Marion McAllister's Biography

I am a genetic counsellor with 10 years experience at The North West Regional Clinical Genetics service, St Mary's Hospital, Manchester. I now work in research full-time. My research aims to improve how clinical genetics services respond to the needs of families affected by genetic conditions. My research training is in social science, having completed a PhD at The University of Cambridge in 1999. I began to apply my social science research training to the genetic counselling field in 2003, when I took up a half-time post at Nowgen (A Centre for Genetics in Healthcare, formerly The North West Genetics Knowledge Park). I worked there as part of team investigating how best to measure the patient benefits from using clinical genetics services. In 2007, I was awarded a Medical Research Council post-doctoral fellowship in Health Services Research, with the aim to develop a new measure of outcome for clinical genetics services, which will take the form of a questionnaire. My fellowship is administered through The University of Manchester, although I remain based in The Nowgen Centre. This work will be completed in August 2010.

I live in Manchester and I am married with two children.

Online profiles

Publications

Peer reviewed journal articles:

  • McAllister M, Payne K, MacLeod R, Nicholls S, Donnai D, Davies L. What process attributes of clinical genetics services could maximize patient benefits? Eur J Hum Genet (2008) 16, 1467-1476
  • McAllister M, Payne K, Nicholls S, MacLeod R, Donnai D, Davies L. Patient empowerment in clinical genetics services. J Health Psychol 2008 13(7):887-897
  • Payne K, Nicholls S, McAllister M, MacLeod R, Donnai D, Davies LM. Outcome measurement in clinical genetics services: a systematic review of validated measures. Value in Health 2008 11(3):497-508
  • McAllister M, Payne K, Nicholls S, MacLeod R, Donnai D, Davies L. Improving service evaluation in clinical genetics: identifying effects of genetic diseases on individuals and families J Genetic Counseling 2007, 16(1):71-83.
  • McAllister M, Payne K, Nicholls S, Donnai D, Davies L, MacLeod R. The emotional effects of genetic disease: implications for clinical genetics. Am J Med Genet 2007 143A(22):2651-2661
  • Payne K, Nicholls S, McAllister M, MacLeod R, Middleton-Price H, Ellis I, Donnai D, Davies LM (2007). Outcome measures for clinical genetics services: a comparison of genetics healthcare professionals and patients' views. Health Policy 84(1):112-122.
  • McAllister M. Personal theories of inheritance, coping strategies, risk perception and engagement in Hereditary Non-polyposis Colon Cancer families offered genetic testing. Clinical Genetics 2003: 64:179-89
  • McAllister M. Predictive genetic testing and beyond: A theory of engagement. J Health Psychol. 2002: 7:491-508.
  • McAllister M, O'Malley K, Hopwood P, Kerr B, Howell A, Evans DGR. Management of women with a family history of breast cancer in the North West Region of England: training for implementing a vision of the future. J Med Genet 2002: 39:531-5.
  • McAllister M. Grounded theory in genetic counseling research. J Genetic Counseling 2001: 10:233-50
  • McAllister MF, Evans DGR, Ormiston W, Daly P. Men in breast cancer families: a preliminary qualitative study of awareness and experience. J Med Genet 1998: 35:739-744
  • McAllister M, Kelly CT, Doyle E, Fogarty WM. The isomaltulose synthesising enzyme system of Serratia plymuthica. Biotech Letts 1990: 12:667-672

Book contributions:

  • McAllister M. Outcome measures in clinical genetics services. In: eds. Kristofferson U, Cassiman JJ,Schmidtke J. Quality issues in clinical genetics services. Springer (in press)
  • McAllister M, Sabee C. Attribution Theory in: Talking about genetics: family matters. eds. Gaff C, Bylund C. OUP (in press)
  • McAllister M. On the joys and sorrows of recruiting hospital patients. In: Reflections on research: The realities of doing research in the social sciences, pp67-69. Eds: Hallowell N, Lawton J, Gregory S. OUP, 2005.

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