Maxine Whelan

After receiving a BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science, Maxine stayed on to complete a PhD in physical activity and public health at Loughborough University. Maxine began her postdoc career conducting a process evaluation of Public Health England's Clinical Champions' Physical Activity Training Programme. This national training programme aimed to deliver training to healthcare professionals across England to promote the delivery of physical activity advice to patients during routine clinical interactions. Maxine then joined the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences to work on a project exploring the feasibility of a multi-component digital self-management tool to support patients with COPD hospitalised for an acute exacerbation. She also supervised undergraduate medicine students to develop and publish systematic reviews and meta-analyses around digital health technologies.

Now within the Centre for Healthcare and Communities, Maxine's research interests focus on population health, broadly. Since 2021, Maxine has accumulated vast experience working on a wide variety of public health-related projects with Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council. Projects have focused on homeless health in the community, creative health programmes, provision of e-cigarettes during pregnancy, acceptability of a healthy lifestyle programme, an ecotherapy intervention for adolescents and a co-located service for survivors of domestic violence. She enjoys working collaboratively with colleagues inside and outside of the university to impact policy decision-making and service provision.

Maxine is particularly interested in supporting positive behaviour changes in midlife women (during the menopause) and exploring how digital health technologies might feature in this. She is actively seeking funding in this space, particularly around how we can better support midlife women navigate the menopause transition whilst at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Within a current project (2022-2027) referred to as Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), Maxine is Pillar Co-Lead to facilitate delivery of training and development activity in the local authority's journey to establishing a sustainable research infrastructure.

Digital health; public health; supported self-management; physical activity promotion; behaviour change; evaluation; self-monitoring; feedback; women's health; menopause; diabetes prevention

To deliver meaningful research that positively impacts short, medium and long-term health outcomes. Maxine aims to build on existing experience of working in a collaborative way, working with public health practitioners, commissioners, healthcare professionals, psychologists, engineers and people with lived experience. She is keen to design and evaluate interventions that align with real-world needs so that research can have a direct impact on clinical practice and public health.