School of Health Sciences

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FAMILIES OF CARE AND CONNECTION: A RELATIONAL EXPLORATION OF HOW REFUGEES NAVIGATE STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS TO INTEGRATION IN THE UK: A critical appraisal submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD by Publication (Retrospective)
(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025-10) Baillot, Helen
Drawing on data from three inter-related studies, the four papers considered in this critical appraisal foreground the role played by social connections – relationships with other people, organisations and statutory bodies – in integration. My central argument is that family and family-like relationships are critical to refugees’ experiences of navigating new systems and structures in countries of settlement. These relationships are defined, developed and sustained through practices of care. I therefore position both care and family as central vectors in integration and as sites where refugees are agentive decision-makers shaping their own integration trajectories. Empirically I call for researchers and practitioners to move away from individualistic notions of integration to fully incorporate the family and the care that flows through family-like relationships into the design and delivery of research and practice. Conceptually, I outline the ways in which this process of incorporation moves us away from integration and towards an alternative feminist post-migration ecological framework, within which orientations and practices of care play a crucial role.
FROM SCOPING TO SCALING: COLLABORATIVE INDIVIDUAL PATIENT DATA PLATFORMS FOR NEGLECTED INFECTIOUS DISEASES: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy [PhD by publication]
(2025-10) Maguire, Brittany Jane
This thesis presents the rationale and theoretical context for a portfolio of published work examining the clinical study landscape across five different neglected and poverty-related diseases (NPRDs). It critically analyses the limitations of traditional aggregate meta-analysis for synthesising evidence for these diseases, demonstrating how challenges such as limited volume of trials and enrolled participants, methodological heterogeneity and inconsistent reporting necessitate alternative approaches. Meta-analysis of individual patient data (IPD) is proposed as an alternative; however, access to IPD raises legal, ethical, and technical barriers, which I critically examine, drawing on the experiences gained through stakeholder engagement. I engaged with the disease specific research communities to assess the feasibility of building global collaborative data platforms which can provide solutions to the many challenges of sharing IPD. The common difficulties identified in my publications across the NPRDs, together with the limited global attention, funding, and resources available, strongly reinforced the need for a unified data-sharing infrastructure to enable economies of scale. My work directly informed the evolution of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) Roadmap, a framework of tools, templates, and resources to streamline platform scoping and development, reduce duplication, and adapt processes efficiently to new disease areas. I also demonstrate how systematic review outputs from my publications evolved into dynamic, openaccess tools that enhance the discoverability of IPD and promote data-sharing. I describe the development of a research community consensus-driven process for generating research agendas that enable the meaningful re-use of IPD to address critical knowledge gaps in these under-researched disease areas. My contribution helped shape and operationalise the vision of IDDO as a researcher-driven initiative to build data platforms, supporting the identification, collation, and harmonisation of IPD to promote meaningful data re-use and advance the treatment and control of neglected infectious diseases.