Dr Sarah Hughes BSc, MHSc, PhD, MRCSLT

Dr Sarah Hughes

Institute of Applied Health Research
Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 3354
Email
s.e.hughes@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@SarahHughesSLT
View my research portal
Address
Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research (CPROR)
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Sarah is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research (CPROR), Institute of Applied Health Research. Her research interests focus on the development and validation of patient reported outcomes and their implementation within the evolving landscapes of health and social care. She has methodological expertise in qualitative and mixed-methods research, evidence syntheses, and psychometrics.

Qualifications

  • PhD in patient reported outcomes, Swansea University, 2021
  • MHSc in Speech Pathology, University of Toronto, 1996
  • BSc, Biology with Psychology, Acadia University, 1994

Biography

Sarah studied at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada for a BSc in Biology and Psychology (1990-1994) and at The University of Toronto for a MHSc in Speech-Language Pathology (1994-1996). She completed her PhD in patient reported outcomes (2014-2021) at Swansea University under the supervision of Professor Hayley Hutchings. During her PhD, Sarah was a visiting scholar at the Australian Hearing Hub and the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney (2016-2020). Sarah was awarded the prestigious James Callaghan Scholarship from Swansea University in 2017.

Sarah joined The University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow in 2020. Prior to taking up her post at the University, Sarah practiced as a speech and language therapist in Canada and the United Kingdom’s NHS, specialising in hearing impairment and cochlear implantation (1996-2020).

Since joining the Centre for Patient Reported Outcome Research at The University of Birmingham, Sarah has undertaken evidence syntheses and mixed-methods research focussing on the development and implementation of patient reported outcomes (PROs) across a range of contexts and health conditions.

Teaching

Teaching activity:

  • MSc Clinical Trials
  • MPH
  • MBChB

Postgraduate supervision

If you are interested in undertaking a PhD which aligns with Sarah’s research interests then please get in touch.

Research

Sarah’s research focusses on the use of PROs in routine care and in trials.  Her current interests include the development and validation of PROs measuring symptom burden in hearing loss, long covid and precision therapeutics. 

She is also interested in understanding patient perspectives relating to PRO implementation, digital healthcare innovation, and regulatory science.

Recent and Current projects:

  • TLC Study (Funder: NIHCR)
  • PROs in Social Care (Funder: NIHCR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands)
  • Patient-reported outcomes assessment to support accelerated access to advanced cell and gene therapies: PROmics (Funder: INNOVATE)

Other activities

  • Member, Research Committee, Institute of Applied Health Research (2022- current)
  • Member, H2020 EC Marie-Curie ITN project “Innovative Hearing Aid Research – Ecological Conditions and Outcome Measures” (HEAR-ECO) Final Workshop Expert Panel (2022)
  • Member, Scientific Committee, UK PROMs Conference 2022
  • Member, Deaf Awareness Working Group (BSA, ENT UK, SignHealth, and RNID) (2021-current)
  • Member, Steering Committee. Both EARS training package (BEARS) to maximise hearing abilities in teenage bilateral cochlear implant users, University of Cambridge (2021-current)
  • Member, Trials Outcomes Methodology Research Partnership, PRO Theme Working Group (2020- current)
  • Member, ISOQOL Data Visualisation SIG (2021-current)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Turner, G, McMullan, C, Aiyegbusi, OL, Hughes, S, Walker, A, Jeyes, F, Adler, Y, Chong, A, Buckland, L, Stanton, DE, Davies, EH, Haroon, S & Calvert, M 2023, 'Co-production of a feasibility trial of pacing interventions for Long COVID', Research Involvement & Engagement, vol. 9, no. 1, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-023-00429-2

McMullan, C, Retzer, A, Hughes, S, Aiyegbusi, OL, Bathurst, C, Boyd, A, Coleman, J, Davies, EH, Denniston, A, Dunster, H, Frost, C, Harding, R, Hunn, A, Kyte, D, Malpass, R, McNamara, G, Mitchell, SA, Mittal, S, Newsome, P, Price, G, Rowe, A, van Reil, W, Walker, A, Wilson, R & Calvert, M 2023, 'Development and usability testing of an electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) solution for patients with inflammatory diseases in an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) basket trial', Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes. <https://jpro.springeropen.com/>

Solovyeva, O, Dimairo, M, Weir, CJ, Hee, SW, Espinasse, A, Ursino, M, Patel, D, Kightley, A, Hughes, S, Jaki, T, Mander, AP, Evans, TRJ, Lee, S, Hopewell, S, Rantell, KR, Chan, A-W, Bedding, A, Stephens, R, Richards, D, Roberts, L, Kirkpatrick, J, de Bono, J & Yap, C 2023, 'Development of consensus-driven SPIRIT and CONSORT extensions for early phase dose-finding trials: the DEFINE study', BMC Medicine, vol. 21, no. 1, 246. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02937-0

Aiyegbusi, OL, Davies, EH, Myles, PR, Williams, T, Frost, C, Haroon, S, Hughes, S, Wilson, R, McMullan, C, Subramanian, A, Nirantharakumar, K & Calvert, M 2023, 'Digitally enabled decentralised research: opportunities to improve the efficiency of clinical trials and observational studies', BMJ evidence-based medicine. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2023-112253

