Peter Knapp
Professor in Inclusive Health
Profile
Biography
Peter Knapp is Professor in Inclusive Health at York, where his work spans two departments: the Department of Health Sciences (for research and postgraduate supervision) and the Hull York Medical School (HYMS), for teaching.
He is a highly experienced academic, having worked at the University of Leeds (1993-2011) and the University of York (since 2011).
Peter's main research interests are in Inclusive Health, that is work focused on ensuring that healthcare is accessible and delivered across all groups in the population. Mostly, this research has focused on patient information, such as information to support patient decisions and behaviour (about choice of treatments, the self-management of health conditions and research participation), and with particular interests in health literacy, people with learning disabilities and people from minority ethnic groups.
(For more detail, please click on the 'Research' tab).
He has co-authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications, generating 13,000 citations and Hirsch (h) indices of 60 (Scholar) and 42 (Scopus).
In HYMS he leads on Evidence-Based Decision Making and teaches across years 1-4 of the MBBS medical degree. In 2015 he received a University of York Vice-Chancellor's award for 'Excellence in Teaching', and he was elected to Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2019.
Since 2020 he has been Chair of the HYMS Case Management Group (CMG). He was previously a member of the Fitness to Practice committees in HYMS (2013-19) and Department of Health Sciences (2016-19), and HYMS Exceptional Circumstances committee (2021-24).
Qualifications
- RGN (with Distinction), 1986
- BA (1st class honours), Psychology and Sociology, University of Leeds, 1990
- PhD Psychology, University of Leeds, 1994 (funded through the ESRC national studentship competition)
Departmental roles
Research
Overview
Peter's main research interests are in Inclusive Health, that is work focussed on ensuring that healthcare is accessible and delivered across all groups in the population. Mostly, this research has focussed on patient information, such as information to support patient decisions and behaviour (about choice of treatments, the self-management of health conditions and research participation), and with particular interests in health literacy, people with learning disabilities and people from minority ethnic groups.
In the past he has also worked on psychological aspects of stroke, the subject of his PhD in the early 1990s, and contributed to the first four editions of the UK National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke.
Funders for Peter's work have included the National Institute for Health Research, the Medical Research Council, the National Lottery Research Grants programme, the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Yorkshire Cancer Research.
Projects
- CUPID (Cancer Understanding in People with Intellectual Disabilities), funded by COST Action (European Union), (led by Prof John Wells, South-East Technological University, Republic of Ireland).
- The MenSH study, funded by NIHR Research for Patient Benefit to develop an intervention for specialist nurses to deliver on sexual health to men with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, (led by Dr Sara Ma and Prof Paul Galdas, University of York).
- The Lifeguard study, funded by NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research to evaluate a safeguarding and mental health intervention to be delivered in community pharmacies, (led by Prof Josie Solomon, University of Sheffield).
- The RESTORE-II trial, funded by the Health Research Board (Republic of Ireland) to investigate rehabilitations strategies for survivors of HPB cancers, and which includes a recruitment SWAT (study within a trial), (led by Prof Juliette Hussey, Trinity College, Dublin).
- The COUNTED study, funded by the Research for Patient Benefit Programme (of NIHR) to investigate the communication of treatment uncertainty to patients with dementia, (led by Prof Sarah Smith, Leeds Beckett University).
Research group(s)
Teaching
Undergraduate
Peter teaches undergraduates in years 1-4 of the Hull York Medical School, where he leads on Evidence-Based Decision-Making. The teaching includes work on research design, statistics and the critical appraisal of research.
Postgraduate
Peter is a highly experienced research degree supervisor and examiner. He has supervised 16 doctoral students to successful completion and currently supervises two students (Rebecca Haythorne, Prenika Anand).
He has examined 17 research degrees, including eight as external examiner, at the universities of Bradford, Southampton, Central Lancashire, Nottingham, Sydney, Queen's University Belfast and the Medway School of Pharmacy.
Other teaching
Taught Course External Examining
During 2011-16 Peter has been external examiner on the MSc in Rehabilitation Psychology at the University of Nottingham and, during 2016-19, on the MSc in Medical Leadership and Advanced Professional Development at De Montfort University.
Contact details
External activities
Memberships
- Since 2021 Peter has been a member of the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme regional funding committee.
- From 1997 to 2012 Peter represented the British Psychological Society on the Multi-Collegiate Working Party for Stroke, during which time the group produced four editions of National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke and conducted five National Sentinel Audits of Care in Stroke.
- In 2004 Peter jointly founded Luto Research Limited (a spin-out company of the University of Leeds) with two academic colleagues. Luto was sold commercially in 2009 and continues to thrive: luto.co.uk
- Member of the HRA National Research & Ethics Advisors' Panel (NREAP) since 2016.
- Chair of the Study Steering Committee, OPTIMISM study, University of Nottingham, 2016-20.
Invited talks and conferences
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Peter has delivered training on research participant information to members of NHS Research Ethics committees on eight occasions since 2012, in Manchester, Edinburgh, Leicester, Oxford, York and London.