Dr Jonathan Graffy - Senior Clinical Research Associate

MSc MD DRCOG FRCGP

Dr Jonathan Graffy graduated from the University of Birmingham. After GP training in Nottingham and South London, he was appointed as a Clinical Lecturer at Barts and the London Medical School. From this, he took over a vacant inner city practice, developing it into an established teaching and research practice. In 1997 he established the East London and Essex Network of Researchers, with funding from the Dept of Health. More recently, he has led the establishment of the East of England Primary Care Research Network (PCRN-EoE), and combines this with his role as Co-director of the West Anglia Comprehensive Local Research Network.

He has been awarded two nationally-competitive research fellowships, (RCGP, 1994 and Dept of Health / Health Foundation, 2003).Much of his research has focussed on the contribution that patients and the public can make to the prevention and management of health problems. His MD thesis (2002) was entitled “Evaluating Breastfeeding Support: a randomised controlled trial from breastfeeding counsellors”. In more recent work he has focused mainly on Type 2 diabetes. In the DIALOGUE Study he has investigated patients’ experiences of health care for type 2 diabetes and whether feeding these experiences back to practice teams leads to improvements in services. In the RAPSID peer support he is investigating whether individual or group peer support improves outcomes for people with Type 2 diabetes, and what sort of people are the most effective volunteers for this role.

He is an active member of the MRC START collaboration, leading work to develop and test online recruitment support for clinical trials and has also published on ways to improve recruitment to clinical trials, initiatives to engage practitioners from various primary care disciplines in research and the configuration of research networks. An active clinician, he also works as a general practitioner in Sandy, Bedfordshire.

Selected publications

Simmons D, Cohn S, Bunn C, Birch K, Donald S, Paddison C, Ward C, Robins P, Prevost AT, Graffy J. Testing a peer support intervention for people with type 2 diabetes: a pilot for a randomised controlled trial. BMC Family Practice 2013; 14(1):5.http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/14/5

Graffy J, Goodhart C, Sennett K, Kamusiime G, Tukamushaba H (2012) Young people’s perspectives on the adoption of preventive measures for HIV/AIDS, malaria and family planning in South-West Uganda: Focus group study. BMC Public Health 2012; 12(1):1022. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/1022/abstract

Farmer A, Hardeman W, Hughes D, Prevost AT, Kim Y, Craven A, Oke J, Boase S, Selwood M, Kellar I, Graffy J, Griffin S, Sutton S, Kinmonth AL (2012) An explanatory randomised controlled trial of a nurse-led, consultation-based intervention to support patients with adherence to taking glucose lowering medication for type 2 diabetes. BMC Family Practice 13: 30. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/13/30/abstract

Russo D, Stochl J, Croudace T, Graffy J, Youens J, Jones P, Perez J. Use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to assess factors influencing the identification of individuals at ultra high-risk for psychosis in Primary Care. Early Intervention in Psychiatry. 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2011.00296.x

Graffy J, Grant J, Williams K, Cohn S, Macbay S, Griffin S, Kinmonth AL. More than measurement: practice team experiences of screening for type 2 diabetes. Family Practice 2010; doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmq022

Graffy J, Bower P, Ward E, Wallace P, Delaney B, Kinmonth AL, Collier D, Miller J. Trials within trials? Researcher, funder and ethical perspectives on the practicality and acceptability of nesting trials of recruitment methods in existing primary care trials BMC Medical Research Methodology 2010, 10:38 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/10/38

Ward E, Miller J, Graffy J, Bower P. Contrasting approaches to recruitment in primary care research. Primary Health Care Research & Development 2009; 10: 368-373. doi:10.1017/S1463423609990223

Graffy J, Eaton S, Sturt J, Chadwick P. Personalized care planning for diabetes: policy lessons from systematic reviews of consultation and self-management interventions. Primary Health Care Research & Development 2009; 10 (3), 210 – 222. http://journals.cambridge.org/repo_A57RLmwr

Graffy J, Grant J, Boase S, Ward E, Wallace P, Miller J, Kinmonth AL. UK Research staff perspectives on improving recruitment and retention to primary care research; nominal group exercise. Family Practice 2009;26, 48-55. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmn085

Graffy, J. (2008), Engaging family practitioners in research: are we getting it right?, Family Practice, 2008: 25, (2), 69-70

Graffy J, Grande M, Campbell J. (2008) Case management for elderly patients at risk of hospital admission: a team approach. Primary Health Care Research and Development, 2008: 9 (1): 7-13.

Thomas P, Graffy J, Wallace P, Kirby M. (2006) How can primary care networks help integrate academic and service initiatives in primary care? Annals of Family Medicine, 2006: 4: 235 – 239.

Graffy J, & Taylor J (2005) What Information, Advice, and Support Do Women Want With Breastfeeding? BIRTH, Issues in Perinatal Care 2005: 32, 179 –186.

Graffy J & Stubbs K (2005) The role of the practice manager in primary care research. Primary Health Care Research and Development, 2005; 6(1):24-30.

Graffy J, Taylor J, Williams A, Eldridge S (2004) Randomised controlled trial of support from volunteer counsellors for mothers considering breast feeding. British Medical Journal 2004; 328:26-31.

Francis SA, Smith F, Gray N and Graffy J. (2002) The roles of informal carers in the management of medication for older care-recipients. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2002; 10:1-9.

Davies J, Heyman B, Bryar R, Graffy J, Gunnell C, Lamb B and Morris L. (2002) The research potential of practice nurses. Health and Social Care in the Community, 2002; 10(5):370-381.