Research Student List

Dr Megan Wainwright, PhD

(email at m.j.wainwright@durham.ac.uk)

I am a medical anthropologist from Québec, Canada based at the University of Cape Town as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health and Family Medicine. I completed my PhD in Medical Anthropology at Durham University in 2013 and subsequently became an Honorary Research Fellow in the department. I began work at the University of Cape Town in 2015 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 'New Pedagogies for Community Health Research'. As part of the remit of this postdoc I conducted pedagogical research evaluating a field school in community health research methods. I also developed short courses in using QSR NVivo software for qualitative data management and analysis which I continue to teach.

My subsequent postdoc funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa was for the study “Using, providing and producing home oxygen therapy: A comparative ethnographic study” which has involved fieldwork in Cape Town and Montevideo on the day to day practices and experiences surrounding the use of medicinal oxygen. In addition to investigating policy in practice, I am focused on how oxygen is conceptualized and experienced by health workers and patients. This work builds upon my PhD thesis on living-with and caring for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Uruguay (examined by Prof. Mark Nichter and Prof. Bob Simpson).

In addition to primary research I have more recently developed a keen interest and new skills in qualitative evidence synthesis and have been a member of the GRADE-CERQual coordinating group since 2015. CERQual is an approach to assessing confidence in the findings of a qualitative evidence synthesis (systematic review of qualitative research).

At Durham I am actively involved in global health diplomacy research with Dr Andrew Russell and am an international collaborator on the Life of Breath project in the Centre for Medical Humanities for which I make regular visits to Durham. A new project I am contributing to in my capacity as a freelance researcher and Honorary Research Fellow at Durham is the “AIR (Air Pollution Interdisciplinary Research) Network” lead by Dr. Patrick Bueker at the University of York, funded by a AHRC-MRC GCRF Global Public Health Partnership grant. This project aims to build a transdisciplinary team and programme of work for developing innovative, participatory solutions to air pollution and its effects on human health in low-resource settings in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Research Groups

• Anthropology of Health

Selected Publications

Chapter in book

• Wainwright, M (2016). Rebellion and Co-Morbidity. In The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology. Manderson,L, Hardon, A & Cartwright, E Routledge.

Conference Paper

• Wainwright, M. (2012), Perspectivas y Investigaciones Antropologicas en Salud y Enfermedad, 10: Seminario de Extension, Casa de la Universidad Tacuarembo. Tacuarembo, Anuario de Antropologia Social y Cultural en Uruguay, Tacuarembo, 245-248.

Conference Proceeding

• Arnaert, A. & Wainwright, M. (2008). Preliminary Results of a Home Telecare Project for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Canadian Respiratory Conference: A Breath of Fresh Air:, Montreal, Canada, Candian Respiratory Journal.

Doctoral Thesis

• Wainwright, M. (2013). Breathing and Breathlessness: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Uruguay. Durham University. PhD: 333.

Journal Article

• Russell, A., Wainwright, M. & Tilson, M. (2018). Means and ENDS – e-cigarettes, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and global health diplomacy in action. Global Public Health 13(1): 83-98.
• Wainwright, M. (2017). Imaging and imagining chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Uruguayans draw their lungs. Disability and Rehabilitation
• Wainwright, M., Bingham, S. & Sicwebu, N. (2017). Photovoice and photodocumentary for enhancing community partner engagement and student learning in a public health field school in Cape Town. Journal of Experiential Education 40(4): 409-424.
• Wainwright, M. (2017). Sensing the Airs: The Cultural Context for Breathing and Breathlessness in Uruguay. Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness 36(4): 332-347.
• Wainwright, M., Colvin, C.J., Swartz, A. & Leon, N. (2016). Self-management of medical abortion: A qualitative evidence synthesis. Reproductive Health Matters 24(47): 155-167.
• Russell, A.J., Wainwright, M. & Mamudu, H.M. (2015). A chilling example? Uruguay, Phillip Morris International, and WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 29(2): 256-277.
• Wainwright, M & Macnaughton, J (2013). Is a qualitative perspective missing from COPD guidelines?. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 1(6): 441-442.
• Wainwright, M., Russell, A. & Yiannakou, Y. (2011). Challenging the Biopsychosocial Model in a Chronic Constipation Clinic. Qualitative Health Research 21(12): 1643-1657.
• Allen, D., Wainwright, M. & Hutchinson, T. (2011). Non-compliance as illness management: Hemodialysis patients' descriptions of adversarial patient-clinician interactions. Social Science and Medicine 73: 129-134.
• Wainwright, M. & Russell, A. (2010). Using NVivo Audio-Coding: Practical, Sensorial and Epistemological Considerations. Social Research Update (60): 1-4.
• Arnaert, A., Seller, R. & Wainwright M. (2009). Homecare Nurses’ Attitudes to Palliative Care in a Rural Community of Western Quebec. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing 11(4).
• Arnaert, A. & Wainwright, M. (2009). Providing care and sharing expertise: reflections of nurse-specialists in palliative homecare. Palliative & Supportive Care 7(357-364).
• Arnaert, A. & Wainwright, M. (2008). Designing and Implementing a Home Telecare Service for Elderly Patients with COPD: Steps and Challenges. The Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics 3(2): 49-83.
• Allen, D., Wainwright, M., Hutchinson, T. & Mount, B. (2008). The wounding path to becoming healers: Medical students’ apprenticeship experiences. Medical Teacher 30(3): 260-65.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Wainwright, M., Bingham, S., Sicwebu, N., Ndlani, L., Mocha, A., Mzuzwana, V. & Maqogi, M. (2016). Life in Town Two: A Photodocumentary - https://vimeo.com/174489626.
• Wainwright, M (2014). Podcast: EPOC al Aire: Historias de la Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Cronica [COPD on the Air: Stories of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease] - https://vimeo.com/91838964. 16 minutes.
• Allen, D., Hutchinson T. & Wainwright M. (2009). Living with Kidney Failure: A Three-Part Film. http://www.mcgill.ca/wholepersoncare/esrdqualityofliferesearch/3partfilm/

Other (Print)

• Colvin, C., Wainwright, M., Noyes, J., Munthe-Kaas, H., Garside, R., Carlsen, B., Rashidian, A., Booth, A., Glenton,C., Bohren, M., Lewin, S. & Tuncalp, O. (2015). Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual): Development and Future Directions of a Novel Approach. Cochrane Methods (Suppl 1): 45-47.
• Wainwright, M. (2013). Faltar el aire. Enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva cronica en Uruguay. Anuario de Antropologia Social y Cultural en Uruguay 11: 275-278.

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Selected Grants