Dr Sarah Damery BA, MA, PhD

Health Services Management Centre
Associate Professor

Contact details

Email: s.l.damery@bham.ac.uk

Address: Park House
40 Edgbaston Park Road
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Sarah is an applied health researcher with extensive mixed methods experience, including quantitative and qualitative methodologies, evidence synthesis, service evaluation and the implementation of evidence into practice. Her work focuses on health and social care service delivery for chronic conditions.

Qualifications

PhD in Geography, University of Cambridge, 2006
MA in Geography, University of Cambridge, 2002
BA(Hons) in Geography, University of Cambridge, 1999

Biography

Sarah is an applied health researcher with mixed methods expertise. Her interests focus on the design and delivery of effective, inclusive and high quality health and care services for people with long term conditions. She has conducted research in multiple clinical areas, including respiratory disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and across primary, secondary, tertiary care and social care. She is also highly experienced in leading health and care service evaluations and evidence syntheses, including rapid reviews, scoping reviews, realist reviews, umbrella reviews and systematic reviews.

Following her PhD, Sarah joined University of Birmingham in 2008, initially as part of the cancer research team within the Department of Primary Care Clinical Sciences. Subsequently, Sarah was a research fellow in the chronic diseases theme within the NIHR West Midlands CLAHRC (Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) (2014-2019) and the long term conditions theme of the NIHR West Midlands Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) (2019-2025). In November 2025, she joined the Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science within the College of Social Sciences where she works across the policy and methods research group, the evidence-based surgery research group and the NIHR West Midlands Evidence Synthesis Group.

Sarah has taught evidence-based research methods for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and has supervised numerous PhD students.

Teaching

MSc Respiratory Medicine (lecturer, dissertation module lead)

Masters in Public Health (dissertation projects)

Policy Evaluation (lecturer)

Postgraduate supervision

Sarah’s interests are in the design and delivery of effective health services for the identification and management of long term conditions. Recent research has focused on cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and respiratory. She is currently supervising two doctoral students in the field of respiratory medicine.

MD – Optimising Respiratory Integrated Care Services (year 2)

PhD - Understanding cardiopulmonary risk prediction using primary care datasets and assessing feasibility of implementing cardiopulmonary risk prediction within clinical settings (year 1)

Research

Sarah is a member of the senior leadership team within the Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science (CEIS) and a member of the NIHR West Midlands Evidence Synthesis Group.

Key current research projects

Co-lead. Stroke Association. Promoting representative and equitable collection of stroke survivor experiences – the PRECISE study.

Co-investigator. NIHR EPR-HPRU. Wearables for public detection and screening.

Co-investigator. AstraZeneca. Primary care referral for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Birch, JM, Mueller, J, Damery, S, Sharp, SJ, Jones, RA, Kelly, MP, Anderson, AS, Astbury, N, Aveyard, P, Beeken, RJ, Craigie, A, Greaves, C, Jebb, S, McConnachie, A, Nanchahal, K, Stuart, B, White, M, Griffin, SJ & Ahern, AL 2025, 'Are there inequalities in the attendance at and effectiveness of behavioural weight management interventions for adults in the UK? An individual participant data meta-analysis', BMJ Public Health, vol. 3, no. 2, e001382. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2024-001382

Retzer, A, Al-Jilaihawi, S, Bailey, S, Buenger, V, Damery, S, Darlington, AS, Diezi, M, Peipert, JD, Roydhouse, J & Reeve, BB 2025, 'Assessing patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in paediatric oncology research: Which PRO would a pro pick, if a pro was picking PROs?', EJC Paediatric Oncology, vol. 5, 100232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcped.2025.100232

Kyte, D, Fletcher, B, Horton, M, Damery, S, Aiyegbusi, OL, Anderson, N, Bissell, A, Calvert, M, Cockwell, P, Ferguson, J, Paap, MCS, Sidey-Gibbons, C, Turner, N, Verdi, R & Slade, A 2025, 'Development, Rasch analysis and validation of the kidney symptom burden questionnaire (KSB-Q)', Clinical Kidney Journal, vol. 18, no. 5, sfaf112. https://doi.org/10.1093/ckj/sfaf112

Todowede, O, Parr, J, Damery, S, Dracup, N, Court, R, Glasby, J & Grove, A 2025, 'Exploring the Influence of Contact with Social Workers on the Quality of Life and Wellbeing Outcomes of Adult Social Care Service Users: How, why, and for Whom? - A realist review protocol [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]', NIHR Open Research, vol. 5, no. 103. https://doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.14104.1

