Alison Powell is Senior Research Fellow at the Social Dimensions of Health Institute at the Universities of Dundee & St Andrews. Her research interests lie in knowledge mobilisation, organisational change and quality improvement in health services. Within this, she is particularly interested in the impact of national and local policies on the delivery of care, the role played by professional identities and boundaries, and initiatives to increase the effective use of research.
She has been involved in a range of research studies on areas including care in labour, postoperative pain management and service redesign in respiratory services and has recently completed an NIHR-funded study on the knowledge mobilisation approaches adopted by major research funders, research producers and research intermediaries. Alison contributed to the NIHR research call briefs on the evaluation of the first wave of CLAHRCs, on research utilisation and knowledge mobilisation by health care managers and on the evaluation of the SDO Management Fellowships initiative. Further involvement with the CLAHRCs included contributing to the design and organisation of a range of cross-CLAHRC learning events and acting as a member of the external review team for the mid-term review of one of the CLAHRCs.
Alison has a first degree in history from the University of Cambridge, a diploma in higher education (midwifery) from Bournemouth University and a PhD in health services research from the University of St Andrews. Prior to entering research fourteen years ago, Alison held a variety of posts in and around the NHS including working in operational NHS management, working as a midwife, and supporting national policy negotiations on doctors’ terms and conditions of service at the British Medical Association.