Christopher Mckevitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 87927 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher Mckevitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher |
| FAMILY NAME | Mckevitt |
| SIGNATURE | MCKEVITT C |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5290-4613 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 101 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Exploring stroke survivor and employer experiences of disruption within the RETurn to work After stroKE (Retake) trial during the Covid-19 pandemic
Post-pandemic, remote working is more acceptable, which may benefit future stroke survivors aiming to return to work whilst managing post-stroke fatigue. This may mitigate disruption to lives and post-stroke identities
A Completely Different Person
Stroke is a leading cause of complex disability, with many survivors experiencing mobility, cognitive and/or speech and language impairment. This paper explores the relationship between biographical disruption and body studies through experiences of informal care in stroke. Drawing on narratives from 41 interviews with stroke survivors and their wider support network, we use Michael Bury's concept of 'biographical disruption' alongside body studi…
The provision of person‐centred care for care home residents with stroke
Care home residents with stroke have higher levels of disability and poorer access to health services than those living in their own homes. We undertook observations and semi-structured interviews (n = 28 participants) with managers, staff, residents who had experienced a stroke and their relatives in four homes in London, England, in 2018/2019. Thematic analysis revealed that residents' needs regarding valued activity and stroke-specific care an…
Governing Researchers through Public Involvement
This paper focuses on recent developments in UK health research policy, which place new pressures on researchers to address issues of accountability and impact through the implementation of patient and public involvement (PPI). We draw on an in-depth interview study with 20 professional researchers, and we analyse their experiences of competing for research funding, focusing on PPI as a process of professional research governance. We unearth domi…
Exploring liminality in the co-design of rehabilitation environments
This paper describes an Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) project that aimed to increase patient activity within an acute stroke unit. We apply the concept of liminality to explore ways in which the EBCD process, a form of Participatory Action Research, may dilute or even dissolve social hierarchies and challenge assumptions about practices and constraints in this care setting, thereby opening up possibilities for transformation that enhances the…
It’s Difficult, There’s No Formula”
Generalists and specialists recognise the need for better communication with each other. Current care is characterised by silo-based working that ignores the contribution of other sectors. Failure to bridge this communication gap will result in people with stroke continuing to experience unmet stroke needs and fragmented care
Caring for data
Drawing upon ethnographic observations of staff working within a research laboratory built around research and clinical data from twins, this article analyzes practices underlying the production and maintenance of a research database. While critical data studies have discussed different forms of 'data work' through which data are produced and turned into effective research resources, in this paper we foreground a specific form of data work, namel…
Delivering healthcare's 'triple aim
The UK National Health Service (NHS) is changing. Consecutive UK industrial strategies have supported the shift from an NHS that provides free-at-point-of-delivery healthcare to one that also facilitates research. Said to promote healthcare's triple aim of 'better health, better healthcare, and lower cost' (Wachter, 2016, 3), the digitisation of patient records is a core part in opening routine aspects of the health system to potential research. …
The Possibilities and Limits of “Co-producing” Research
In this perspective paper, we explore the growing enthusiasm for "co-produced" research, focusing in particular on the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health Research's (NIHR) recent adoption of the term co-production. We consider how this interest in co-production is driven by concerns that patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research tends to be "tokenistic" and to reproduce power imbalances between researchers and lay contri…
Citizen Participation in Neoliberal Times
As we write this introduction, much of the global economy remains in crisis, a wave of ethno-nationalist populism continues to sweep countries across the global north and south, while neoliberal politics reaffirms its firm grip on their future. At the same time, the role of borders, both physical and symbolic, acquires renewed importance, creating new exclusionary zones and unsettling modernity’s settled concepts of democratic ‘citizenship’. How …
Patient, carer and public involvement in major system change in acute stroke services
BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement is required where changes to care provided by the UK National Health Service are proposed. Yet involvement is characterized by ambiguity about its rationales, methods and impact. AIMS: To understand how patients and carers were involved in major system changes (MSCs) to the delivery of acute stroke care in 2 English cities, and what kinds of effects involvement was thought to produce. METHODS: Analysis o…
Patient experience of centralized acute stroke care pathways
