MR PAUL KEFFORD

Biography

Paul Kefford took up his THIS.Institute PhD Fellowship www.thisinstitute.cam.ac.uk/about/people/paul-kefford/ at the Health Services Research Unit in September 2022. Paul's PhD project is entitled: “Improvement without exception? An investigation of enactments of ‘Treatment as Prevention’ and strategies to enhance responsiveness to diverse priorities for wellbeing in HIV care”.

The research aims broadly to investigate experiences of enactments of treatment as prevention (TasP) in HIV care, exploring neglected concerns that enactments of TasP in clinical contexts may have adverse consequences for wellbeing and sometimes unjustly alienate people living with HIV (PLHIV). Adopting an auto-ethnographic lens, the research will use qualitative interviews to understand others' experiences of healthcare and ideas about TasP. Interpretive analysis of data will be informed by concepts and theories from moral philosophy and social epistemology which support a broad, relationally sensitive view of quality-of-life, to help identify and articulate concerns about healthcare quality and ethics.

He is supervised by Professor Vikki Entwistle (reflecting her interests in ‘person-centred’ approaches to healthcare); and Dr Federico Luzzi (a philosopher with a particular interest in epistemic injustice).

Paul is a former civil servant in the Cabinet Office and has many years' experience as a death and dying practitioner, including as Visiting Fellow at Aberdeen University as part of an ESRC-funded project, Care in Funerals.  Paul has been active with public engagement at The Institute of Medical Humanities at Durham University, as well as with the Centre for Death and Society at Bath University, and remains an NIHR and UKHSA PPI Reviewer. 

When not at work, Paul (who lives in Wiltshire in SW England) is often found walking his dog or singing. He is a Deputy Lay Clerk at Bath Abbey and sings in a semi-professional early music consort, as well as other ensembles and choirs.

External Memberships

Member of The Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS)

Funding and Grants

Paul is recipient of a three-year funded PhD fellowship from the THIS.Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute - THIS Institute (cam.ac.uk) - which is made possible through the generous support of The Health Foundation

Paul Kefford - THIS Institute - The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (cam.ac.uk)