Tim works at the intersection of ethnomethodology, medical sociology and implementation science, engaging in conceptually-driven empirical research to create substantive practice change and impact.
He likes to understand the everyday, taken-for-granted, aspects of medical, health and social care work. A focus on what people actually do, as opposed to only what they think they do, or they tell you they do, can offer unique, practical and tailored solutions. He is a Professor of Applied Health Care Research in the School ofCommunities and Education, having joined ֲýƵ in November 2017.
Tim’s PhD focused on how social science research takes place in, through and as joint, collaborative, work. Since then, he has always worked in multidisciplinary teams, with diverse stakeholders. He collaborates with academic, patient, public and practice colleagues nationally and internationally, developing and supporting implementation and process thinking. Together, we have undertaken studies in community, primary, secondary and tertiary health care as well as dental, pharmacy and, more recently, social care and pre-school educational contexts.
He is interested in enabling implementation and process thinking to become more embedded across the research cycle. Key areas of include:
- Making implementation research ideas, concepts and resources more accessible, practical and useable for people doing implementation work (see, for example ItFits-toolkit, I-STEM)
- Developing more pragmatic, critical and inquisitive implementation research (see, for example NoMAD, NPT Coding manual)
Alongside this Tim has published a wide range of texts focused on research methods audiences. He has written as book Doing Conversation, Discourse and Documents Analysis, initially published in 2007, second edition in 2018.
Key areas of expertise
- Implementation research - theory and tools
- Health and social care interventions
Key current projects include:
Maximising effective social care pathways for assessment and provision of assistive technologies for bathing for older adults, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research 2025-2030
Strengthening Counter Fraud Provision across the NHS in England, NIHR Health Service Delivery Research, 2025-2027
Evaluating speech, communication, and language support at the 2- 2½ year Healthy Child review NIHR Policy Research Programme 2025-2027
Partnership for Workforce Sustainability in Underserved Areas, NIHR Health Service Delivery Research, 2025-2030
Real-world Studies Of Amwell’s SilverCloud Digital Enabled Therapies, NIHR Invention for Innovation, 2024-2027
Investigating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of CHildren’s Early Self-care Support in children with neurodisability, NIHR Health Technology Assessment, 2024-2028
Promoting Local Access to Children's Early language and communication Support, NIHR Health Service Delivery Research, 2024-2026
SINFONIA The SustaINedDrug-Free remissiON inrheumatoIdArthritis project, Foundation for Research in Rheumatology 2023-2027
Some key completed projects:
: Towards evidence-based tailored implementation strategies for eHealth. European Commission H2020. 2017-2021.Key outputs:for self-guided tailored implementation strategies andandfor stakeholder engagement for implementation.
How can health services contribute most effectively to facilitating successful transition of young people with complex health needs from childhood to adulthood? NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research 2012-2017 Key outputs:informed multiple guidelines and plans, including , , and . Also developed an to assist embedding of Developmentally Appropriate Healthcare.
PMM: Toolkits in paediatric rheumatology for medical students, GPs and nurses. Pzier Educational Grant. 2012-2016. Key outputs:(1) and (2)
: Improving the normalisation of complex interventions: Developing quantitative measures for users based on Normalisation Process Theory. Economic and Social Research Council. 2012-2015.Key outputs:(1)and (2).
