My research interests include infections among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) particularly skin and soft tissue infections and spore forming bacterial infections; harm reduction for PWIDs; healthcare seeking behaviours of PWIDs; legal high injecting and injecting in prisons.

I am currently Principal Investigator on a Chief Scientist Office funded project 'Using foil for drug administration: exploring the views and experience of people who use drugs'. 

This study will explore the views of people attending injecting equipment services about their experience of accessing foil; their use or non-use of foil; and its use among their drug using networks. We will conduct qualitative interviews with service users in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to understand how and for what drugs foil is used, what benefits and harms they experience with its use, whether injecting practices have changed as a result and reasons for not smoking drugs with foil. We are interested in hearing their views on the potential of foil as a harm reduction intervention for reducing drug-related infections, overdoses and deaths in order to inform policy and practice. 

Past projects have examined: 

• the uptake of foil from services and its role in harm reduction among people who inject drugs. This was a collaboration with NHS Public Health Scotland.
• PWIDs views of their skin and soft tissue infections, their healthcare seeking and harm reduction behaviours. This was a collaboration with NHS Health Protection Scotland and Liverpool John Moores University.

• the impact of a postcard alerting PWIDs to a botulism outbreak In Glasgow. This was a collaboration with NHS Health Protection Scotland.
• injecting new psychoactive substances. This was a collaboration with Dundee University.

To be involved in and develop further research examining: interventions to help PWIDs avoid or deal with skin and soft tissue infections; harm reduction and injecting behaviours for PWIDs.

NHS

Colleagues based at other HE institutions e.g. Liverpool John Moores University, Dundee University, Glasgow Caledonian University