Dr Kate Lyle PhD, MSc, BSc
Senior Research Fellow

Kate Lyle is a Senior Research Fellow in the Clinical Ethics and Law (CELS) research group within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.
My research interests lie in exploring the social aspects of technological advances in healthcare, and their effects on healthcare delivery and patient experience.
Kate is a sociologist with an interest in exploring the social aspects of technological advances in healthcare, and their effects on healthcare delivery and patient experience. As part of the CELS team, Kate is exploring the ethical implications of genomic medicine, at a time when genetic testing is becoming an integral part of healthcare.
Kate is a Senior Research Fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project Ethical Preparedness in Genomic Medicine (EPPiGen) - a collaboration between the University of Southampton and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, which brings together a multi-disciplinary team to explore and facilitate the preparedness of those delivering and receiving genomic services to deal with the ethical and social challenges it raises.
Kate’s previous research has included exploring the implementation of a patient administered checklist to improve patient experience, facilitating public engagement with social media data analytics, and understanding how employee driven innovation within in the healthcare sector.
Kate completed her PhD at the University of Southampton in 2012. Her thesis explored the possibilities of using sociological research to prospectively assess the potential use of a developing technology in order to inform the design of a device that is appropriate to the needs of the setting. Kate’s research focused on exploring the potential use of a developing point of care test within several healthcare settings, to explore if and how the device might come into use, and the implications of this for the continued development of the technology. Drawing on theories from the field of science and technology studies, Kate developed a theoretical framework to enable prospective research, and applied it using a qualitative methodology.