Professor Valerie Lattimer

Val Lattimer is Professor of Health Services Research in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of East Anglia and Dean of the School of Nursing Sciences. She was previously Director of Research at the University of Southampton School of Health Sciences. A registered nurse, Val trained at St Thomas’ Hospital in London and worked in clinical practice in a variety of settings before becoming involved in health professional education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. A Department of Health PhD studentship and subsequent MRC Post Doctoral Fellowship in Health Services Research led  Val to develop research in the area of the organisation and delivery of health care. Her PhD examined the safety and effectiveness of nurse telephone consultation in out-of-hours care.

Her research programme over the last fifteen years has centred on in improving access to health care, especially emergency and urgent primary care, by investigating new ways of working, new practitioner roles and the impact of these on patient experience and outcomes and on the performance of health systems. Her methodological interests lie in examining the clinical and cost effectiveness of interventions through clinical trials which include adjunct methods to address questions of acceptability, patient preferences and economic evaluation. She has experience in case study research, applications of systems dynamics modelling and in qualitative methods. Val’s research is typically multidisciplinary and includes collaborators in a range of centres. For example as a Principal Investigator on the HTA ‘ESTEEM’ Trial with the universities of Exeter, Bristol and Warwick, Val’s research team is investigating the clinical and cost effectiveness of nurse versus GP triage in comparison with standard care for same day appointments in general practice.