Dr Yasemin Hirst
Yasemin is a chartered Health Psychologist and a behavioural scientist. She has interests in cancer prevention and early diagnosis, reduction in health inequalities as well as improving methodological approaches in health data science.
Yasemin is a Senior Research Fellow in our Health Technology Assessment Unit (HTA), Applied Health Research Hub (AHRh) working on multidisciplinary research projects utilising mixed methods approaches, evidence synthesis and implementation science.
Yasemin gained her PhD in Psychology in 2014 from the University of Surrey and joined UCL as a postdoctoral researcher in early 2015. She worked on the Cancer Research UK-funded programme grant aiming to reduce inequalities in colorectal cancer screening in the UK awarded to Professor Jane Wardle.
During this time, Yasemin carried out two key projects that had major contributions to understanding and reducing colorectal cancer screening inequalities. The first one tested the effectiveness of text-message reminders in improving screening uptake and led to the wider implementation of this across the UK (Hirst et al 2017, British Journal of Cancer). The second project investigated the trends in uptake among first-time participants between 2010-2015 looking at data from 4 million individuals’ records across the UK (Hirst et al. 2018, European Journal of Cancer).
During these projects, Yasemin led a pioneering proof of concept study funded by CRUK investigating the role of self-care behaviours before ovarian cancer diagnosis using transactional data which was later published in JMIR Cancer (Flanagan et al 2019). In 2019, CRUK awarded a project called “Cancer Loyalty Card Study” in which she led the behavioural science workstream. This primary project ended in September 2022 and results were published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (Brewer et al, 2023). This project has resulted in many outputs including radio and television interviews, newspaper articles, and has been shortlisted for Data IQ Awards 2023.
In September 2022, Yasemin joined Lancaster University Medical School as a Research Fellow on a NIHR-funded research project called PARITY aiming to define, measure and evaluate the Prehabilitation service in the UK before cancer surgery for providing recommendations to reduce inequalities in cancer outcomes due to variation in service provision. This project has recently published written evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry exploring innovations in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
- PGcert Health Psychology, University of Surrey, 2017
- PhD Psychology, University of Surrey, 2014
- MSc Health Psychology, University of Surrey, 2010
- BA Psychology, Yeditepe University, 2008
- ESRC Case Studentship (2011-2014)
- Cancer prevention and early diagnosis
- Colorectal cancer screening
- Safety netting
- Behaviour change
- Intervention design
- Implementation science
- British Psychological Society Chartered Membership (CPsychol)
- Data Donation Advisory Council (DDAC)
- Honorary Research Fellow, Imperial College London (2019-present)
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- Reducing inequalities in Bowel Cancer Screening and Communities in Lancashire
- Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS)
- "Your Cancer Pathway Support Guide" - Co-design and evaluation in collaboration with North West London Cancer Alliance
- PULSE
- Combining diet and symptom management for earlier detection of cancer using transactional data, 2022-2024, Cancer Research UK , Role: Co-I. £86,230
- The CIVIC Project: A Sustainable Platform for COVID-19 syndromic-surveillance via Health, Deprivation and Mass Loyalty-Card Datasets, UKRI, Role: Co-I £283,887
- Early Diagnosis for Ovarian Cancer using commercial loyalty card data and purchase behaviours, 2019-2022, Cancer Research UK, Role: Co-I (Behavioural Science lead) £432,000
- Evaluation of e-safety netting templates in primary care: A pragmatic stepped wedge RCT, 2019-21, Cancer Research UK, Role: Co-I, £126,546
- qFIT pilot GP and patient Acceptability, 2017-19, UCLH, Role: Co-I, £78,000
- CRUK Guardian Angels, 2016-18, Cancer Research UK, Role: PI £20,000
- Co-I Txt-netting, 2016-19, Cancer Research UK, Role: Co-I £20,000
- Optimising the community-based “Call for a Kit Clinic” health promotion programme to reduce inequalities in Bowel Cancer Screening uptake in Lancashire, North West Cancer Research, Role: PI £96,515
- RePetitive Upper Limb SEnsory Stimulation early after a Stroke (PULSE), The Lancashire Institute for Global Health and Wellbeing (LIFE), Role: Co-PI £13,166
- HDR UK Conference 2022 - Early Career Researcher Lightning Talks: Yasemin Hirst - HDR UK
- Consumer Data Research Centre annual conference, 2018: “Assessing self-care behaviours of ovarian cancer patients before their diagnosis using commercial data: a proof of concept study’
- CRUK ACE steering group meeting, 2016: “Text-message reminders in colorectal cancer screening: research outcomes’
- CRUK ACE steering group meeting, 2015: “Text-message reminders in colorectal cancer screening: research protocol’
- NHS England Bowel Screening steering group meetings, 2015: “Text-message reminders in colorectal cancer screening: research protocol”
- NHS England Bowel Screening steering group meetings, 2015: “Text-message reminders in colorectal cancer screening: research outcomes”
Email: Email:Dr Yasemin Hirst
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