BACKGROUND: In 2010, Greater Manchester (GM) and London centralized acute stroke care services into a reduced number of hyperacute stroke units, with local stroke units providing on-going care nearer patients' homes. OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of centralized acute stroke care pathways on the experiences of patients. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. Thematic analysis was undertaken, using deductive and inductive approaches. Final data an…
Patient‐initiated recruitment for clinical research
BACKGROUND: UK Hospital Trusts are charged with increasing patients' research awareness and willingness to take part in research. This includes implementing strategies to encourage patient-initiated enquiries about participation. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of a research statement inserted in outpatient letters in one clinical service, and to derive suggestions on potential steps towards increasing patient-initiated recruitment. SETTING: A…
Markers as mediators
Citizen Participation as Political Ritual
This article examines citizen participation in health research, where funders increasingly seek to promote and define 'patient and public involvement' (PPI). In England, the focus of our study, government policy articulates a specific set of meanings attached to PPI that fuse patients' rights and responsibilities as citizens, as 'consumers' and as 'lay experts'. However, little is known about the meanings those who take part in PPI activities att…
Disciplinary power and the process of training informal carers on stroke units
This article examines the process of training informal carers on stroke units using the lens of power. Care is usually assumed as a kinship obligation but the state has long had an interest in framing the carer and caring work. Training carers in healthcare settings raises questions about the power of the state and healthcare professionals as its agents to shape expectations and practices related to the caring role. Drawing on Foucault's notion o…
Rethinking the relationship between science and society
BACKGROUND: The policy imperative to engage the public and patients in research can be seen as part of a wider shift in the research environment. This study addresses the question: Has there been a shift in attitudes to Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) and Public Engagement in Science (PES) amongst researchers? METHODS: Attitudes to PPI and PES within a cluster of three NIHR supported Biomedical Research Centres were explored through in-depth…
Developing a novel peer support intervention to promote resilience after stroke
Stroke can lead to physical, mental and social long-term consequences, with the incidence of stroke increasing with age. However, there is a lack of evidence of how to improve long-term outcomes for people with stroke. Resilience, the ability to 'bounce back', flourish or thrive in the face of adversity improves mental health and quality of life in older adults. However, the role of resilience in adjustment after stroke has been little investigat…
Patient engagement with research
BACKGROUND: Lay involvement in implementation of research evidence into practice may include using research findings to guide individual care, as well as involvement in research processes and policy development. Little is known about the conditions required for such involvement. AIM: To assess stroke survivors' research awareness, use of research evidence in their own care and readiness to be involved in research processes. METHODS: Cross section…
Configuring the patient as clinical research subject in the UK national health service
This paper examines a central image in UK academic clinical research - the patient as altruistic research subject - by means of an interpretive review of social science, bioethical and bioscience research and development policy literatures. The review examines this image as it is indicted in discussions about the nature of clinical science; is consolidated in the ethical regulation of this science; and is articulated in recent bioscience research…
Experience, knowledge and evidence
Patient and public involvement in health research has been promoted by the United Kingdom's Department of Health and its research funding agencies for at least a decade. The policy rhetoric through which it is promoted is based on the idea that patients’ experiential knowledge can be harnessed to improve the quality and relevance of health research. This paper uses the comparative case of post-colonial critiques of anthropology to propose ways of…
Expert carers’
What is involvement in research and what does it achieve? Reflections on a pilot study of the personal costs of stroke
Background Health researchers are encouraged to involve service users as partners in their research. There is a need to increase the evidence base of involvement, including an accumulation of empirical accounts of involvement practices, demonstrating how involvement influences research and refinement of the concept itself. Aims To report the development of a pilot study by academic researchers and stroke service users belonging to a user research…
Disability in local and global worlds – Edited by Benedicte Ingstad & Susan Reynolds Whyte
Preventing stroke
Caring for data
Drawing upon ethnographic observations of staff working within a research laboratory built around research and clinical data from twins, this article analyzes practices underlying the production and maintenance of a research database. While critical data studies have discussed different forms of 'data work' through which data are produced and turned into effective research resources, in this paper we foreground a specific form of data work, namel…
Against Death
Robert Ariss - activist and academic - had a unique vision of HIV/AIDS. As an HIV seropositive individual for many years before his death on May 9, 1994, he was a full participant in, and critic of, the development of the gay community's response to the HIV epidemic both in Australia and internationally. Though Ariss' life is a definite presence in this study, Against Death: The Practice of Living with AIDS is not an autobiography. Instead, it is…
