Dr Flavia Swan

PhD, BSc (Hons)

Research Fellow

Role at Hull York Medical School

Flavia is a research fellow in cancer rehabilitation who works on the Yorkshire Cancer Research TRANSFORMing Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire project. She is also part of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre and the Institute for Clinical and Applied Health Research at the University of Hull.

Biography

Flavia is a research fellow in cancer rehabilitation at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre. She is currently working on two projects:

  1. CanBenefit II: a project to assess the feasibility of a nutrition and physical activity programme to help improve quality of life for older people with lung cancer during cancer treatments, and
  2. CanAssess2: a project to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Needs Assessment Tool-Cancer (NAT-C) in reducing unmet needs of patients in primary care.

She is a Chartered Physiotherapist and is a clinical specialist in palliative care. Her other main research interest is in the role of non-pharmacological interventions, in particular the handheld fan for the management of chronic breathlessness. Her PhD research included a systematic review and meta-analysis of medical air for breathlessness, and a mixed methods feasibility study to investigate the handheld fan, the calming hand (a thinking strategy) and simple exercise advice for the management of chronic breathlessness. She continues to research the handheld fan and is currently working on two projects called FANFARE–P and Fan implementation study (FITS).

Research

Flavia’s main area of research interest is the role of non-pharmacological interventions for the management of chronic breathlessness and particularly the handheld fan. In addition, she is looking at the role of physical activity for older people with lung cancer during cancer treatments on quality of life and cancer-related outcomes.

Teaching

MBBS undergraduate Health and Society, Professionalism and ethics, Phase II Critically Appraised Topics (CAT marking).

Current and past supervision

Undergraduate students:

  • Eloise Meulen, Bachelor of Exercise Physiology (Honours Research), University of South Australia. Project: Explaining breathlessness for people living with chronic breathlessness: Field testing a process to understand helpfulness and understandability of explanations. Thesis examiner
  • Josh Brown and Isobel Miller, INSPIRE programme, Hull York Medical School. Project: Implementation of the handheld fan in clinical practice; qualitative interviews of clinicians’ experience and perceptions of use, barriers and facilitators. Project supervisor
  • Gamze Keser, INSPIRE programme, HYMS. Project: The implementation of the handheld fan in clinical practice; a survey of clinicians’ experience and barriers and facilitators to use. Project supervisor
  • Andrew Brew and Sarah O’ Beine, INSPIRE programme, Hull York Medical School. Project: Fan Facial Airflow Recovery from Exercise in healthy participants (FanFARE-H). Project co-supervisor
  • Aliya Prihartadi and Giovanna Licastro, INSPIRE programme, Hull York Medical School. Project: A scoping review of non-medical devices for chronic breathlessness: use, barriers and facilitators for patients, carers and clinicians Project co-supervisor

Postgraduate students:

  • Thomas Burrell, MSc Sports, Health and Exercise Science, University of Hull. Project: Fan Facial Airflow Recovery from Exercise in people with chronic breathlessness (FanFare-P) Project co-supervisor
Publications

A summary of Flavia’s research publications is available on ORCID or Researchgate.

Honours and awards

Post-doctoral awards

  • NIHR & Charities Consortium for Hospice & Community Care Research Marie Curie award winner (2021)
  • Golden Heart award winner, Respiratory Palliative Care Research Partnership (2019)

Postgraduate awards

  • Hull York Medical School postgraduate award, The Dorothy Robson Prize for Palliative Medicine, (2017)
  • Hull York Medical School postgraduate research conference, 3 minute PhD thesis presentation prize winner: Airflow systematic review (SR) and meta-analyses, (2015)
Presentations

Recent presentations:

  • Lightening round oral presentation Dyspnea 2022 “Implementation of the handheld fan in clinical practice; qualitative interviews of clinicians’ experience and perceptions of use, barriers and facilitators” July 2022, Oxford Brookes University.
  • Poster presentation Dyspnea 2022 “The implementation of the handheld fan in clinical practice; a survey of clinicians’ experience and barriers and facilitators to use” July 2022,Oxford Brookes University
  • Oral presentation i3 Creating connections Palliative Care Conference “A scoping review of non-medical devices for chronic breathlessness: use, barriers and facilitators for patients, carers and clinicians” June 2022, University of Hull.