Cruz Rivera, S, Liu, X, Hughes, S, Dunster, H, Manna, E, Denniston, A & Calvert, M 2023, 'Embedding patient-reported outcomes at the heart of artificial intelligence health-care technologies', The Lancet Digital Health, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. e168-e173. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(22)00252-7

Chandan, J, Brown, K, Simms-Williams, N, Bashir, NZ, Camaradou, J, Heining, D, Turner, G, Cruz Rivera, S, Hotham, R, Minhas, S, Nirantharakumar, K, Sivan, M, Khunti, K, Raindi, D, Marwaha, S, Hughes, S, McMullan, C, Marshall, T, Calvert, M, Haroon, S & Aiyegbusi, OL 2023, 'Non-pharmacological therapies for post-viral syndromes, including Long COVID: a systematic review', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 20, no. 4, 3477. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043477

Shaver, N, Katz, M, Asamoah, GD, Linkins, L-A, Abdelkader, W, Beck, A, Bennett, A, Hughes, S, Smith, M, Begin, M, Coyle, D, Piggott, T, Kagina, B, Welch, V, Colijn, C, Earn, D, El Emam, K, Heffernan, J, O’Brien, S, Wilson, K, Collins, E, Navarro, T, Beyene, J, Boutron, I, Bowdish, D, Cooper, C, Costa, A, Curran, J, Griffith, L, Hsu, AP, Grimshaw, JM, Langlois, M-A, Li, X, Pham-Huy, A, Raina, P, Rubini, M, Thabane, L, Wang, H, Xu, L, Brouwers, M, Horsley, T, Lavis, J, Iorio, A, Little, J & Shaver, N 2023, 'Protocol for a Living Evidence Synthesis on Variants of Concern and COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness', Vaccine.

McMullan, C, Hughes, S, Aiyegbusi, OL & Calvert, M 2023, 'Usability testing of an electronic patient-reported outcome system linked to an electronic chemotherapy prescribing and patient management system for patients with cancer', Heliyon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16453

Hughes, S, Haroon, S, Subramanian, A, McMullan, C, Aiyegbusi, OL, Turner, G, Jackson, L, Davies, EH, Frost, C, McNamara, G, Price, G, Matthews, K, Camaradou, J, Ormerod, J, Walker, A & Calvert, M 2022, 'Development and validation of the symptom burden questionnaire for long covid (SBQ-LC): Rasch analysis', BMJ, vol. 377, e070230. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-070230

Hughes, S, McMullan, C, Rowe, A, Retzer, A, Malpass, R, Bathurst, C, Davies, EH, Frost, C, McNamara, G, Harding, R, Price, G, Wilson, R, Walker, A, Newsome, P & Calvert, M 2022, 'Feasibility of a new electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) system for an advanced therapy clinical trial in immune-mediated inflammatory disease (PROmics): protocol for a qualitative feasibility study', BMJ open, vol. 12, no. 9, e063199. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063199

Chandan, J, Brown, K, Simms-Williams, N, Camaradou, J, Bashir, NZ, Heining, D, Aiyegbusi, OL, Turner, G, Cruz Rivera, S, Hotham, R, Nirantharakumar, K, Sivam, M, Khunti, K, Raindi, D, Marwaha, S, Hughes, S, McMullan, C, Calvert, M & Haroon, S 2022, 'Non-pharmacological therapies for post-viral syndromes, including Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol', BMJ open, vol. 12, no. 4, e057885. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057885

Comment/debate

Boisvert, I, Dunn, AG, Lundmark, E, Smith-Merry, J, Lipworth, W, Willink, A, Hughes, SE, Nealon, M & Calvert, M 2023, 'Disruptions to the hearing health sector', Nature Medicine, vol. 29, pp. 19-21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02086-6

Routen, A, O'Mahoney, LL, Aiyegbusi, OL, Alder , Y, Banerjee, A, Buckland, L, Brightling, CE, Calvert, M, Camaradou, J, Chaturvedi, N, Chong, A, Dalrymple, E, Eggo, RM, Elliott, P, Evans, RA, Gibson, A, Haroon, S, Herrett, E, Houchen-Wolloff, L, Hughes, S, Jeyes, F, Matthews, K, McMullan, C, Morley, J, Shafran, R, Smith, N, Stanton, DE, Stephenson, T, Sterne, JAC, Turner, G, Ward, H & Khunti, K 2023, 'Patient and public involvement within epidemiological studies of Long Covid in the United Kingdom', Nature Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02251-5

Review article

TLC Study Group 2023, 'Considerations for patient and public involvement and engagement in health research', Nature Medicine.

Aiyegbusi, OL, Hughes, S, Peipert, JD, Schougaard, L, Wilson, R & Calvert, M 2023, 'Reducing the pressures of outpatient care: the potential role of patient-reported outcomes', Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 116, no. 2, pp. 44-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768231152222

View all publications in research portal