Dr Kelly Lloyd

Profile

I am a Research Fellow working in implementation science at the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, working on the Opioid SMART trial. I am broadly interested in the area of behavioural science, cancer prevention and control research, medication decision-making, and working with populations at higher risk of cancer. In 2022, I completed a 1+3 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded PhD on the topic of decision-making in cancer preventive therapy. From 2023 to 2024, I was awarded an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship.

I have experience undertaking both quantitative and qualitative research, such as:

• Systematic review synthesising quantitative and qualitative literature.
• Qualitative interviews exploring the views of patients, the public, and healthcare providers.
• Developing behavioural interventions with theoretical frameworks.
• Intervention adaptation.
• Innovative behavioural trials, such as factorial trials.
• Qualitative process evaluation of trials.

Opioid SMART

I am a Research Fellow working on the Opioid SMART project, led by Dr Sarah Alderson (PI) on an NIHR Advanced Fellowship. The project aims to adapt and deliver an intervention to reduce opioid prescribing in primary care. The programme of work involves delivering a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomised Trial (SMART) optimisation trial to primary care practices.

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship

I was the principal investigator on a one-year ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, working in the area of supporting cancer preventive approaches for people with Lynch syndrome, who are at higher risk of the disease (2023-2024). My mentors on the Fellowship were Professor Samuel Smith and Professor Rebecca Beeken.

ASCAP

My PhD investigated informed decision-making in the context of clinical guidance recommending the medication aspirin for colorectal cancer prevention for populations at higher genetic risk (Lynch syndrome). I investigated the views of people with Lynch syndrome and healthcare professionals in the care pathway. I also investigated the views of the general public on the potential for aspirin for colorectal cancer prevention. The research was funded by a Cancer Research UK Catalyst award (PI: Professor Jack Cuzick), for the international Aspirin for Cancer Prevention (AsCaP) group. My PhD supervisors were Professor Samuel Smith, Professor Robbie Foy, Professor Lucy Ziegler, and Dr Louise Hall.

I am a keen advocate for open research practices, and was the lead organiser of the ReproducibiliTea journal club at the University of Leeds from 2019 to 2024. I am a member of the University of Leeds Open Research Advisory Group which advises on the direction of open research activities for the University, and a steering group member on a campaign to improve health research (‘The Declaration to Improve Biomedical and Health Research’). In 2022, I was awarded the Faculty of Medicine and Health and Leeds University Union Partnership Award for Postgraduate Researcher for my work in advocating open research practices at the University and in the wider academic field.

Research interests

• Behavioural science
• Cancer prevention research
• Working with populations at higher risk of cancer
• Medication decision-making
• Qualitative research methods
• Behavioural trials, factorial trials, Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)
• Open and reproducible research

• Adapting and evaluating a complex adaptable intervention to reducing opioid prescribing in primary care (Opioid SMART)

Qualifications

• BSc Psychology, University of Manchester (2015)
• MA Social Research (Interdisciplinary), University of Leeds (2019)
• PhD, University of Leeds (2019 to 2022)

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Health Sciences
• Division of Primary Care, Palliative Care and Public Health