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Dr Anna De Simoni, MBBS PhD FHEA MRCGP

Anna

Clinical Reader in Primary Care Research

Email: a.desimoni@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 0207 882 2520

Profile

I am an academic GP specialising in improving self-management and adherence to medications in patients with long-term conditions. I co-lead the Centre for Primary Care.

I combine basic science, clinical and applied research, with training including a PhD in Neurophysiology in neural networks (Milan), an EU-funded Individual Marie Curie post-doctoral Fellowship (UCL), a NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship at University of Cambridge, and a NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship award at QMUL.

I am leading AD-HOC, a NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research (PGfAR) to carry out an interdisciplinary programme, combining network science, big data analytics and computational social science with industry and charity partners, to examine and theorise the relationship between online peer support and patient health outcomes, and evaluate health impacts of digital social interventions in primary care.

I utilise systematic reviews, Patient Involvement, qualitative and quantitative methodologies to evaluate digital and social interventions to improve self-management and adherence to medications in long-term conditions. I use multidisciplinary approaches that include network science.

I sit in the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR) Central Management Committee, and co-lead the AUKCAR Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group, and was a member of the London NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Committee between 2020 and 2024.

I provide supervision to undergraduate (SSC) and postgraduate students (MSc, PhD, postdoc).

My clinical work includes in-hours GP, urgent A&E and GP care in Out of Hours settings.

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests include:

  1. Digital social interventions for patients with long-term conditions as:
  • self-management support intervention and its integration with primary care services. This is achieved through an interdisciplinary team including network science, big data analytics, computational social science, information governance, ethic and medical law expertise, in partnership with industry and charities.

I am leading AD-HOC, a programme of research to answer the question: Does promoting engagement in an online health community in primary care improve asthma control and quality of life?

  • source of source of data for qualitative research on patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives and unmet needs.

 

  1. Adherence to medications in long-term conditions (stroke, hypertension, diabetes, asthma), and the use of technology to improve and monitor adherence. I am a co-applicant in the NIHR funded PGfAR: PAM – Programme on Adherence to Medication and NIHR i4i: Technology Enhanced integrAted asthMa care. TEAM-care.

 

  1. Primary care after TIA/stroke.

 

  1. Primary Care and domestic violence.

Publications

Please click through to see a complete list of Anna's publications

Supervision

  1. Jasmine Hine – Imperial College London, AUKCAR funded. Title: Electronic reminders and incentives to improve adherence to inhaled asthma treatments in adolescents. https://www.temp.aukcar.ac.uk/what-we-do/postgraduate/current-students/jasmine-hine
  2. Anya Jacobs, QMUL, Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Science. Title: Development of a long-term health economic evaluative framework of adult asthma for assessing asthma strategies in UK primary
  3. Charis Xie, QMUL, Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Science. Title: Exploring the use of routine health data in improving the efficiency of randomised implementation trials.
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