Dr Rachel Lewis Health Services Researcher

About me

Rachel is a Harkness Fellow and Health Services Researcher at Alberta Kidney Disease Network, and a Former Advanced Nurse Practitioner.

She works within a very busy renal service mainly managing aspects of chronic illness in a population of people receiving haemodialysis. A key part of her role involves care coordination within and across services including general practice and primary care.

Given the high morbidity and mortality associated with dialysis, Rachel works as part of a multiprofessional team in developing anticipatory and advanced management plans. She was the project lead for a pilot study aimed at managing patients with advanced kidney disease closer to home. The results of this project were shared at an AcademyHealth conference in Chicago 2008.

Rachel sat on NICE’s technology appraisal committee for 10 years, evaluating the clinical and cost effectiveness of numerous health care treatments. She worked at the Department of Health for six  years as a nurse adviser, working with the renal and pathology policy teams nationally on strategies aimed at implementing policies into practice.

Rachel said: 'The Harkness Fellowship experience was a fantastic insight into how the organisation of services can influence the delivery of care and not always in a positive way. It highlighted the importance of providers working with health services researchers in optimising organisational behaviour.  

'On my return I enrolled at Manchester Business School and did a PhD in business and management exploring how services for people with multimorbidity are organised in general practice. It demonstrated the importance of evidence based organisation of care and the need for more integrative working between the clinical, managerial and academic elements of health care delivery.'