Lorna O'Doherty received her BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology from University College Cork in 1999, a MBS in 2001 from University College Dublin and her PhD on the psychology of neurological disorders from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2007. She was a research fellow in primary care research at the University of Queensland from 2005-2007. Through her work with a Melbourne-based charity and her appointment at the Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School (2007-2013), Lorna fostered a research focus on violence against women and children. Lorna is an honorary fellow at The University of Melbourne and has published widely on the subject of abuse and health, including the weave trial published in the Lancet in 2013 along with systematic reviews and qualitative studies into risk and resilience. She is currently associate professor of violence and health research within the Centre for Intelligent Healthcare at Coventry University. She currently leads the MESARCH project (2018-22) looking at health and service use in survivors of sexual violence and abuse over time and is principal investigator on the new JiCSAV (Justice in Covid for Sexual Abuse and Violence) project funded by the ESRC as part of the UKRI Rapid Response to Covid-19.

My research is concerned with intimate partner violence and sexual violence as major public health problems globally. I am committed to maximising the role of health providers, and health care settings, in supporting those who have experienced partner or sexual violence. My recent work looks at different community and health care-based interventions for women survivors of abuse and I have led Cochrane Reviews and RCTs in this area. I am chief investigator on an NIHR grant to evaluate Sexual Assault Referral Centres in England and undertake a cohort study of health, wellbeing and costs for adult and children survivors of sexual assault and rape (MESARCH project).  I am also involved in the delivery of training resources to enhance care provided by health care workers to women experiencing partner violence and gender based violence during pregnancy.