- GP workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review, Owen-Boukra, E., Burford, B., Cohen, T., Duddy, C., Dunn, H., Fadia, V., Goodman, C., Henry, C., Lamb, E., Ogden, M., Rapley, T., Rees, E., Roberts, N., Royer-Gray, E., Vance, G., Wong, G., Park, S. 1 Mar 2026, In: The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
- Identifying General Practice workforce patterns in England: a machine learning to support Evidence-Based health and social care policy, Erfani, G., Burford, B., Montgomery, A., Bhattarai, N., Hoverd, E., Chen, K., Brown, M., Steven, A., Vance, G., Tomietto, M., Park, S., Lievesley, M., Van der Graaf, P., Rapley, T. 18 Jun 2026, International Scientific Conference “The Quality of Health Care and Social Welfare – Education and Practice”. 14.05.2026–15.05.2026, Jūrmala, Latvia. Scientific Abstracts and Articles, University of Latvia
- ‘Mum feels that the decision has already been made’: From shared decision-making to negotiated compromise in Adult Social Care, Whitehead, P., Rooney, L., Adams‐Thomas, J., Greenup, M., Raffle, A., Southall, C., Whittington, S., Rapley, T. 1 Feb 2026, In: Social Science and Medicine
- Optimising and beta-testing a user-centred, accessible, self-management rehabilitation smartphone app (reCOVer) for long-COVID fatigue using qualitative interview methods, McCready, J., Campbell, M., McCay, K., Moore, J., Deary, V., Vines, J., Higgs-McCallum, C., Webster, D., Ellis, J., Newton, J., Nobbs, C., Rapley, T., Hackett, K. 22 May 2026, In: Disability and Rehabilitation
- Physiology of everyday sleep and physical activity: An exploratory mixed-methods study of multi-sensor wearables for infants and toddlers, Hunter, E., Kolehmainen, N., Nazarpour, K., Rapley, T., Collins, A., Eggett, C., Williams, C., Thornton, C. 6 Mar 2026, In: Behavior Research Methods
- "Safe as possible or as happy and well as possible, because they might not be the same thing". Occupational therapy perspectives of intermediate care risks during COVID-19., Newman, C., Murray, J., Raffle, W., Drake, S., Whitehead, P., Rapley, T. 23 Apr 2026, In: British Journal of Occupational Therapy
- Surviving vulnerability: an ethnographic study of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Loughran, K., Harrison, S., Franklin, A., Fernandes-James, C., Symm, J., Fisher, A., Suri, S., Kaner, E., Martin, D., McPhee, J., Rapley, T. 31 Mar 2026, In: European Journal of Physiotherapy
- Understanding the primary-secondary care interface and its impact on workforce sustainability: a realist review protocol, Hoverd, E., Brown, M., Burford, B., Chen, K., Erfani, G., Kehoe, M., Lievesley, M., Livingston, R., Montgomery, A., Norton, J., Rapley, T., Roberts, N., Sajid, M., Steven, A., Thomson, R., Vance, G., Park, S. 2 Jun 2026, In: BJGP Open
- Acceptability and feasibility of online delivery of chair-based yoga for older adults with multimorbidity – Lessons from a process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga trial, Ward, L., Bissell, L., Howsam, J., Tew, G., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Maturana Palacios, C., Rapley, T. 17 Mar 2025, In: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
- A pragmatic double blind remote pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of a self-management app for people with Sjögren disease, Hackett, K., Campbell, M., Pakpahan, E., Vines, J., Lendrem, D., McCready, J., Rapley, T., Ellis, J., Deary, V., McColl, E., McCallum, C. 3 Jun 2025, In: Frontiers in Digital Health
Tim is an experienced supervisor of PhD and MD students and postdoctoral fellows. He has supervised nineteen PhD/MD students to a timely successful completion in a broad range of topics in applied health research.
Current postgraduate supervision:
Adam Webb - Developing the role of non-representational theory in evaluations in North East North Cumbria. ARC NENC
Amy Allan - What is the impact of the Academic Health Science Network North East North Cumbria (AHSN NENC) in the North of England. AHSN
Sam Armitage - Enabling self-care in children with disabilities
Kat Bevan- The relationship of participatory arts and creative development strategies to health inequalities. Northumbria RDF Studentship.
Caroline Fernandes - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: (COPD): The development of a brief intervention to improve pulmonary rehabilitation uptake. North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust and Teesside University
Nahdiah Purnamasari - Implementing an early intervention service for cerebral palsy in Indonesia: Overcoming the obstacles. LPDP (Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education)
Domna Salonen - Understanding opportunities to improve mental health care in everyday lives of families experiencing multiple long-term conditions. NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaboration
- BA (Hons)
- MA (Hons)
- PhD
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