Peter Knapp
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Profile

Biography

Peter Knapp is based in two York departments: Health Sciences (for research and PG supervision) and Hull York Medical School (HYMS), where he leads on evidence-based decision-making and teaches across years 1-4 of the MB BS degree.

He has worked in Higher Education since 1993, first at the University of Leeds and since 2011 at the University of York and HYMS. In 2015 he received a Vice-Chancellor's award for 'Excellence in Teaching' and in 2019 he was elected to Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).  Peter's main research interests are in patient engagement with healthcare and patient information, focused on information to support patient decision-making (including choice of treatments, self-management of long-term conditions and research participation). His aim is to improve the quality, usefulness and accessibility of information and make it much more accessible. In other words, to increase patients' opportunities to make informed decisions about their health and healthcare. (For more detail, please click on the 'Research' tab).

He has co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, generating 12,000 citations. Overall his work has a Hirsch (h) index of 58, meaning it isn’t only read by himself and a few mates.

Since 2020 he has been Chair of the HYMS Case Management Group (CMG). He was previously a member of the Fitness to Practice committees in HYMS (2013-19) and Health Sciences (2016-19), and the HYMS Mitigating and Exceptional Circumstances committee (2019-22).

Qualifications

• RGN (with Distinction), 1986
• BA (1^st class honours), Psychology and Sociology, University of Leeds, 1990
• PhD Psychology, University of Leeds, 1994 (via ESRC national studentship competition)

Departmental roles

• Member of Centre for Health and Population Sciences (CHaPS)

Research

Overview

Peter’s main research activity concerns patient engagement with healthcare, especially information for patients. This work encompasses: the communication of harm and benefit about treatments; information to support consent; health literacy and numeracy; inequalities in access to and use of information; and influences on patient decision making.

Funders for Peter's work have included the National Institute for Health Research, the Medical Research Council, the European Union COST Programme, the National Lottery Research Grants programme, the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Yorkshire Cancer Research.  

Projects

• The TRECA study (TRials Engagement in Children and Adolescents), funded by the NIHR HS&DR Programme to test the use of multi-media information in the recruitment to trials involving children and adolescents (led by Dr Peter Knapp, University of York).
• The RESTORE-II trial, funded by the Health Research Board (Republic of Ireland) to investigate rehabilitations strategies for survivors of HPB cancers, and which includes a recruitment SWAT (study within a trial), (led by Professor Juliette Hussey, Trinity College, Dublin).
• The MenSH-IBD study, funded by the Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme of NIHR to develop an intervention to help nurses improve the assessment and care of the sexual health needs of men with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, (led by Sara Ma and Professor Paul Galdas, University of York).
• The OSTRICH trial, funded by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme of NIHR to investigate treatments for children and young people with painful flat feet, and which includes a recruitment SWAT (led by Sarah Cockayne and Professor David Torgerson, University of York).
• The COUNTED study, funded by the Research for Patient Benefit Programme (of NIHR) to investigate the communication of treatment uncertainty to patients with dementia, (led by Dr Sarah Smith, Leeds Beckett University).
• The LIFEGUARD study, funded by the NIHR HS&DR Programme to develop and evaluate a safeguarding service in community pharmacies for people with suicidal ideation or suffering domestic abuse, (led by Dr Josie Solomon, University of Leicester).
• Cancer Screening Uptake in People with Learning Disabilities, funded through the NIHR ARC North-East & North Cumbria, (led by Dr Kate Sykes, Northumbria University).
• CUPID Cancer- Understanding Prevention in Intellectual Disabilities, funded through the European Union COST Programme, (led by Prof John Wells, South-East Technological University, Republic of Ireland).
• The effectiveness of video animations as informational tools for patients and practitioners (2 linked systematic reviews), funded through HYMS INSPIRE, (Peter Knapp PI in collaboration with Ella Evans, Nadia Benhebil and Moe Byrne).

Research group(s)

• Health Services and Policy

Teaching

Undergraduate

Peter teaches undergraduates in years 1-4 of the Hull York Medical School, where he leads on Evidence-Based Decision-Making. The teaching includes work on research design, statistics and the critical appraisal of research.

Postgraduate

Peter is a highly experienced research degree supervisor and examiner. He has supervised 16 doctoral students to successful completion and currently supervises two students (Rebecca Haythorne, Sara Ma).   

He has examined 18 research degrees, including ten as external examiner, at the universities of Bradford, Southampton (twice), Central Lancashire, Nottingham, Sydney (twice), Queen's University Belfast and the Medway School of Pharmacy (twice).

Other teaching

Taught Course External Examining

During 2011-16 Peter has been external examiner on the MSc in Rehabilitation Psychology at the University of Nottingham and, during 2016-19, on the MSc in Medical Leadership and Advanced Professional Development at De Montfort University.

Publications

Full publications list

• Peter Knapp's publications

External activities

Memberships

• From 1997 to 2012 Peter represented the British Psychological Society on the Multi-Collegiate Working Party for Stroke, during which time the group produced four editions of National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke and conducted five National Sentinel Audits of Care in Stroke.
• In 2004 Peter jointly founded Luto Research Limited (a spin-out company of the University of Leeds) with two academic colleagues. Luto was sold commercially in 2009 and continues to thrive: luto.co.uk
• Member of the HRA National Research & Ethics Advisors' Panel (NREAP) since 2016
• Member of the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit regional funding committee (Yorkshire & the North-East) since 2021

Invited talks and conferences

• Peter has delivered training on research participant information to members of NHS Research Ethics committees on eight occasions since 2012, in Manchester, Edinburgh, Leicester, Oxford, York and London.