Research Interests

My research examines evolving understandings of, and approaches to, medical confidentiality and privacy since the late eighteenth century. In addition to distilling the theoretical approaches and core principles underpinning key developments in the past, my work also highlights the ways in which policy and practice on these issues have been shaped by more pragmatic concerns and contingent events. Having undertaken detailed analysis of the evolution of medical confidentiality and privacy in Britain, my current work focuses on developing relevant international comparisons. I am also actively engaged in the development of national strategy in relevant areas.

Other research interests include:

• History of Infant Health (SIDS, Infant and child nutrition)
• History of Medical Ethics
• History of the interaction of Law and Medicine

Conferences / workshops organised

• Co-organiser (with Professor Andreas-Holger Maehle, Durham University) of 'Medical Confidentiality and Privacy: Past, Present and Future', University of Glasgow.
• Co-organiser of 'Apprenticeship to Lifelong Learning: Dental Education Through the Centuries', Easterbrook Hall, Crichton Campus, Dumfries.
• Organiser of 'Foetal Fortunes: A second symposium on the history of foetal and infant health and welfare from 1700 to the present', Centre for the History of Medicine, 2009

List by: Type | Date

• ESRC/EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account.
• University of Glasgow. College of Social Sciences Research Fellowship at Columbia University.
• Wellcome Trust. Grant to support interdisciplinary symposium: 'Medical Confidentiality and Privacy: Past, Present and Future.'
• University of Glasgow. Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellow in Social Sciences.

I provide PGT and PGR supervision to history of medicine students and others working on topics related to my research interests. Past topics have included historical work on diabetes; breast-feeding; theories of illness and disease; and medical law and ethics.

Current PhD supervision

• 'Reclaimable citizens, incorrigible offenders, and the spaces in between: A historical examination of how civic boundaries are drawn in a penal welfarist state.' ESRC-funded PhD jointly supervised with Prof McNeil in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Criminal Justice Research.
• 'The history of palliative care and the rise and fall of the Liverpool Care Pathway'

Completed PhD projects:

• 'Reconciling the public interest in safeguarding confidentiality and privacy of health information vs. the sharing of health information for medical research: a critical analysis of UK and Malaysia frameworks'
• '"Dissevering all connection with the science of abstract quality" : Epistemological change in British medicine 1735-1785'
• 'Re-evaluating consent in genetic population biobanks in the United Kingdom.'
• 'Medical confidentiality and domestic abuse'

Undergraduate

Level 2

• Economic & Social History 2A: Britain 1770-1914
• Economic & Social History 2B: Britain Since 1914
  

Honours

• ESH 4076: Medicine and the State in Modern Britain
• ESH 4029: Innovations in Western Medicine

Postgraduate

• Studies in the History of Medicine from 1850-2000

Internal Roles

• Member of the Academic Standards Committee
• PGR convenor for Economic and Social History
• SGSSS Pathway Rep for Economic and Social History

External Appointments

• Member of the Privacy Advisory Committee, National Services Scotland (2012-2015)
• Member of the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (2015-2022)

Seminar and Conference Papers

• The George Armstrong Lecture to the British Society for the History of Paediatrics and Child Health. 
• Medicine24, Excellence in Healthcare, RCPSG.
• Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare.
• Northern Network for Medical Humanities.
• Data Safety in Scottish Health and Social Care Partnerships.
• Public lecture, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
• Glasgow History of Medicine Group, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
• Wellcome Trust Symposium, 'Medical Confidentiality and Privacy: Past, Present and Future.'
• Imperial College London
• Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter
• Centre for the History of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, November 2009
• 'Foetal Fortunes 2: A second symposium on the history of foetal and infant health and welfare from 1700 to the present', University of Glasgow.
• Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Birmingham.
• Edinburgh History of Medicine Group, Royal college of Physicians, Edinburgh.
• Rank Prize Mini-Symposium on the Origins of the Science and Practice of Infant and Child Nutrition and Feeding, Storrs Hall, Windermere.
• British Society for the History of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal college of Surgeons, Dublin.
• Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, University of Ulster.
• Children's Health: International Agendas, National Practices conference, University of Bergen, Norway.
• Cradle to the Crave Workshop Series, Strathclyde/Caledonian University, Glasgow.
• Society for the Social History of Medicine Annual Conference, University of Warwick.
• Regional Forum for the History of Medicine in Scotland, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh.
• Scottish Women's History Network Annual Conference, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
• Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, University of Durham.
• Economic History Society conference, Royal Holloway, University of London.
• Social History Society conference, University of Rouen, Haute Normandie, France.