Potts, J, Pearse, CM, Lambie, M, Fotheringham, J, Hill, H, Coyle, D, Damery, S, Allen, K, Williams, I, Davies, SJ & Solis-Trapala, I 2025, 'Patient and Center Factors in Home Dialysis Therapy Uptake: Analysis of a UK Renal Registry Cohort and a National Dialysis Center Survey', American Journal of Kidney Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2025.08.012

Damery, S, Jones, J, Harrison, A, Hinde, S & Jolly, K 2025, 'Technology-enabled hybrid cardiac rehabilitation: Qualitative study of healthcare professional and patient perspectives at three cardiac rehabilitation centres in England', PLOS ONE, vol. 20, no. 3, e0319619. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319619

Hill, H, Fotheringham, J, Potts, J, Solis-Trapala, I, Lambie, M, Damery, S, Allen, K, Wailoo, A, Williams, I & Davies, SJ 2025, 'The cost-effectiveness of initiating patients on home dialysis compared with in-centre haemodialysis', Applied Health Economics and Health Policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-025-00976-7

Bradbury-Jones, C, Damery, S, Fruin, K, Gunby, C, Harlock, J, Hebberts, L, Isham, L, Jones, A-M, Maxted, F, Mighty, A, Parmar, P, Patterson, L, Schaub, J, Scott, F, Smailes, HL, Smith, D & Taylor, J 2025, 'The scope, range and use of voluntary sector specialist sexual violence services in England: Findings and recommendations from a national study', Health and Social Care in the Community. https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/9368961

Damery, S, Lambie, M, Williams, I, Coyle, D, Fotheringham, J, Solis-Trapala, I, Allen, K, Potts, J, Dikomitis, L & Davies, SJ 2024, 'Centre variation in home dialysis uptake: a survey of kidney centre practice in relation to home dialysis organisation and delivery in England', Peritoneal Dialysis International, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/08968608241232200

Allen, K, Shaw, K, Spry, J, Dikomitis, L, Coyle, D, Damery, S, Fotheringham, J, Lambie, M, Davies, SJ & Williams, I 2024, 'How does organisational culture facilitate uptake of home dialysis? An ethnographic study of kidney centres in England', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 12, e085754. <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/12/e085754>

Letter

Roberts, T, Uwenedi, G, Bruton, R, McIlroy, G, Damery, S, Sylla, P, Logan, N, Scott, S, Lau, M, Elzaidi, A, Plass, S, Mallick, S, Spencer, K, Stephens, C, Bentley, C, Pratt, G, Zuo, J, Paneesha, S, Willett, B, Moss, P & Parry, H 2024, 'Enhancement of Omicron-specific immune responses following bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccination in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia', Blood Cancer Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, 22. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41408-023-00940-5

Review article

Parr, J, Chen, YF, Damery, S, Chaudhuri, P & Grove, A 2026, 'Sub-national public health intelligence responses to disease outbreaks: A mixed-methods systematic review', Public Health, vol. 250, 106055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2025.106055

Bradbury-Jones, C, Damery, S, Fruin, K, Gunby, C, Harlock, J, Hebberts, L, Isham, L, Jones, A-M, Maxted, F, Mighty, A, Parmar, P, Patterson, L, Schaub, J, Scott, F, Smailes, H, Smith, D & Taylor, J 2025, 'Exploring voluntary sector specialist services for victim-survivors of sexual violence in England: the PROSPER co-production study', NIHR Journals Library, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 1-104. https://doi.org/10.3310/WWKT3077

Damery, S, Sekoni, AO, Retzer, A, Okafor, I, Manga-Atangana, B, Posaner, R, Gale, N & Jolly, K 2025, 'The impact of education and training on LGBT-specific health issues for healthcare students and professionals: systematic review of comparative studies', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 1, e090005. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-090005

Asgharzadeh, A, Patel, M, Connock, M, Damery, S, Ghosh, I, Jordan, M, Freeman, K, Brown, A, Court, R, Baldwin, S, Ogunlayi, F, Stinton, C, Cummins, E & Al-Khudairy, L 2024, 'Hybrid closed-loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes: a systematic review and economic modelling', Health technology assessment (Winchester, England), vol. 28, no. 80, pp. 1-190. https://doi.org/10.3310/JYPL3536

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