. It will draw on research and theory which has inspired me, and describe some of my own research about health care work (such as studies of secretaries managing waiting lists, and surgeons doing surgery) and organisational change in the NHS (ranging from the introduction of walk-in centres to computerised ambulance triage systems). I will argue that Medical Sociology is necessary and essential to understand and challenge health services and inform health care practice.

Catherine Pope: Bio

Catherine Pope is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at University of Southampton. Her research has included ethnographic studies of waiting lists, operating theatres and ambulance journeys, and evaluations of NHS walk-in centres and NHS Treatment Centres, and Advanced Access to primary care. Most recently she has been studying a computerised decision support system in urgent and emergency care and the new health service commissioning arrangements. Thanks to a stint as deputy director of the RCUK Web Science Doctoral Training Centre, Catherine is also firmly enmeshed in research and teaching about the World Wide Web, including thinking about how the Web might be shaping health and health care. She was co-editor, with Professor Graham Crow, of Sociology and, with Professor Nicholas Mays, of the popular introductory text Qualitative Research in Health Care which has been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. She has also written (with Nicholas Mays and Professor Jennie Popay) a core text on Synthesizing Qualitative and Quantitative Health Evidence for the Open University Press.