Visiting Researcher
PhD Philosophy (Exeter); Philosophy and Ethics of Mental Health MA (Warwick); Clinical and Counselling Psychology MA; Work and Organisational Psychology MA; Minor English Language and Literature; Psychology BA (Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridski”)
Email: mp686@medschl.cam.ac.uk
Background
Mila’s favourite studies are on complex questions, are set in messy contexts and require creative study designs. Her work weaves together ideas from psychology, philosophy, sociology, health services research and literary text analysis. This reflects both her interest in finding order in chaos and her background in psychology, philosophy, languages and literature. Mila also loves writing, both in academic and popular formats. She’s completing a book on moving houses, which oscillates between themes of the physical chaos of a house move and the psychological/ existential chaos of a soul on the move.
Her core studies as member of the PELiCam research group (Palliative and End of Life Care in Cambridge) were on patient data sharing and Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems, and on palliative and end of life care in the community. She has also been the lead methodologist and/or supervisor on studies in Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Gaza, Tanzania and Uganda.
Research interests
Mila’s research interests are in:
- evidence/ research synthesis – primarily theory-driven and conceptual syntheses;
- digital health, with a focus on patient data sharing and Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems (EPaCCS);
- global health, humanitarian and disaster relief work. She is a founding member of PalCHASE (Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies);
- see also the palliative care in COVID-19 resource page
- evaluations of complex interventions, or of interventions in complex and dynamic contexts;
- “difficult conversations” about health and illness;
- values and emotions in health decision making;
- change and transformations – both personal and organisational;
- conflict resolution;
- veterans’ health;
- psychosomatic conditions and, more broadly, interactions between mental health and physical health;
- philosophy of medicine and philosophy of science;
- psychotherapy, and in particular writing as a technique in psychotherapy.
Teaching and supervision
Mila is currently co-supervising:
- Dr Peace Bagasha (THRiVE fellow, Makerere University, Uganda) on a PhD study of palliative care in end-stage kidney disease in Uganda;
- Rachel Coghlan (Deakin University, Australia) on a PhD study of palliative care in Gaza;
- Keona Wynne (Harvard Medical School, US) on an MA project on the ethics of palliative care in humanitarian settings.
Key publications
just published
Petrova M, Caddick N, Almond MK (2021) Palliative and end-of-life care for military veterans: the forgotten few? British Journal of General Practice; 71 (703): 86-89.
Patient data sharing
Petrova M and Barclay S (2019) Research approvals iceberg: how a ‘low-key’ study in England needed 89 professionals to approve it and how we can do better. BMC Medical Ethics, 20:7. doi: 10.1186/s12910-018-0339-5
Something’s awry (again) in the debate on patient data sharing.
Petrova M, Barclay M, Barclay S S and Barclay S (2017) Between “the best way to deliver patient care” and “chaos and low clinical value”: General Practitioners’ and Practice Managers’ views on data sharing. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 104:74-83, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.05.009
Petrova M, Riley J, Abel J and Barclay S (2016 online, 2018 paper) Crash course in EPaCCS (Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems): 8 years of successes and failures in patient data sharing to learn from. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2018; 8:447-455.
Global health and humanitarian work
Wynne KJ, Petrova M, Coghlan R. Dying individuals and suffering populations: applying a population-level bioethics lens to palliative care in humanitarian contexts: before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Medical Ethics. Online First:19 June 2020 to 2020; 46:514-525.
Doherty M, Power L S, Petrova M, Gunn S A, Powell R A, Coghlan R J, Grant L, Sutton B, Khan F. (2020) Illness related-suffering and need for palliative care in Rohingya refugees and caregivers in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study. PLoS Medicine, 17(3): e1003011. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003011
Powell RA, Schwartz L, Nouvet E, Sutton B, Petrova M, Marston J, Munday D and Radbruch L (2017) Palliative care in humanitarian crises: Always something to offer. The Lancet, 389 (10078): 1498–9, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30978-9
Methodological work on evidence identification and synthesis
Petrova M (2014) (Mis)trusting Health Research Synthesis Studies: Exploring Transformations of ‘Evidence’. PhD thesis. University of Exeter, UK.
Petrova M, Sutcliffe P, Fulford K W M (Bill) and Dale J (2012) Search terms and a validated brief search filter to retrieve publications on health-related values in Medline: a word frequency analysis study. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 19 (3): 479-488.
Petrova M, Sutcliffe P, Fulford K W M (Bill) and Dale J (2012) VaST (Values Search Tools): A manual for searching electronic databases for publications on health-related values. Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK.
Evaluation projects in primary care and primary palliative care
Petrova M, Vail L, Bosley S and Dale J (2010) Benefits and Challenges of Employing Health Care Assistants in General Practice. Family Practice, 27(3): 303-311.
Petrova M, Dale J, Munday D, Koistinen J, Agarwal S and Lall R (2010) The role and impact of facilitators in primary care: findings from the implementation of the Gold Standards Framework for palliative care. Family Practice, 27 (1): 38-47.
Munday D, Petrova M and Dale J (2009) Exploring preferences for place of death with terminally ill patients. British Medical Journal, 339: b2391.
Dale J, Petrova M, Munday D, Koistinen-Harris J, Lall R and Thomas K (2009) ‘A national facilitation project to improve primary palliative care: the impact of the Gold Standards Framework on process and self-ratings of quality’. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 18 (3): 174-180.
Values and ethics in healthcare
Wynne KJ, Petrova M, Coghlan R. Dying individuals and suffering populations: applying a population-level bioethics lens to palliative care in humanitarian contexts: before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Medical Ethics. Online First:19 June 2020 to 2020; 46:514-525.
Petrova M and Barclay S (2019) Research approvals iceberg: how a ‘low-key’ study in England needed 89 professionals to approve it and how we can do better. BMC Medical Ethics, 20:7. doi: 10.1186/s12910-018-0339-5
Petrova M, Dale J, Fulford K W M (Bill). ‘Values-based practice in primary care: easing the tensions between individual values, ethical principles and best evidence’. British Journal of General Practice, 2006; 56 (530): 703-709.
Blogs
The dark bronze envelope, or the words we never said – a blog on bereavement
Would you share or would you listen? A blog by Dr Mila Petrova
Community based research to improve end of life care : a researcher blog
On academic job insecurity and the ultimate tenure. Nature Jobs, Mar 2017.
Additional Information
Thank you for your interest in my webpage and projects! Please get in touch if we have shared interests we can discuss or collaborate on: mp686@medschl.cam.ac.uk.