Anomalous Patients
Variations in the distribution of power have been used to account for and to advocate different types of doctor‐patient relationship. It might be expected that doctors who become patients would have a ‘mutual’ relationship with their treating doctor. Data from interviews with doctors with a recent illness show that this is not necessarily the case and may not even be doctors’ preferred model of doctor‐patient relationship for themselves when they…
Citizen Participation as Political Ritual
This article examines citizen participation in health research, where funders increasingly seek to promote and define 'patient and public involvement' (PPI). In England, the focus of our study, government policy articulates a specific set of meanings attached to PPI that fuse patients' rights and responsibilities as citizens, as 'consumers' and as 'lay experts'. However, little is known about the meanings those who take part in PPI activities att…
Delivering healthcare's 'triple aim
The UK National Health Service (NHS) is changing. Consecutive UK industrial strategies have supported the shift from an NHS that provides free-at-point-of-delivery healthcare to one that also facilitates research. Said to promote healthcare's triple aim of 'better health, better healthcare, and lower cost' (Wachter, 2016, 3), the digitisation of patient records is a core part in opening routine aspects of the health system to potential research. …
The Possibilities and Limits of “Co-producing” Research
In this perspective paper, we explore the growing enthusiasm for "co-produced" research, focusing in particular on the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health Research's (NIHR) recent adoption of the term co-production. We consider how this interest in co-production is driven by concerns that patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research tends to be "tokenistic" and to reproduce power imbalances between researchers and lay contri…
Developing a novel peer support intervention to promote resilience after stroke
Stroke can lead to physical, mental and social long-term consequences, with the incidence of stroke increasing with age. However, there is a lack of evidence of how to improve long-term outcomes for people with stroke. Resilience, the ability to 'bounce back', flourish or thrive in the face of adversity improves mental health and quality of life in older adults. However, the role of resilience in adjustment after stroke has been little investigat…
Configuring the patient as clinical research subject in the UK national health service
This paper examines a central image in UK academic clinical research - the patient as altruistic research subject - by means of an interpretive review of social science, bioethical and bioscience research and development policy literatures. The review examines this image as it is indicted in discussions about the nature of clinical science; is consolidated in the ethical regulation of this science; and is articulated in recent bioscience research…
Expert carers’
Experience, knowledge and evidence
Patient and public involvement in health research has been promoted by the United Kingdom's Department of Health and its research funding agencies for at least a decade. The policy rhetoric through which it is promoted is based on the idea that patients’ experiential knowledge can be harnessed to improve the quality and relevance of health research. This paper uses the comparative case of post-colonial critiques of anthropology to propose ways of…
Sexually transmitted infections among Black young people in south-east London
Epidemiological research has found a ten-fold ethnic disparity in rates of sexually transmitted infections among young people in south-east London. A rapid ethnographic assessment was conducted as part of a first phase of work to reduce the risk of bacterial sexually transmitted infections among heterosexual youth of Black Caribbean and African extraction. Methods included secondary data-collection, semi-structured street and group observations, …
The unfortunate generation
Short stories about stroke
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Exploring liminality in the co-design of rehabilitation environments
This paper describes an Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) project that aimed to increase patient activity within an acute stroke unit. We apply the concept of liminality to explore ways in which the EBCD process, a form of Participatory Action Research, may dilute or even dissolve social hierarchies and challenge assumptions about practices and constraints in this care setting, thereby opening up possibilities for transformation that enhances the…
It’s Difficult, There’s No Formula”
Generalists and specialists recognise the need for better communication with each other. Current care is characterised by silo-based working that ignores the contribution of other sectors. Failure to bridge this communication gap will result in people with stroke continuing to experience unmet stroke needs and fragmented care
Citizen Participation in Neoliberal Times
As we write this introduction, much of the global economy remains in crisis, a wave of ethno-nationalist populism continues to sweep countries across the global north and south, while neoliberal politics reaffirms its firm grip on their future. At the same time, the role of borders, both physical and symbolic, acquires renewed importance, creating new exclusionary zones and unsettling modernity’s settled concepts of democratic ‘citizenship’. How …
Doing Health Anthropology
Doing Health Anthropology: Research Methods for Community Assessment and Change. Christie W. Kiefer. New York: Springer, 2007, xvii. 281 pp
Community and contracts
Voluntary action rooted in community activism was central to the earliest collective responses to AIDS in Britain and the US, and resulted in the emergence of a wide range of community and non‐governmental organisations working to alleviate the impact of the epidemic on affected communities. Drawing on data from a series of in‐depth case studies conducted among voluntary agencies working in the field of HIV and AIDS in Britain, this paper illumin…
