Jonathan is a Research Fellow in the School of Health & Population Sciences. He has expertise in mixed-method and theory-based approaches to policy evaluation and implementation, especially of complex and/or contextually specific interventions. He has conducted evaluations of complex policy interventions, including projects that have examined the expansion of undergraduate medical education across England, the New Deal for Communities regeneration programme and currently the English Health Trainers initiative. This work has been supported by research funders including the National Institute for Health Research (Policy Research Programme) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Jonathan is interested in the methodological aspects of policy evaluation. He has a particular interest in the role that qualitative and mixed-methods approaches have in providing insights that are relevant to our understanding of important medical and social phenomena, and their interaction with health and social policy. He is a senior member of the qualitative methods research group in the School of Health & Population Sciences, and Deputy Director of the Birmingham Hub of the West Midlands Research Design Service.
Jonathan has published in a number of policy-related areas including research focusing on the expansion of undergraduate medical education, widening access to medicine policy, the impact of and public involvement in regeneration policy, and healthcare professionals’ reactions to health policy interventions. He has a particular interest in issues of equity and social justice and how these relate to policy and practice.
Recent Publications:
Mathers JM, Sitch, A, Marsh J, Parry J. Widening access to medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: population based cross sectional analysis of UK data, 2002-2006. British Medical Journal 2011; 341: d918
Taylor R., Atfield T., Mathers JM, Parry J.M. How will the ‘Big Society’ impact on health improvement activities delivered by lay people? Journal of Public Health 2011; 33: 5-10
Mathers JM, Parry J. Older mature students’ experience of applying to study medicine in England: an interview study. Medical Education 2010; 44(11); 1084-1094
Mathers JM, Greenfield S, Metcallfe A, Cole T, Flanagan S, Wilson S. Family history in primary care: understanding general practitioners’ resistance to clinical genetics – qualitative study. British Journal of General Practice 2010. 60 (574); 358-364
Mathers JM, Parry J. Why are there so few working class applicants to medical schools? Learning from the success stories. Medical Education 2009. 43. pp 219-228
Parry J, Mathers JM, Stevens A, Lilford R, Spurgeon P, Thomas H. An assessment of the impact of the national expansion of medical schools in England on universities and their academic staff. Medical Education 2008. 42; pp 1155-1165
Cotterill S, Parry J, Richardson M, Mathers JM. Quasi-experimental evaluation of the health impacts of the new deal for communities urban regeneration scheme. Critical Public Health 2008. 18 (3); pp. 311-322
Mathers JM, Parry J, Jones S. Exploring resident (non) participation in the UK New Deal for Communities regeneration programme. Urban Studies. 2008. 45 (3); pp. 591-606.
Wright, JSF, Parry, J, Mathers JM. What to do about political context? Evidence synthesis, the New Deal for Communities and the possibilities for evidence-based policy. Evidence and Policy 2007;3;2;253-269