Adwoa Parker (née Hughes-Morley) has a background in health services research. Prior to joining York Trials Unit in the Department of Health Sciences, she worked for a number of years across a range of large, multi-centre trials and observational studies in both mental health and musculoskeletal disorders.
Adwoa's methodological interests and experience include ‘Studies Within A Trial’ (SWATs), which are self-contained studies embedded within an ongoing trial that aim to establish evidence to improve the management and delivery of trials. Her other interests include mixed methods, in particular incorporating qualitative methods in trials, the evaluation of patient and public involvement in research, systematic reviews and surgical trials.
From 2012-2016 Adwoa held an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship that explored methods to develop and evaluate interventions to improve participant recruitment into mental health trials.
Adwoa is currently a co-investigator on ACTIVE, which aims to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of internal plate fixation versus external fine wire fixation for the management of Type C, closed pilon fractures of the distal tibia. She has led on (TRIALISt), which aimed to develop a training programme for staff to improve recruitment into RCTs. She is also co-investigator on PROMETHEUS, a major national programme of research funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to facilitate the routine embedding of a recruitment or retention SWAT in ongoing randomised controlled trials.
Adwoa was previously Public Involvement Lead for the York hub of the NIHR Research Design Service Yorkshire and Humber. She currently leads the Trial Forge Studies Within A Trial (SWAT) Centre, which is focused on improving the efficiency of trials using a SWAT approach.
Adwoa is happy to supervise MSc and PhD students and welcomes enquiries from potential students on projects in her areas of interest.
Adwoa has research interests in the following clinical and methodological areas: