Lead supervisor:
Dr Ana Da Silva 
Start date: October 2017
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Health and Well-Being and Data Science
Thematic Cluster:
Society and Well-Being Cluster
The Impact of Non Clinical Patient Factors in Clinical Decision Making
Healthcare professionals are asked to make accurate and extremely important decisions in short periods of time, on the basis of very little information. It is therefore not surprising that errors occur, such as misdiagnoses. There are a plethora of reasons that misdiagnoses may ensue, however this project focuses on one aspect, which is a result of non-clinical factors.
This research aims to contribute towards improving clinical decision-making and health equity agenda by determining how non-clinical patient factors (NCpF) impact mental health diagnoses. Using a combination of the Administrative Data Research Centre in Wales (ADRC-Wales) and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databanks, this will examine the socioeconomic, educational, demographic and medical history of anonymised individuals prior to receiving their diagnosis to determine if any of these NCpF had an impact on the outcome.