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Yitka Graham

Professor Yitka Graham

Head of the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute, Professor of Health Services Research

Email:

yitka.graham@sunderland.ac.uk

Pronouns:

she/her

Contact for expert insight

About Professor Yitka Graham

I'm Head of the Helen McArdle Nursing and Care Research Institute (HMNCRI) and Professor of Health Services Research, leading applied health research, knowledge exchange, and building innovation capacity and capability across the University, working closely with NHS, local authority, social care, VCSE and commercial partners. My work as two overarching themes, Health Services Research and Health Inequalities and my main areas of research are metabolic and bariatric surgery, lifestyle medicine and weight stigma.

Health Services Research encompasses the organisation and delivery of services primarily in the NHS, but also social care, local authority and VCSE. Strategic areas include patient experience, workforce development, quality improvement, patient safety and implementation science across a range of clinical disciplines.

Health Inequalities aims to understand and address the causes of poor health, addressing both the social and commercial determinants of health through a life course approach. This work aligns to and supports the delivery of the Sunderland Healthy City Plan, led by Sunderland City Council.

I am also the Editor in Chief of BMJ Lifestyle Medicine Advances, a specialist journal which is building up the evidence base of the impact of the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine in preventing and supporting people living with long term chronic health conditions.

I work collaboratively across the three faculties, leading creative health projects with colleagues in Creative Industries, and within Technology to reduce digital exclusion and am the University of Sunderland lead for the regional NortHFutures Digital Health Hub.

Internationally, I am the President Elect of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Other Therapies for Obesity (IFSO), and Chaired the IFSO Integrated Health Professional Guidelines Committee (2023-2026), and was a member of the Scientific Committee (2018 - 2025). I am currently a member of the IFSO Latin American Chapter Scientific Committee.

I have held a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Anahuac in Mexico since 2019, and I am an honorary lifetime member of the Mexican College of Surgery for Obesity and Metabolic Diseases (CMCOEM). I am also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at Austral University, Argentina, and a full member of the Argentine Society for Surgery of Obesity (SACO), working collaboratively with my Argentine colleagues on research projects focusing on innovative ways to improve the care of people living with MBS and challenging the stigma of obesity through a multicultural approach. I am a Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield.

Externally, I have been the Honorary Specialty Lead for Health Services Research at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust since 2015, holding an embedded research post in the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgical (MBS) Unit in the Directorate of General Surgery at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust. I lead on collaborative research into patient experience, workforce issues and roles of healthcare professionals within multi-disciplinary teams in the field of weight management. My work into patient experiences of MBS was a REF2021 Impact Case Study, and this work continues, expanding to encompass the increasing use of obesity medications.

I am also the Research and Innovation Honorary Lead for the Sunderland GP Alliance, supporting our community NHS workforce. Both my NHS roles are strategically aligned to the delivery of the NHS Fit For Future Plan.

I represent the University on the Sunderland Health and Wellbeing Board and Chair the Healthy Settings Committee, part of the Sunderland Healthy Weight Alliance run by Sunderland City Council.

From 2015 - 2025 I was the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Specialty Group Lead for Health Services Research for the North East and North Cumbria Clinical Research Network, building research in this clinical discipline in the NHS and wider health and care settings, and supporting the delivery of Health Services Research studies.

I work collaboratively to ensure that the findings gained from the research and knowledge exchange informs practice and decision-making to create meaningful impact.