Dr Rebecca-Jane Law

Dr Rebecca-Jane Law
Research Officer

Research overview

Rebecca-Jane Law (Becki) is a Research Officer currently leading ‘Function First’, a realist evidence synthesis funded by the National Institute for Health Research (https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/hsdr/174522/#/). The synthesis includes embedded co-production and co-design and is designed to investigate the role of primary care in reducing the decline in physical function and physical activity in people with long-term conditions, and explore ‘what works, for whom and in what circumstances?’.

Prior to this, Becki worked as part of the Wales Interventions and Cancer Knowledge about Early Diagnosis (WICKED) programme team, a project with five different workpackages culminating in the development of an intervention to facilitate earlier cancer diagnosis in primary care. Becki has also been involved with work for Public Health Wales, including research relating to the primary care cluster structure in Wales and the orthopaedic Lifestyle Management Programme for osteoarthritis. She has also worked on the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnerhip (ICBP) which aimed to determine the root causes of delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment across 6 countries worldwide.

Before coming to the North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research, Becki completed her PhD entitled ‘The effects of exercise on joint health in rheumatoid arthritis’ at the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences at Bangor University. This work included both qualitative exploration of patient perceptions of exercise and physiological markers of joint health in response to acute and continued exercise. During this time and as part of her previous post at the University of Central Lancashire, Becki’s roles have also included teaching and supervising both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Becki’s research in the area of clinical exercise physiology has also included the effects of exercise in chronic kidney disease.

Becki is currently co-supervising a PhD student funded by Tenovus Cancer Care whose PhD title is: ‘A psychosocial approach to illness cognition, self-regulatory emotional coping responses and lay referral coping responses; an exploratory mixed methods design within early diagnostic cancer research.’ She is also part of the Welsh Crucible 2018 cohort: http://www.welshcrucible.org.uk/becki-law/

 

Publications:

Weller D, Menon U, Zalounina Falborg A, et al Diagnostic routes and time intervals for patients with colorectal cancer in 10 international jurisdictions; findings from a cross-sectional study from the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) BMJ Open 2018;8:e023870. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023870

Nefyn H Williams and Rebecca-Jane Law. Putting function first: redesigning the primary care management of long-term conditions. Br J Gen Pract 2018; 68 (673): 388-389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18X698249

Marian Andrei Stanciu, Rebecca-Jane Law, Sadia Nafees, Maggie Hendry, Seow Tien Yeo, Julia Hiscock, Ruth Lewis, Rhiannon T Edwards, Nefyn H Williams, Katherine Brain, Paul Brocklehurst, Andrew Carson-Stevens, Sunil Dolwani, Jon Emery, William Hamilton, Zoe Hoare, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Greg Rubin, Stephanie Smits, Peter Vedsted, Fiona Walter, Clare Wilkinson, Richard D Neal. Development of an intervention to expedite cancer diagnosis through primary care: a protocol. bjgpopen18X101595. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen18X101595

S. Halls, R. Law, J. G. Jones, D. A. Markland, P. J. Maddison, J. M. Thom. ‘Health professionals’ perceptions of the effects of exercise on joint health in rheumatoid arthritis patients’, Musculoskeletal Care, 2016, doi: 10.1002/msc.1157.

D. Weller, P. Vedsted, C. Anandan, A. Zalounina, E. O. Fourkala, R. Desai, R. Liston, H. Jensen, A. Barisic, A. Gavin, E. Grunfeld, M. Lambe, R. Law, M. Malmberg, R. D. Neal, J. Kalsi, D. Turner, V. White, M. Bomb, U. Menon, ICBP Module 4 Working Group, ‘An investigation of routes to cancer diagnosis in ten international jurisdictions, as part of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership; survey development and implementation’, BMJ Open, 2016, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015–009641

Parsonage RK, Hiscock J, Law R-J, Neal RD. Patient perspectives on delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer: a qualitative analysis of free-text data.British Journal of General Practice (2016). DOI:10.3399/bjgp16X688357

Law, R.-J, Saynor, Z. L., Gabbitas, J., Jones, J., Kraus, A., Breslin, A., Maddison, P. J., and Thom, J. M. (2015), The Effects of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise on Markers of Large Joint Health in Stable Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Pilot Study. Musculoskeletal Care, doi: 10.1002/msc.1103.

R.-J. Law, D. A. Markland, J. G. Jones, P. J. Maddison, J. M. Thom, ‘Perceptions of issues relating to exercise and joint health in rheumatoid arthritis: A UK-based questionnaire study’, Musculoskeletal Care, DOI: 10.1002/msc.1037, 2012.

R.-J. Law, A. Breslin, E. J. Oliver, L. Mawn, D. A. Markland, P. Maddison, J. Thom, ‘Perceptions of the effects of exercise on joint health in rheumatoid arthritis patients’, Rheumatology, vol. 49, no. 12, pp. 2444–2451, 2010.

J. K. Cooney, R.-J. Law, V. Matschke, A. B. Lemmey, J. P. Moore, Y. Ahmad, J. G. Jones et al, ‘Benefits of Exercise in Rheumatoid Arthritis’, Journal of Aging Research, vol. 2011, doi: 10.4061/2011/681640, 2011.

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters:

R.-J. Law, D.M. Markland, J.M. Thom et al., ‘Perceptions relating to exercise in RA’ in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lemmey, A.B. (Ed.), InTech Open Access Publisher, Chapter 16, pp. 331–350, 2011.

Manuscripts in preparation:

R. Law, S. Nafees, J. Hiscock, C. Wynne, N. Williams., ‘The Lifestyle Management Programme for osteoarthritis: a qualitative study’, British Journal of General Practice (under review)