Dr Jane Dickson
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Diabetes Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology, School of Medicine
Health Sciences Office, School of Health Sciences
Contact
Biography
I am a socio-medical anthropologist, with experience in the sustainability and healthcare sectors. I enjoy seeing how people make sense of the world and their place in it and bring a critical anthropological understanding to my research, through a wide range of methods: questionnaires, interviews, ethnography, user research, participatory and co-design work, visual methods including Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE) and across a wide range of settings and participant groups.
I have an undergraduate degree in Visual Anthropology from Temple University in Philadelphia, USA (summa cum laude), an MA (honours) in Material Culture Anthropology from University College London and a PhD in Material, Visual and Digital Culture section of the Anthropology department at University College London for work with a Local Authority Sustainability Team who retrofit social housing with green (living) roofs to mitigate against a changing climate.
Before coming to Dundee, I worked on a research project in London parks, as part of NESTA’s Rethinking Parks Project and at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) researching apps and digital monitoring of medications on The Delivering Digital Drugs (D3) Project. I also authored a grant proposal for ‘An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station (ETHNO-ISS)’ at the Anthropology Department, University College London, which received an ERC Advanced Grant in 2016 for €2,000,000.
I have conducted research in secondary care, pharmacies, AMUs, across primary care and care home settings as well as with app developers, sustainability teams, the solar power sector and with a range of stakeholders from financial analysts, solar engineers, roofers, ecologists to medical staff of all grades and last but not least people in the role of patients, clients, residents and app users.
Research
Current research
- Tayside Electronic Connections Knowledge Leading Engagement (TECKLE-Diabetes)
- A mixed methods research project on the My Diabetes My Way platform
Previous research
- MyWay IQ (MWIQ): Safety and Efficacy Testing of a Diagnosis and Precision Medicine Tool for Diabetes Management
- The Impact of Foot Problems: Qualitative Study on Social Participation in Older People (I-FOQUSS) School of Health Sciences 2023-2025
- IUK Precision Medicine Study
- Survey analysis: qualitative analysis of yearly patient questionnaires and a diabetes weight management survey
- Myway IQ Professional Records Standards Body (PRSB) Project
- iDiabetes User Testing for the iDiabetes App for Primary Care Diabetes Management
- MyWay Inpatient Project. Development of an app for management of inpatients in secondary care
- MyWay Foot Study. Development of a tool of the management of the diabetic foot
- ARCH: Antibiotic Research in Care Homes. Ethnographic and Psychology work packages, development and testing of an interventions.
- Improving the Safety of Interprofessional Collaboration in an Acute Medical Unit: An examination of the feasibility and implementation of Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE) in UK Healthcare.
Research outputs
Dickson J, Cunningham SG, Sainsbury C, Rutter MK, Kanumilli N, Pearson E, Brodie D, Stevens M, Wake DJ, Conway N. Study protocol for an open-label, single-arm, mixed methods feasibility study of the MWIQ AI-powered decision support tool for diabetes management in GP practices. BMJ Open. 2025 Oct 5;15(10):e097644.
Dickson, J., Mesman, J., Guthrie, B., & Grant, S. 2024. Using Video-Reflexive Ethnography on an Acute Medical Unit: Methodological Challenges, Solutions and Opportunities within a Complex and Busy Clinical Setting. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23(1).
De Souza, N., Guthrie, B., Grant, S., Lorencatto, F., Dickson, J., Herbec, A., Hughes, C., Sneddon, J., Donnam, P., Marwick, C. 2024. Antibiotic prescribing for care-home residents: a population-based, cross-classified multilevel analysis in Scotland. Age & Aging. Jan 6;54(1):afae288.
Baxter, M., Dickson, J., Conway, N., Bickerton, A., Cunningham, S., Mackenzie, S., Brodie, D., Sainsbury, C., Wake, DJ. 2024. Patient-reported outcomes and user experience following six months’ enrolment in a diabetes digital health service: MyWay Diabetes. Primary Care Diabetes. In Press. doi 10.1016/j.pcd.2025.05.003
McKenzie, S., Dickson, J., Mehar, S., Barakatun Nisak, M. Y., Alsealmi, D., Aksi, B., Baxter, M. S., Bickerton, A., Bharaj, H. S., Conway, N., Cumming, K., Ibrahim, L., Lim, L. L., Lessan, N., Ghouri, N., Flax, T. T., Osei-Kwasi, H. A., Teo, M., Waqar, S., Hassanein, M., Wake, D. J. 2024. Digitising diabetes education for a safer Ramadan: Design, delivery, and evaluation of massive open online courses in Ramadan-focused diabetes education. Primary Care Diabetes. Jun;18(3):340-346.
Dickson, J. 2018. Warfarin as a Digitally Informed Drug. Journal of Material Culture. 23 (3).
Cornford, T., Lichtner, V., Dickson, J., Hibbard, R., Klecun, E., Venters, W., Dean Franklin, B. 2017. Delivering Digital Drugs: An exploratory Study of the Digitalisation of Supply and Use of Medicines. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 245 1259.
Dickson, J. 2015. “The British National Formulary: Checking, Medicines and Clinicians”. In Techno-Anthropology in Health Informatics: Methodologies for improving human technology relations for better health, better care and lower cost. (Eds) Lars Botin, Christian Nøhr and Pernille Bertelsen. IOS Press: Leiden, The Netherlands.
Dickson, J. 2015. Using Anthropology to Inform a Book's Transition to Digital. LSE Business Review (24 Sept 2015).
Dickson, J. 2013. “Agency, Sustainability and Organisational Change”. In Anthropology in Action. Special Issue on Organisations: Structure and Agency.
Dickson, J. and Buchli, V. 2011. “Green Houses: Problem-solving, Ontology and the House”. In Designing for Zero Waste: Consumption, Technologies and the Built Environment (Eds) Steffen Lehmann and Robert Crocker. Earthspan: London.