Dr Catherine Will

Biography

My research to date has been in the fields of Science and Technology Studies, sociology of health and illness, and health and social policy. My first degree was in History, but I got interested in social theory at the end of that degree, and during a year spent in Heidelberg, and came back to do a Masters and then PhD at the University of Essex. During this time I also worked at the Centre for Civil Society at the London School of Economics, on a project on third sector organisations and policy in the EU. I did postdoctoral work with an ESRC/MRC fellowship held as a joint appointment at the Institute of Public Health and Department of Social Anthropology in Cambridge, before coming to Sussex in 2007.

Role

Lecturer.

Community and Business

I have done some consultancy work for Primary Care Trusts interested in the organisation of clinical work and prospects for preventive healthcare in community medicine. I am also developing an interest in the field of childcare, and would be interested in opportunities for collaboration in this area. 

I have just completed an ESRC funded project on 'DIY Heart Health' the use of low-dose statins, investigating consumer / patient responses to an over-the-counter product for cardiovascular risk reduction, and drawing comparisons with prescription statins and with other commercial products for heart health. This work has been in collaboration with Dr Kate Weiner from the University of Manchester.

Our statin project feeds into ongoing work on the idea and organisation of preventive healthcare in the UK over the last 20 or so years. This has resulted in publications on the meaning of 'effectiveness' for doctors, patients and government in this area, and on risk in policy and in clinical practice. I am also interested in looking at preventive action in health in other national or international contexts, and in other areas such as social care, finance and environmental action - and in particular exploring the ways in which different sciences or forms of evidence are marshalled in support of such intervention. 

A second major theme in my research to date has thus been work to develop a sociological account of clinical trials and  the movement that came to be known as evidence-based medicine: the call to ground medical practice more firmly and systematically on results from randomised controlled trials and other forms of statistical reasoning. In 2010 I published an edited collection on clinical trials with Dr Tiago Moreira at Durham University entitled Medical Proofs, Social Experiments: Clinical trials in shifting contexts with Ashgate, in which we brought together diverse ethnographic accounts of trials to illustrate their diverse effects. (This has recently been reviewed by Matthew Meyer in the Health Sociology Review).

Rather than counterpoising scientific evidence with practice I am keen therefore to explore the ways in which practice incorporates statistical reasoning, and trials accommodate to the complexities of clinical work. I have completed several projects exploring professional perspectives on both evidence and new technologies which carry epidemiological logics and the concept of 'risk' into the routines and chronologies of clinical care. I have also explored the affinities between these logics and those of policy, through decisions and debates about the scientific and social goods pursued through health care institutions. Finally, I have used ethnography and interviews to explore the world of the patient-participant in clinical trials, including trials of both pharmaceuticals and stem cells and am currently involved in supervising several postgraduate projects in this area, with funding from the Wellcome Trust through Labtec: the London and Brighton Translational Ethics Centre. 

I also have an ongoing interest in the work of patient organisations as part of the broader sector of not-for-profit organisations and advocacy networks or 'civil society', which began with my involvement in the third sector European policy network, based at the London School of Economics.

Postgraduate supervision

I would be happy to hear from potential graduate students with an interest in studying preventive logics, quantification, risk thinking or prudentialism in different contexts (health, social policy / childcare, environment, finance); voluntary and third sector activity in these areas; pharmaceuticals and medicine use; clinical research and innovation; the use of evidence in policy; or health care governance and regulation in different national or international contexts.  

My current doctoral students include: 

Anna Grinsbergs: Public Ethics, Social Movements? Stakeholder Perspectives on Experimental Neuroscience

Jane Peek: The Courage to Participate? Patients’ Views on Experimental Neuroscience

Kate Spiegelhalter: The 'Nudge' Agenda in Mental Health.

I convene and teach core courses in quantitative and qualitative methodology to second year students in the Department, and supervise third year projects. I convene a course on the MSc in Global Public Health on Values, Ethics and Politics in Public Health, and have several graduate students working on different areas of healthcare, including clinical trials, patient associations, stem cell treatments and the 'nudge' agenda in promoting healthy behaviours. 

Student Consultation

Drop in consultation times for academic advice and feedback are 1-2pm Tuesdays and 12-1pm Fridays for the first half of the autumn term (after this I expect to be on maternity leave). Please email me to make an appointment if you can't make these times.

Morlacchi, Piera and Will, Catherine (2012) Designs for evidence: public and private faces of cardiac surgery research. In: Design and displacement - social studies of science and technology, 17-20 October 2012, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark.

Eborall, Helen C and Will, Catherine M (2011) Prevention is better than cure, but...: Preventive medication as a risk to ordinariness? Health, Risk and Society, 13 (7-8). pp. 653-668. ISSN 1363-4593

Will, Catherine M (2011) Mutual benefit, added value? Doing research in the National Health Service. Journal of Cultural Economy, 4 (1). pp. 11-26. ISSN 1753-0350

Will, Catherine and Moreira, Tiago (2010) Conclusion: So What? In: Medical Proofs, Social Experiments: Clinical Trials in Shifting Contexts. Ashgate, pp. 153-161. ISBN 978-0-7546-7928-8

Unset (2010) Medical proofs, social experiments: clinical trials in shifting contexts. Ashgate, Farnham. ISBN 9780754679288

Will, Catherine (2010) The management of enthusiasm: motives and expectations in cardiovascular medicine. Health, 14 (6). pp. 547-563. ISSN 1363-4593

Will, Catherine M, Armstrong, David and Marteau, Theresa M. (2010) Genetic unexceptionalism: Clinician accounts of genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia. Social Science and Medicine, 71 (5). pp. 910-917. ISSN 0277-9536

Will, Catherine (2009) Identifying Effectiveness in 'The Old Old': Principles and Values in the Age of Clinical Trials. Science, Technology, and Human Values, 34 (5). pp. 607-628. ISSN 0162-2439

Will, Catherine and Kendall, Jeremy (2009) A New Settlement for Europe: Towards 'Open, Transparent and Regular Dialogue with Representative Associations and Civil Society¿? In: Handbook On Third Sector Policy In Europe: Multi-level Processes and Organized Civil Society. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781845429607

Will, Catherine M (2007) The alchemy of clinical trials. BioSocieties, 2 (1). pp. 85-99. ISSN 1745-8552

Will, Catherine (2005) Arguing about the evidence: readers, writers and inscription devices in coronary heart disease risk assessment. Sociology of Health and Illness, 27 (6). pp. 780-801. ISSN 01419889

Will, Catherine, Crowhurst, Isabel, Larsson, Ola, Kendall, Jeremy, Olsson, Lars-Erik and Nordfeldt, Marie (2005) The challenges of translation. Working Paper. Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics.