Carmel am currently working on a part-time basis for the Applied Research Collaboration West and Health Protection Research Unit Behavioural Science and Evaluation. Her job involves supporting researchers and public contributors with their public involvement practices and evaluation at various levels and in a range of contexts. She has a special interest and expertise in the evaluation and impact of public involvement.

Carmel initially started her career in nursing and is now completing her final year as a PhD student at the University of Southampton. Her research explores the impact of patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research. The aim of this work is to better understand how PPI impacts research outcomes. As part of this research, Carmel has conducted interviews with PPI stakeholders. She has also completed secondary data analysis of 2,415 open text responses to questions around PPI impact from data obtained from the Researchfish platform.

Results from her studies have shown that developing meaningful partnerships with PPI contributors, at the earliest phases of research, increases the likelihood of producing relevant research outcomes.

Throughout her doctoral research, Carmel has worked with patients and the public who have influenced each stage of the research process and shaped the research outcomes. These outcomes have included developing theory around the used of logic model approaches to support evaluations of PPI impact.