PhD Studentship: Remote Working in Diagnostic Imaging: Evaluating Productivity, Support, and Sustainability Post-COVID-19

PhD studentship, University of Bradford, Faculty of Health Studies

Application Deadline:

16 June 2025

Project Title:

Remote Working in Diagnostic Imaging: Evaluating Productivity, Support, and Sustainability Post-COVID-19

Project Supervisors:

Professor Rebecca Randell, Dr Joshua Pink

Project Description:

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the drive to home working and acceptance of the distributed workforce. Within healthcare, diagnostic imaging has a longer history of remote working, particularly in the reporting of investigations. Whereas this was predominately to cover an out of hours emergency service, this is now mainstream in most organisations with job plans providing for off-site reporting for radiologists and radiographers, with an expectation of greater productivity linked to less interruptions. Despite the change there is little evidence of the impact of the changes beyond pure productivity gains. In particular, it is unclear whether the isolation has a negative impact on support or supervision and the potential financial and ecological savings as a result of the travel reductions are not quantified.

This project, conducted in collaboration with Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, will likely be a mixed method study, to understand both the quantitative impacts of off-site reporting compared to on-site reporting, in terms of productivity (e.g. number of reports within a given period) and financial and ecological savings, and the qualitative experience of staff at different levels of experience.

Based within the Centre for Digital Innovations in Health & Social Care, you will join an active research centre and will be collaborating with researchers as part of a programme of research concerned with designing and evaluating technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of the health and care system. You will benefit from full access to the researcher development sessions organised by the Centre, including writing retreats, away days, training, and associated events. You will also spend time at the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, a collaboration between the Universities of Bradford and Leeds and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where you will get to network with researchers from the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration and the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Applied Research Collaboration. You will also have access to researcher development sessions organised by the University and the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP). 

The studentship is for up to 4 years; you may wish to spend time at the beginning of the PhD as a ‘researcher in residence’ within Mid Yorkshire Trust, undertaking exploratory research to develop the research questions, and/or at the end of the PhD spend time in the Trust to translate your research into practice.

Eligibility:

You should hold a first degree equivalent to at least a UK upper second class honours degree, or suitable postgraduate degree in computer science, human factors, psychology, social science or a health or social care related subject. Experience of software development and/or data visualisation are desirable but not essential.

Funding notes:

This PhD scholarship is available for home students only. The scholarship will attract an annual tax-free stipend of £20,780 and will cover the tuition fees.

Funding for:

UK Students

Enquiries email name and address: 

For informal enquiries, please contact research@bradford.ac.uk

How to apply:

Potential candidates should apply directly online through the online application portal.

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