Dr Carol Rivas
Research Fellow
email: c.a.rivas@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7882 8999
Fax: +44 20 7882 2552
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Postal address:
2 Newark Street
Whitechapel
London E1 2AT
Carol has a PhD in Medical Sociology, an MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology and a BSc in Zoology. She has been a medical researcher since 1986, working first as a quantitative researcher at the National Poisons Unit and then St Mary’s Hospital, where she wrote several peer-reviewed papers, expert reports and book chapters on depression, suicide, and drugs of abuse. These involved epidemiological and health economics data gathering, analysis and dissemination.
In 2003 she joined what is now the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at Queen Mary, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Her first project here was a Cochrane systematic review of interventions for domestic violence. This led her to propose, obtain funding for and undertake qualitative research on social and cultural contexts in the lives of white British, black Caribbean and black African heterosexual women suffering relationship conflict that fits definitions of partner abuse. This research also formed the basis of her PhD.
Carol has also completed qualitative evaluations of two health service improvement interventions. The first was peer review with feedback as a way of improving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) service quality. This evaluation was commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) as part of a national trial of peer review. The second evaluation considered whether there was sustained effect from expert facilitation of small projects within mental health care services at four sites nationwide that were designed to enhance care for black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. This was the Enhancing Pathways Into Care (EPIC) project at the Centre for Psychiatry. Carol is currently working on a project with Clive Seale and Moira Kelly that onsiders the interaction between clinician and patient during diabetes consultations in local primary care. Carol is the technical lead and primary researcher; she has video/audio-recorded 57 consultations, formatted and edited these and undertaken preliminary coding. The aim is to do tiered analysis, including conversation analysis and to add to research knowledge through outputs as well as providing educational materials for clinicians and for patients that will enhance the consultation process.
Carol is actively involved in a range of teaching roles in the School of Medicine including medical sociology teaching, communication skills training, dissertation and project supervision, problem-based learning tutorials and student support. One of her students has just been awared the Rod Flower Scholarship with her. She has also run a London-wide postgraduate student group that met several times a year at Barts and the London to provide support, help and advice for developing qualitative researchers. Carol usually organised guest speakers for these meetings, who were asked to provide a facilitatory environment for students to draw on their expertise, rather than to showcase their research.
Areas of Expertise: gender, domestic violence, suicide, depression, social support and coping, ethnicity, aspects of organisational change and change management interventions. Carol is particularly interested in ethnicity, gender, identity work and communication.
Publications:
Hospital data may be more accurate than census data in estimating the ethnic composition of general practice populations.Hull SA, Rivas C, Bobby J, Boomla K, Robson J. 1: Inform Prim Care. 2009;17(2):67-78 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19807948?dopt=Abstract
Advocacy interventions to reduce or eliminate violence and promote the physical and psychosocial well-being of women who experience intimate partner abuse
Ramsay J, Carter Y, Davidson L, Dunne D, Eldridge S, Feder G, Hegarty K, Rivas C, Taft A, Warburton A. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD005043. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005043.pub2. http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD005043/frame.html
Selected past publications
Rivas C, Taylor SJC, Abbott S, Clarke A, Griffith C, Roberts CM. Them and us: Engaging clinicians, managers and commissioners in interventions for change in hospital service provision: Qualitative findings from the National COPD Resources and Outcomes Project J Epidemiol Commun H 62:A13-A13 Sep 2008
Interventions to reduce violence and promote the physical and psychosocial well-being of women who experience partner violence: A systematic review of controlled evaluations. Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, 2005. Ramsay J, Rivas C, Feder G. http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/74/26/04127426.pdf
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/whf/1995/vol16-no4/WHF_1995_16(4)_p374-376.pdf
Risk assessment on MDMA: review of the epidemiological data Henry JA, Rivas C. [Expert report on MDMA use in Europe.] EMCDDA, Lisbon, 2002
Increase in alcohol related deaths: is hepatitis C a factor?Rivas CA, Henry JA, Moloney C, Rivas C, Goldin RD. J Clin Pathol 55:704-707 2002 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769752/pdf/jcp05500704.pdf
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and suicides.Henry JA, Rivas CA. Chapter 7. In: Stanford, SC (editor). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): Past, present and future. RG Landes Co, Texas, 1999 http://www.landesbioscience.com/books/iu/id/759/; http://www.landesbioscience.com/curie/chapter/937/
Constraints on antidepressant prescribing and principles of cost-effective antidepressant use. Part I. Depression and its treatment.Rivas C, Henry JA. PharmacoEconomics 1997;11:419-443 http://adisonline.com/pharmacoeconomics/Abstract/1997/11050/Constraints_on_Antidepressant_Prescribing_and.5.aspx
Constraints on antidepressant prescribing and principles of cost-effective antidepressant use. Part II. Cost-effectiveness analyses.Rivas C, Henry JA. PharmacoEconomics 1997;11:515-437 http://adisonline.com/pharmacoeconomics/Abstract/1997/11060/Constraints_on_Antidepressant_Prescribing_and.2.aspx
Suicide in the young Alexander C, Henry JA. . Editorial. The International Monitor 1996;19:27-30
Relative mortality from overdose of antidepressantsHenry JA, Alexander CA, Sener EK. BMJ 1995;310:221-224 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2548619/pdf/bmj00577-0023.pdf
Suicide risk in women. Rivas C, Henry JA. Maternity and Child Health. July 1995:238-241
Control pain. Sole author, edited by Alison Taylor, Elsevier. http://www.controlpain-livelife.com/
Generic prescribing of antidepressants Bruck P, Henry JA, Antao C. . J R Soc Med 1992;85:682-685