Selected Publications

• Locock Louise, Field Kate, McPherson Ann, and Boyd Patricia A (2010) Women's accounts of the physical sensation of chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis: expectations and experience. Midwifery, 26(1):64-75.

• Seale Clive, Charteris-Black Jonathan, MacFarlane Aidan, and McPherson Ann (2010) Interviews and internet forums: a comparison of two sources of qualitative data. Qual Health Res, 20(5):595-606.

• Chapple Alison, Ziebland Sue, Hewitson Paul, and McPherson Ann (2008) What affects the uptake of screening for bowel cancer using a faecal occult blood test (FOBt): a qualitative study. Soc Sci Med, 66(12):2425-35.

Dr Ann McPherson

Ann McPherson qualified as a doctor in 1968 and was a general practitioner in Oxford for 30 years until 2008. She joined the Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford - part-time in April 2001 where she set up, in conjunction with Andrew Herxheimer, the ‘Patient Experiences’ website and research group - DIPEx . This research group is now known as the Health Experiences Research Group. The research that has been carried out is published by the DIPEx charity, on the award winning websites www.healthtalkonline.org, and www.youthhealthtalk.org as a multimedia resource. The website is aimed at patients and their carers as well for all health professionals including medical students, nurses and GP registrars.

People’s experiences of over 60 different individual disease and health issues have now been researched and are available on the website. Subjects include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, neurological conditions, carers' experiences, screening, intensive care, bones and joints, maternity and child issues, chronic diseases etc. A new site with the experiences of young people www.youthhealthtalk.org was launched in 2005 and includes stories about young people’s sexual health, experiences of drugs and alcohol, experiences of chronic health issues, and sections on epilepsy, diabetes, and cancer.

She devised and co-edited the ‘10 minute consultation’ series for the BMJ and had been chair of the RCGP Adolescent Task Group. She served on several National Committees including the Independent Advisory Committee on Teenage Pregnancy and was a founding Trustee of the Association of Young People's Health.

Her key research areas included: people’s experiences of health and illness; adolescent health: what teenagers worry about and how to improve adolescent services in General Practice, women's health issues, and the provision of information for patients.

Recognised for services to teenage health and to innovation in women's health care, Ann was made a CBE in June 2000. Ann's work was committed to the belief that health care should be driven by the experience of patients. She believed that students and doctors should understand better what it feels like to have an illness. Health care quality should be judged on what recipients experience and that health policy should reflect what matters to patients rather than to doctors or politicians.

Sadly Ann passed away from pancreatic cancer in May 2011. Her work on people's experiences of health and illness is continued by the Health Experiences Research Group at the University of Oxford.

Ann's final project was to establish the Oxford Health Experiences Institute (HEXI), described in her own words as a place "where the world of academia meets real life". This is a ground breaking initiative, as the first interdisciplinary academic research centre dedicated to understanding the attitudes, values and experiences of people coping with illness, or making decisions about their health, and to using the research to make a difference. Ann was the founding Director of HEXI and continued to work closely with the team even in her final days.

The Ann McPherson Tribute Fund will support these initiatives and will be administered by the Green Templeton College Development and Communications Office. The Principal Sir David Watson, Emeritus Professor of Primary Care David Mant OBE, and Ann's husband Professor Klim McPherson will coordinate the allocation of funds raised in support of the continuation of Ann's pioneering work.

The Oxford Health Experiences Institute http://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/academic/research-centres/the-oxford-health-experiences-institute.html