Simon Palfreyman

Biography

Degrees Postdoctoral Clinical Lecturer (NIHR, UK), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust/ University of Sheffield (2011-15) PhD (Health Services Research), University of Sheffield (2009) MSc (Health Services Research and Technology Assessment), University of Sheffield (1999) RN, USA (1991) RN, UK (1989) BSc (Hons) Biology, University of Sussex (1985) I moved to the University of Alberta in July 2015 from the UK, where my role was as a clinical academic. My time was split between research and as a Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse within the Tissue Viability team. The clinical and academic role has informed my clinical practice and also the development of my research programme.

Research Interest

My particular research interests are in the areas of wound care, nursing outcomes, evidence-based practice and Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs). My doctoral research focused on the development and validation of a condition-specific PRO (the SPVU-5D) to measure the impact of venous ulcers on quality of life. As part of the project preference weights (utility values) for the SPVU-5D were obtained from members of the general public through the use of the time trade-off (TTO) method. My post-doctoral research expanded on the techniques used in my doctoral research but was focused on measuring the impact of pressure ulcers from both the patient and clinician perspective. Both projects used quantitative and qualitative research methods to validate quality of life questionnaires for use in economic evaluation of treatment interventions. I have undertaken and published systematic reviews in a range of clinical areas and have been involved in several large clinical trials and cost-effectiveness studies. Examples include: the cost-effectiveness of silver wound dressings, organisation of vascular services and a randomised controlled trial of interventions for varicose veins. My research interest has also included evaluations of clinical practice, development of electronic patient questionnaires (ePAQ) and evaluation of the knowledge and skills of clinicians in critical appraisal.