Profile
Professor Georgia Black has been at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London since 2022. She is recognised for her scholarship on diagnostic pathways, patient safety and healthcare inequalities in the early detection of cancer. Her research interrogates the organisation, communication and decision-making processes that shape outcomes for individuals with possible cancer symptoms, with particular emphasis on non-specific presentations and primary care contexts.
Professor Black leads and collaborates on mixed-methods programmes funded by the NIHR, Barts Charity and Cancer Research UK. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the CancerLearn study which investigates why there are delays in diagnosing cancer in people with learning disabilities and make recommendations for how this could be improved. She is also co-investigator on INTERPRET-X, a study of interpreting services in UK primary care.
Her work encompasses qualitative and mixed-methods studies that advance understanding of safety netting practices, risk-informed clinical decision-making and electronic health record utilisation to optimise patient safety in primary care. Key contributions include research on how safety-netting supports appropriate re-consultation for lung cancer symptoms, and how clinician–patient communication influences diagnostic behaviours.
Professor Black’s recent ethnographic and policy-oriented studies examine holistic approaches to cancer investigation in non-specific symptom pathways and the implementation of systems-level strategies to improve diagnostic safety and equity in the NHS. Her methodological expertise spans ethnography, qualitative interviews and systems approaches to healthcare improvement. She supervises doctoral research on early diagnosis of cancer, primary care practice and patient safety.
Research
Research Interests:
My work covers several areas of applied health research, with two main foci: (1) the impact of GP-patient communication on patient safety in cancer pathways and (2) the effect of socioeconomic inequalities and specifically exclusion from healthcare. My research has revealed the unintended consequences of patients’ communication with services such as delayed diagnosis, exclusion from services and exacerbation of illness. I have developed a programme of research looking at specific aspects including non-specific symptom pathways, emergency pathways, educational differences in language use around breast cancer, fear of cancer, and public attitudes to changes in cancer policy.
My work currently focuses on developing a ‘systems’ approach to early diagnosis of cancer, where the ‘system’ includes interconnected components of healthcare such as multiple healthcare professionals and organisations, technology, equipment and workplace culture that act together. The aim is to create a system in which cancer is efficiently detected, rather than over-burdening patients and clinicians with responsibility and risk.
The conceptual and theoretical foundations of my work come from social and cognitive psychology, and from the sociology of healthcare, patient safety and social inequalities. I use primarily ethnographic and qualitative mixed methods research techniques.
Publications
Please follow through to see a complete list of Georgia's publications.
Black, G.B., van Os, S., Renzi, C. et al. How does safety netting for lung cancer symptoms help patients to reconsult appropriately? A qualitative study. BMC Prim. Care 23, 179 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-022-01791-y
Black, G.B., Bhuiya, A., Smith, C.F., Hirst, Y. and Nicholson, B.D., 2022. Harnessing the Electronic Health Care Record to Optimize Patient Safety in Primary Care: Framework for Evaluating e–Safety-Netting Tools. JMIR Medical Informatics, 10(8), p.e35726. https://doi.org/10.2196/35726
Ip A, Black G, Vindrola-Padros C, Taylor C, Otter S, Hewish M, Bhuiya A, Callin J, Wong A, Machesney M, Fulop NJ, Taylor C, Whitaker KL. Socioeconomic differences in help seeking for colorectal cancer symptoms during COVID-19: a UK-wide qualitative interview study. Br J Gen Pract. 2022 Jun 30;72(720):e472-e482. https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0644.
Jallow, M., Bonfield, S., Kurtidu, C., Baldwin, D.R., Black, G., Brain, K.E., Donnelly, M., Janes, S.M., McCutchan, G., Robb, K.A. and Ruparel, M., 2021. Decision Support Tools for Low-Dose CT Scan Lung Cancer Screening: A Scoping Review of Information Content, Format, and Presentation Methods. Chest, pp.S0012-3692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2021.12.638
Amelung, D., Whitaker, K.L., Lennard, D., Ogden, M., Sheringham, J., Zhou, Y., Walter, F.M., Singh, H., Vincent, C. and Black, G., 2020. Influence of doctor-patient conversations on behaviours of patients presenting to primary care with new or persistent symptoms: a video observation study. BMJ quality & safety, 29(3), pp.198-208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2019-009485
Supervision
I am open to inquiries about PhD supervision on topics related to early diagnosis of cancer, primary care, patient safety and healthcare improvement.
I currently supervise:
Bethany Wickramasinghe, Medical Research Council, Exploring the value of prescriptions data in improving early cancer detection in primary care: a mixed methods approach (2020-2023)
Stephanie Kumpunen, THIS Institute, A critical analysis and development of rapid ethnographies in healthcare quality improvement (2019-2024)
Laura Boswell, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Studentships, University of Surrey, Understanding symptom appraisal and help-seeking to improve early diagnosis of blood cancer (2022-2025)