Dakin, Dr Francesca

Special Responsibilities

• EMCR committee member as Athena Swan Data Monitoring Lead
• Supports the delivery of the Society for Academic Primary Care’s Digital Technologies Special Interest Group.

Academic background

Dr Dakin holds a DPhil in Primary Health Care from the University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

She is a postdoctoral Qualitative Researcher in Digital Health, and a Mildred Blaxter Fellow in Primary Health Care department within the Medical Sciences Division. She is also a Junior Research Fellow at St Anne’s College and The Centre for Personalised Medicine.

Dr Dakin’s research broadly focuses on the implementation and ongoing use of new technologies in different clinical areas. Her current work focuses on:

• – The impact of AI-enabled tools in access and triage in UK general practice on care equity
• – The provision of remote care to patients on the Special Allocation Scheme (SEARCH)
• – Developing an optimised model of virtual palliative care
• – The use of health technologies and remote care in extremely rural and remote locations
• – Her doctoral project (funded by NIHR SPCR) was an ethnographic case study of the digitalisation of UK general practice, which sought to understand how remote technologies changed the kinds of work performed by staff, patients, and teams, and how this was navigated at individual and organisational levels. This work was supervised by Professor Trish Greenhalgh, Professor Ninna Meier, Dr Tanvi Rai, and Dr Sara Paparini.

Previous projects:

• – Remote-by-Default 2, co-leading two workstreams focused on workforce and access/inequalities, and working closely with The Nuffield Trust
• – SLIM-CARD, conducting qualitative research integrated into an RCT on bariatric surgery outcomes
• – ModCons Goes Dutch, a digital triage knowledge exchange between the UK and the Netherlands
• – Independent consultancy on digital health services
• – The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute at the University of Cambridge, contributing to a variety of healthcare improvement projects, with a particular focus on digital technologies and remote consulting

Teaching

Graduate:

• – Guest lecturer on the MSc in Translational Health Sciences
• – Supervisor on the MSc in Translational Health Sciences
• – Advisor on the MSc in Digital Health
• – Advisor on the MSc in Health Service Improvement and Evaluation

Research interests

Digital health technologies; remote consulting; applied artificial intelligence; healthcare organisations; change/innovation; health inequalities; patient access; digital triage; theory-building.

Recent Publications

• Dakin FH, Hemmings N, Kalin A, et al. Technostress, techno-suffering, and relational strain: a multi-method qualitative study of how remote and digital work affects staff in UK general practice. British Journal of General Practice 2025
• Dakin FH, Rybczynska-Bunt S, Rosen R, et al. Access and triage in contemporary general practice: A novel theory of digital candidacy. Social Science & Medicine 2024
• Dakin FH, Rai T, Paparini S, et al. Supporting your support staff during crises: recommendations for practice leaders to develop a relational workplace. BMJ Leader 2023.
• Dakin FH, Wieringa S, Wherton J, Frost L, Kalin A, Ladds E, Greenhalgh T. Teamwork and relational infrastructure: a qualitative study of modern UK general practice. British Journal of General Practice [UNDER REVIEW]
• Brenman N, van Dael J, Dakin F et al. Social and Ethical Aspects of Remote and Hybrid Care in the Special Allocation Scheme in general practice (SEARCH): A mixed methods feasibility study protocol. NIHR Open Research 2025, 5:96
• Greenhalgh T, Clarke A, Byng R, Alvarez Nishio A, Dakin F, et al. . Remote by Default 2: A study of remote and digital services in UK general practice 2021-2023. NIHR Open Research 2025.
• Greenhalgh T, Alvarez Nishio A, Clarke A, Dakin F, et al. Remote and digital services in UK general practice 2021–2023: the Remote by Default 2 longitudinal qualitative study synopsis. Health and Social Care Delivery Research 2025;13:31.
• Apea V, Titanji BK, Dakin FH, et al. International healthcare workers’ experiences and perceptions of the 2022 multi-country mpox outbreak. PLOS Global Public Health 2025;5(2):e0003704
• Greenhalgh T, Clarke A, Byng R, Dakin F, et al. After the disruptive innovation: How remote and digital services were embedded, blended and abandoned in UK general practice-longitudinal study. Health and Social Care Delivery Research 2025
• Payne RE, Dakin F, MacIver E, et al. What are the challenges to quality in modern, hybrid general practice? A multi-site longitudinal study. British Journal of General Practice 2024.
• Hayes R, Dakin, F, Smuk M, Paparini S, et al. Cross-sectional survey of sexual health professionals’ experiences and perceptions of the 2022 mpox outbreak in the UK. BMJ Open 2024
• Greenhalgh T, Payne RE, Hemmings N, Dakin F, et al. Remote services in general practice: who needs to be trained in what, when and how? British Journal of General Practice 2023.
• Payne R, Clarke A, Swann N, Dakin F, et al. Patient safety in remote primary care encounters: multi-method qualitative study combining Safety I and Safety II analysis BMJ Quality & Safety 2023.
• Payne R, Dakin F. The place of remote consultation in modern general practice. British Journal of General Practice 2023.
• Lame G, … Dakin F, et al. Why is safety in intrapartum electronic fetal monitoring so hard? A qualitative study combining human factors/ergonomics and social science analysis. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2023
• Hinton L, Dakin F, et al. A qualitative study of the dynamics of access to remote antenatal care through the lens of candidacy. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 2023.
• Hinton L, Dakin F, et al. Why is safety in intrapartum electronic fetal monitoring so hard? A Qualitative study. BMJ Quality and Safety. 2023.
• Greenhalgh T, Shaw S, Alvarez Nishio A, Dakin F, et al. Protocol: Remote care as the “new normal?”: Multi-site case study in UK general practice. NIHR Open Research 2022.
• Greenhalgh T, Shaw S, Alvarez Nishio A, Dakin F, et al. Remote care in UK general practice: baseline data on 11 case studies. NIHR Open Research 2022.
• Hinton L, Dakin F, et al. A quality framework for remote antenatal care: qualitative study with women, healthcare professionals, and system-level stakeholders. BMJ Quality and Safety. 2022.
• Hinton L, Kuberska K, Dakin, F, Ekechi C, Dixon-Woods M. Creating equitable remote antenatal care: the importance of inclusion. BMJ Opinion. 2021.