Experiences of health and illness: video and audio illness narratives for patients, the public and research

About

Sue Ziebland is a Reader in Qualitative Health Research and research director of the DIPEx Health experiences research group in the Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford. The group of 11 social science researchers conduct qualitative interview studies, throughout the UK, for two multimedia web sites www.healthtalkonline.org (formerly DIPEx) and www.youthhealthtalk.org.

The websites include analyses of the main issues identified in interview studies and are illustrated with hundreds of video, audio and written clips, as well as evidence based information about each condition or health issue. The site is intended for patients, their families and friends, patient representatives, and health professionals in training. Since their first projects were launched in July 2001 over 45 conditions have been covered including the main cancers, living with dying, heart diseases, pregnancy and childbirth, screening, epilepsy, RA, diabetes, depression, mental illness in BME communities and autism and Asperger’s Disease.

In October 2008 a major re-design of the site was launched. In this talk Sue will talk about the history of the projects and the rationale for the research-based approach to Patients’ Experiences, and show video clips from the interviews.