Contestation et fabrication d'un culte
Traduit de l'anglais par Solange Pinton Récemment, l'hebdomadaire italien Epoca a consacré une étude intitulée Italia dei miracoli aux visionnaires, guérisseurs, saints hommes et saintes femmes chargés, croit-on, de pouvoirs extraordinaires – une cinquantaine dans l'Italie d'aujourd'hui, estime l'auteur, dont « plus de la moitié sont des charlatans [...], le nombre de vrais mystiques s'élevant à dix environ, en comptant ceux récemment décédés » (…
The provision of person‐centred care for care home residents with stroke
Care home residents with stroke have higher levels of disability and poorer access to health services than those living in their own homes. We undertook observations and semi-structured interviews (n = 28 participants) with managers, staff, residents who had experienced a stroke and their relatives in four homes in London, England, in 2018/2019. Thematic analysis revealed that residents' needs regarding valued activity and stroke-specific care an…
Governing Researchers through Public Involvement
This paper focuses on recent developments in UK health research policy, which place new pressures on researchers to address issues of accountability and impact through the implementation of patient and public involvement (PPI). We draw on an in-depth interview study with 20 professional researchers, and we analyse their experiences of competing for research funding, focusing on PPI as a process of professional research governance. We unearth domi…
Disciplinary power and the process of training informal carers on stroke units
This article examines the process of training informal carers on stroke units using the lens of power. Care is usually assumed as a kinship obligation but the state has long had an interest in framing the carer and caring work. Training carers in healthcare settings raises questions about the power of the state and healthcare professionals as its agents to shape expectations and practices related to the caring role. Drawing on Foucault's notion o…
A Saint for Aids
The author earned a PhD in social anthropology at the London School of Economics and is currently a coordinator for the Associazione Solidarietai AIDS, Milan. Recently a 16th century saint has been in the news in Italy not because any new miracles have been attributed to him but because it has been suggested that he be assigned a new role. The saint in question is Luigi Gonzaga and the new job which has been proposed is that of patron saint of pe…
HIV/Aids in Europe
Contestation et fabrication d'un culte
Traduit de l'anglais par Solange Pinton Récemment, l'hebdomadaire italien Epoca a consacré une étude intitulée Italia dei miracoli aux visionnaires, guérisseurs, saints hommes et saintes femmes chargés, croit-on, de pouvoirs extraordinaires – une cinquantaine dans l'Italie d'aujourd'hui, estime l'auteur, dont « plus de la moitié sont des charlatans [...], le nombre de vrais mystiques s'élevant à dix environ, en comptant ceux récemment décédés » (…
Community and contracts
Voluntary action rooted in community activism was central to the earliest collective responses to AIDS in Britain and the US, and resulted in the emergence of a wide range of community and non‐governmental organisations working to alleviate the impact of the epidemic on affected communities. Drawing on data from a series of in‐depth case studies conducted among voluntary agencies working in the field of HIV and AIDS in Britain, this paper illumin…
Anomalous Patients
Variations in the distribution of power have been used to account for and to advocate different types of doctor‐patient relationship. It might be expected that doctors who become patients would have a ‘mutual’ relationship with their treating doctor. Data from interviews with doctors with a recent illness show that this is not necessarily the case and may not even be doctors’ preferred model of doctor‐patient relationship for themselves when they…
Against Death
Robert Ariss - activist and academic - had a unique vision of HIV/AIDS. As an HIV seropositive individual for many years before his death on May 9, 1994, he was a full participant in, and critic of, the development of the gay community's response to the HIV epidemic both in Australia and internationally. Though Ariss' life is a definite presence in this study, Against Death: The Practice of Living with AIDS is not an autobiography. Instead, it is…
Short stories about stroke
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Sexually transmitted infections among Black young people in south-east London
Epidemiological research has found a ten-fold ethnic disparity in rates of sexually transmitted infections among young people in south-east London. A rapid ethnographic assessment was conducted as part of a first phase of work to reduce the risk of bacterial sexually transmitted infections among heterosexual youth of Black Caribbean and African extraction. Methods included secondary data-collection, semi-structured street and group observations, …
Anthropology in health research
As a response to concerns about the standard of qualitative research, attention has focused on the methods used. However, this may constrain the direction and content of qualitative studies and legitimise substandard research. Helen Lambert and Christopher McKevitt explain why anthropology may be able to contribute useful insights to health research Qualitative methods are now common in research into the social and cultural dimensions of ill heal…
A review and commentary of the social factors which influence stroke care
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the UK and a major cause of adult disability. Stroke services have long been criticised for being deficient and there is evidence that some aspects of care provision vary across different population groups. While there is information about the patterns of service provision, questions remain about processes which might underlie these variations. The present paper sought to assess how well the proce…
