Dr Gemma Hughes

Our new paper:

Synthesis challenges in complex evidence: A critical analysis of systematic reviews of face mask efficacy

#episky #healthpolicy #medsky

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

But there is no ‘I’ !

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

Awful news www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ethnography for Healthcare Improvement Summer School 2026 | shop@le A short course designed for researchers and doctoral students to critically engage with the theory and practice of ethnography in healthcare settings.You w

It's on again - our internationally-renowned Ethnography for Healthcare Improvement Summer School! 8th-10th July, 2026, here in Leicester, UK. Designed for researchers to learn & reflect on use of ethnographic research in healthcare settings. Limited places available: shop.le.ac.uk/product-cata...

This looks extremely interesting

For my writing group pals …

small successes count There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from staring at a word count that’s meant to reach 80,000 or 100,000, knowing you’re only at 12,000. Or from looking at a journa…

It’s important to recognise and celebrate small academic writing successes patthomson.net/2026/01/22/s...

Lovely colours though

Update on the New Hospital Programme - NAO report The NAO has published an update on the New Hospital Programme following government's decision to reset the programme.

RAAC in NHS hospital buildings has been responsible for closures of facilities such as operating theatres due to safety concerns. This has had a significant impact on NHS long term performance. Yet the deadline has slipped on the RAAC eradication programme.
www.nao.org.uk/reports/upda...

Are we now a … community?

Always good working with you Arne! Good to see this finally out

It‘s been a long journey until this one saw the light of the world. Anyway: new research just hot off the press! (with @gemhughes.bsky.social and Gregory Maniatopoulos)

A few months ago, we shared the perioperative quality framework. Today, we’re excited to share our new publication detailing the methods behind it, developed with an outstanding group of collaborators. Read the full paper here: ths.im/4bxxpNU

GP woman attending to a patient by reviewing the blood pressure.

Our review shows that the candidacy framework can help explain why improving access to general practice is so complex. It highlights issues that affect how people seek care but may benefit from updating to reflect general practice changes.

Full paper: ths.im/4aljBFS
THIS summary: ths.im/4iZqTBe

Painting of a tiny boat in silhouette on a stylised sea with large waves

Sea and boat,1988 by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham #WomensArt #Monday

John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst? Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...

‘Our tech overlords like the idea of being Thomas Edison, genius inventor-businessman, but they often have more in common with P.T. Barnum, genius of marketing and hype. Altman could go toe-to-toe with Barnum, and I wouldn’t want to pick a winner.’

John Lanchester:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I’m going send you (privately) some pics of my daughter wearing her glasses and living her best life as a bespectacled and clever looking person

From sloppers to slopocalypse: The lexical productivity of AI slop At the end of last year, I wrote a blog post in which I dissected the word ‘enshittification’, a staple of AI slang. At the beginning of this year, I want to do the same for enshittification’s conc…

Let's start this new blogging year with a pop, ah no, slop! I explore the linguistic productivity of #slop in the context of the emergence of #AI slang #linguistics makingsciencepublic.com/2026/01/02/f...

‘You can mix your methods, but you can’t mix your paradigms’: a guide to ontology and epistemology for the confused researcher Research is an attempt to find out something useful about the world. Whether we like it or not, how we choose our methods, conduct data analysis, and draw conclusions flow from our underpinning assump...

Happy new year! If your eyes glaze over when people start talking philosophy in research, then read this! Proud to have been a co-author on this paper explaining why the assumptions we make about the world matter for our research bjgp.org/content/76/7...

What’s that you say? A complex project that I barely have the time or skill to complete? 🤔 Count me in 😆

Huge rise in number of people in England’s A&Es for coughs or hiccups Lack of prompt access to primary care blamed for rise in hospital cases of minor ailments including blocked noses

STRENGTHEN PRIMARY CARE.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Photo of a beach with close-up of a mandala created with small pebbles on sand as it meets a wave from the sea

"Everything changes, nothing is lost", stone mandala by land artist Katie Griesar #WomensArt
#NewYear2026

What is social science if not critical? This short article represents a contribution to the debate on the motion “Social science is explanation, or it is nothing.” While in the format of parliamentary debating the contribution would fall o...

It seems to be the time for Annoying Yearly Achievements, and while I wasn't planning to post one, I found I needed to go back to this article to explain something - which, I guess, is an indicator other people may find it useful:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

(P.S. please cite if so)

A brown paper bag containing some luscious green Brussel sprouts

Merry Christmas 🎄

Much more satisfying than a Christmas jigsaw puzzle

That’s a big plunger

A very delicate, finely-detailed mixed-media illustration looking down through winter trees passed a herd of deer towards a wooded valley and golden winter sunrise

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar
Window 20
‘Winter Sunrise’
Artist: SR Badmin

Painting of a snow covered rural landscape with a small figure by z frozen lake under a dramatic sky of rising or setting sun amongst dark clouds and golden light

Winter Landscape, 1880 by Finnish landscape painter Fanny Churberg #womensart

Painting with intricate floral design, with intertwing different multicoloured blossoms, leaves and stems on a black background

Christi Belcourt, contemporary Métis visual artist known for her paintings which depict floral patterns inspired by Métis and First Nations historical beadwork art #WomensArt

Pictorial textile artwork featuring a view looking slightly down on a circle of reindeer with reindeer herders in the snow

Artist and Sami activist Britta Marakatt-Labba's embroidery of Sami culture, the indigenous people of Northern Europe and the Arctic #WomensArt