Small-Scale Evaluation in Health: A Practical Guide

Small-Scale Evaluation in Health is an easy-to-use guide that sets out the basics of designing, conducting, and analyzing an evaluation study in healthcare settings from start to finish.

The authors take a straight-forward, practical approach, assuming no previous knowledge or experience of evaluation. All the basics are covered, including:

• How to plan an evaluation
• Research Governance and ethics
• Understanding data
• Interpreting findings
• Writing a report

Cases included throughout demonstrate evaluation in action, and self learning courses are available to give the reader an opportunity to develop their skills further in the methods and analysis involved in evaluation. This is a supportive, accessible guide that is ideal for healthcare professionals and students designing and conducting their own evaluation studies for the first time.

I have worked in the field of epidemiology for chronic disease for 12+ years and have published more than 40 papers in this field. I am Senior Lecturer in the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) which is one of five new UKCRC Centres of Public Health Research Excellence.

Member of the steering committee of the European Diabetes Epidemiology Group.
Member of British Society for Rheumatology.


I am a professor in Health Services Research, based in the Centre for Health Information Research and Evaluation (CHIRAL) in the School of Medicine at Swansea University. I am currently Director of AWARD′s Mid and West Wales section. My main research interests and expertise lie in the fields of Emergency Pre-hospital and Unscheduled Care, Clinical Audit and Effectiveness, and research support. I am chair of the 999 EMS Research forum and lead the Thematic Research network for emergency and UnScheduled Treatment (TRUST). The focus of my work is to plan, design and carry out evaluations of new models of service delivery. My work is strongly patient-focused and collaborative, and uses mixed methods to achieve study aims - ranging from randomised controlled trials to action research. In recent years, my research support work has taken me to new areas and I have recently been involved in diverse studies concerning; evaluation of policy related to Chronic Conditions Management; evaluation of the delivery of a bibliotherapy scheme in Wales; the provision of gastrointestinal services; and health-related community development.

I was awarded a personal chair in 2006. I am a sociologist who specialises in research which explores the experience of patients, service users and carers. I have a particular interest in the use of qualitative methods especially in methods designed to analyse talk and text.