The unfortunate generation
Risk management after stroke
Current strategies to reduce risk of stroke recurrence are reported to be inadequate. This paper reports findings from a qualitative observational study investigating how risk management is practiced in the stroke outpatient clinic. The 'patient-centred' approach has been proposed as a mechanism to improve the quality of health care delivery. It is thought that focusing on patients' wants, needs and preferences is ethically desirable and will lea…
Falling through the net of stroke care
The provision of healthcare services has been shown to differ by social characteristics such as gender, age and social status. The processes by which such differences arise are unclear. We report findings from a qualitative interview study with stroke service providers undertaken during an investigation of inequalities in stroke care. We interviewed 41 professionals from hospital and community settings in south London. Participants’ accounts are …
Preventing stroke
Doing Health Anthropology
Doing Health Anthropology: Research Methods for Community Assessment and Change. Christie W. Kiefer. New York: Springer, 2007, xvii. 281 pp
Disability in local and global worlds – Edited by Benedicte Ingstad & Susan Reynolds Whyte
What is involvement in research and what does it achieve? Reflections on a pilot study of the personal costs of stroke
Background Health researchers are encouraged to involve service users as partners in their research. There is a need to increase the evidence base of involvement, including an accumulation of empirical accounts of involvement practices, demonstrating how involvement influences research and refinement of the concept itself. Aims To report the development of a pilot study by academic researchers and stroke service users belonging to a user research…
Expert carers’
Experience, knowledge and evidence
Patient and public involvement in health research has been promoted by the United Kingdom's Department of Health and its research funding agencies for at least a decade. The policy rhetoric through which it is promoted is based on the idea that patients’ experiential knowledge can be harnessed to improve the quality and relevance of health research. This paper uses the comparative case of post-colonial critiques of anthropology to propose ways of…
Patient engagement with research
BACKGROUND: Lay involvement in implementation of research evidence into practice may include using research findings to guide individual care, as well as involvement in research processes and policy development. Little is known about the conditions required for such involvement. AIM: To assess stroke survivors' research awareness, use of research evidence in their own care and readiness to be involved in research processes. METHODS: Cross section…
Configuring the patient as clinical research subject in the UK national health service
This paper examines a central image in UK academic clinical research - the patient as altruistic research subject - by means of an interpretive review of social science, bioethical and bioscience research and development policy literatures. The review examines this image as it is indicted in discussions about the nature of clinical science; is consolidated in the ethical regulation of this science; and is articulated in recent bioscience research…
Rethinking the relationship between science and society
BACKGROUND: The policy imperative to engage the public and patients in research can be seen as part of a wider shift in the research environment. This study addresses the question: Has there been a shift in attitudes to Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) and Public Engagement in Science (PES) amongst researchers? METHODS: Attitudes to PPI and PES within a cluster of three NIHR supported Biomedical Research Centres were explored through in-depth…
Developing a novel peer support intervention to promote resilience after stroke
Stroke can lead to physical, mental and social long-term consequences, with the incidence of stroke increasing with age. However, there is a lack of evidence of how to improve long-term outcomes for people with stroke. Resilience, the ability to 'bounce back', flourish or thrive in the face of adversity improves mental health and quality of life in older adults. However, the role of resilience in adjustment after stroke has been little investigat…
Patient, carer and public involvement in major system change in acute stroke services
BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement is required where changes to care provided by the UK National Health Service are proposed. Yet involvement is characterized by ambiguity about its rationales, methods and impact. AIMS: To understand how patients and carers were involved in major system changes (MSCs) to the delivery of acute stroke care in 2 English cities, and what kinds of effects involvement was thought to produce. METHODS: Analysis o…
Patient experience of centralized acute stroke care pathways
BACKGROUND: In 2010, Greater Manchester (GM) and London centralized acute stroke care services into a reduced number of hyperacute stroke units, with local stroke units providing on-going care nearer patients' homes. OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of centralized acute stroke care pathways on the experiences of patients. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. Thematic analysis was undertaken, using deductive and inductive approaches. Final data an…
Medicine (22 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Nursing (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Mental Health and Patient Involvement (12 works) · Health care (11 works) · Public relations (9 works) · Qualitative research (9 works) · Law (8 works)