Dr Karen Barnett

Dr Karen Barnett is a Lecturer in Public Health on the Master of Public Health (MPH) Programme within the Division of Postgraduate Medicine, School of Medicine. Dr Barnett is also a population health researcher and is affiliated with the Division of Population Health and Genomics. She graduated with an Honours degree in Psychology (2004), followed by a PhD in 2010 at the University of Dundee. Dr Barnett went on to graduate with an MSc Health Psychology with Distinction (Stage 1 Professional Training) at the University of Stirling in 2014. In February 2022 she successfully gained the professional qualification of Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Barnett has led on several multidisciplinary mixed-methods projects, primarily with expertise in data-linkage studies working with large routine health datasets. Her research cuts across issues pertinent to public health and health promotion, including long-term conditions and multimorbidity; high risk prescribing, and cancer prevention and screening. Dr Barnett’s seminal research on the epidemiology of multimorbidity in Scotland, won the Royal College of General Practice (RCGP) Research Paper of the Year Award 2012, and with almost 5000 citations (August 2024) has informed clinical guidelines and led to policy change that challenges the traditional single disease framework common to many health care systems. 

Dr Barnett has also collaborated on intervention development and behaviour change studies and has led qualitative research studies - conducting and analysing semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews and facilitating and analysing focus groups. She is actively engaged in population health research and research led teaching delivering lectures and workshops relating to the fields of epidemiology and public health. She continues to widen her teaching portfolio and has a keen interest in developing health psychology and behaviour change teaching within the School of Medicine.