Improving Healthcare Support for Long Covid Patients: Embedding Patient Experience in Clinical Education
Start date
May 2026End date
October 2027Overview
Long Covid, a multisystemic condition that can develop following infection with SARS-CoV-2, remains one of the most significant and complex public health challenges to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Substantial numbers of people are living with Long Covid – 2 million in the UK alone (ONS, 2024). Many report difficulties in accessing appropriate healthcare, including challenges with obtaining diagnoses and treatment, and experiences of stigma, minimisation, and dismissal of their symptoms within clinical settings.
This ESRC Impact Acceleration Account-funded project, led by Dr Sazana Jayadeva at the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, aims to improve healthcare support for people living with Long Covid. With an innovative dual approach to impact, the interdisciplinary team will translate their social science research on the lived experiences of Long Covid patients into practical educational resources for both medical students and General Practitioners (GPs). Through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) resources for practising GPs, the project aims to influence current clinical practice and improve patient experiences in the short term. At the same time, the project will develop a suite of teaching resources for undergraduate medical education, together with a toolkit to support their use, helping to shape the knowledge and attitudes of future doctors in relation to post-viral illness, thereby creating longer-term and more sustainable change across the healthcare system.
Co-produced with the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ School of Medicine, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the patient-led charity Long Covid SOS, the project demonstrates how social science research can be translated into meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery and patient care.
Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Sazana Jayadeva
Lecturer
Biography
Sazana is a Lecturer in Sociology. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Sociology, and an editorial board member of the journals Sociological Research Online and Global Networks. She co-convenes the International Research and Researchers’ Network of the Society for Research into Higher Education, and leads the Digital Societies research group at Sociology at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. She is also affiliated with the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies in Germany as an Associate Researcher.
Her research revolves around the broad themes of education, migration, chronic illness, and digital and social media. Methodologically, she has expertise in qualitative research methods including interviews, ethnographies, and visual methods.
Professor Nisreen A Alwan
Professor of Public Health, University of Southampton
Dr Nina Smyth
Reader in Health Psychology, University of Westminster
Professor Deborah Lupton
SHARP Professor, University of New South Wales
Partners
Planned Impact
The project is designed to deliver both immediate and lasting societal benefit by improving how healthcare professionals understand and respond to Long Covid. Research has consistently shown that many people living with Long Covid face significant barriers when seeking medical support, including medical ambivalence, stigma, minimisation or dismissal of symptoms, and a lack of recognition of the expertise patients develop through lived experience. This can contribute to poorer health outcomes, increased inequalities, and a loss of trust in healthcare services. By translating social science research on Long Covid patients’ experiences into clinician-focused educational resources, the project aims to improve the experiences of current patients while helping to create a more responsive healthcare system for the future.
For practising GPs, the team will develop an evidence-based CPD screencast, co-produced with the Royal College of General Practitioners and hosted on its national e-learning platform. The resource will support clinicians to better understand the challenges Long Covid patients face, engage more constructively with patient expertise and patient-generated data, and navigate clinical uncertainty in ways that foster trust and improve patient outcomes. Through this route, the project seeks to have an immediate impact on clinical practice and patient experiences. By piloting these resources with students at the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ School of Medicine and making them freely available to other medical schools across the UK, the team aims to support a shift in how post-viral illness is taught in medical education and approached in future clinical practice.
While centred on Long Covid, the materials will also speak to cross-cutting issues, such as stigma, stereotyping, unconscious bias, engaging with patient expertise and patient-generated data, and navigating clinical uncertainty, that are relevant to a range of illnesses, and can support teaching on these themes, more broadly. In addition, the team will develop a clinical lecture on understanding and treating post-viral illness which can be used in combination with the resources.Through partnerships with the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ School of Medicine, the RCGP, and Long Covid SOS, the project will ensure all resources produced are informed by the perspectives of medical educators, clinicians, and patients.
Illustrations by Ezra David Mattes
