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Biography
Kathryn is a Senior Research Fellow leading a program of research in hyperacusis at the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Kathryn studied at Nottingham Trent University achieving a first class BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology, before moving to the University of Nottingham and Nottingham BRC (previous BRU) to complete a PhD in tinnitus etiology and management. The PhD focused on the underpinning methodology involved in the measurement of tinnitus, critically evaluating the quality of current recommended tinnitus questionnaires and validating the newly developed Tinnitus Functional Index as a diagnostic and outcome measure for use in research and clinical practice in the UK. During her studies, she successfully obtained an NIHR exchange scheme grant to develop her skills and training in Rasch analysis, a modern approach to evaluating questionnaires, working with experts from Leeds Psychometric laboratory. Since then she has continued to work with in tinnitus research specifically standardising outcomes measurements in tinnitus and hyperacusis and identifying the research priorities for hyperacusis through a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership. Kathryn has and continues to actively involve with patients and healthcare professionals across Europe to develop and conduct her research. She is also supervising PhD student projects in the development of measurement tools for hyperacusis and tinnitus.
In 2018, Kathryn successfully obtained an NIHR Post-doctoral Research Fellow personal award to develop an online intervention to provide self-help, understanding and support for hyperacusis (iSHUSH). This work involves working alongside patients, clinical and academic colleagues to build a conceptual model of hyperacusis, evaluate the evidence for current self-help interventions and develop and test the structure and content of the online intervention using established methods for developing digital interventions, in particular the person-based approach, which incorporates patient views, theory and evidence into the development.
Kathryn is the current Chair for the British Society of Audiology Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Special Interest Group.
Expertise Summary
Kathryn has experience and expertise in psychology and healthcare, particularly in tinnitus and hyperacusis assessments and management.
She has valuable skills in both quantitative and qualitative research. She has knowledge and experience of applying quantitative statistics and supporting and teaching students from basic statistics to more advance statistics, such as regressions, structural equation modeling and psychometrics in particular classical approaches using confirmatory factor analysis, test-rest reliability and responsiveness analysis and more modern approaches using Rasch analysis. Kathryn has experience in conducting and analysing qualitative interviews and conducting document analysis using thematic and content analysis approaches. Through these experiences, she gained valuable knowledge on using different statistical software programs, including SPSS, NVivo, AMOS, Mplus, R and RUMM software.
In addition to this, Kathryn has expertise in development and implementation of consensus-based studies. She has lead a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership consensus exercise with patients and healthcare professionals to identify the top priority questions for research in hyperacusis. She has also played a leading role conducting an international consensus (Delphi) survey to bring together the opinions of experts in the field of tinnitus to determine the important aspects of tinnitus that should be measured when deciding if a treatment has worked. These studies involved a number of different stages including online surveys, online card-sorting surveys and consensus meetings. Kathryn has gain experience in facilitating face-to-face consensus meetings and virtual consensus meetings with patients and professionals from tinnitus, hyperacusis and deafness.
Recent Publications
FACKRELL, KATHRYN, STRATMANN, LINDA, KENNEDY, VERONICA, MACDONALD, CAROL, HODGSON, HILARY, WRAY, NIC, FARRELL, CAROLYN, MEADOWS, MIKE, SHELDRAKE, JACQUELINE, BYROM, PETER, BAGULEY, DAVID M, KENTISH, ROSIE, CHAPMAN, SARAH, MARRIAGE, JOSEPHINE, PHILLIPS, JOHN, POLLARD, TRACEY, HENSHAW, HELEN, GRONLUND, TOTO A and HOARE, DEREK J, 2019. Identifying and prioritising unanswered research questions for people with hyperacusis: James Lind Alliance Hyperacusis Priority Setting Partnership. BMJ open. 9(11), e032178 KATHRYN FACKRELL, ISKRA POTGIETER, GIRIRAJ S SHEKHAWAT, DAVID M BAGULEY, MAGDALENA SEREDA and DEREK J HOARE, 2017. Clinical interventions for hyperacusis in adults: a scoping review to assess the current position and determine priorities for research Biomed Research International. 2017, article ID 2723715