Heather Cassie

Dr Heather Cassie is a Baxter Research Fellow based within the University of Dundee’s Dental School. She is currently undertaking a 3-year THIS Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. This study will use ‘Choosing Wisely’ methodology to explore the barriers and enablers to the reduction of low value care within primary care dentistry. The study will be underpinned by behaviour change theories, used to explore the behaviour of healthcare professionals and patients and explain variation in practice.

Prior to this, Heather worked across both the University of Dundee’s Dental School and NHS Education for Scotland’s Clinical Effectiveness Workstream for over ten years with a focus on the development and implementation of evidence-based guidance as well as education and service delivery. During this period she undertook a secondment with the Scottish Improvement Science Collaborating Centre (SISCC), exploring the impact of large-scale educational approaches to the delivery of training to improve health and social care and the Pharmacist and data–Driven Quality Improvement in Primary care (P-DQIP) study, evaluating the impact of an intervention to reduce high-risk prescribing.  

Heather completed her CSO Doctoral Fellowship in 2017, which explored the organisational level factors which influence the implementation of evidence-based guidance in primary care. This was a multi-method study exploring the barriers and facilitators to the translation of guidance in primary care. 

Heather has a particular interest in qualitative research methods and has carried out research across a range of primary care disciplines including dentistry, nursing, general practice, pharmacy and optometry. She currently teaches and supervises as part of the master’s in dental public health programme and supervises a number of PhD students.