Publication
2025
- Ballard, L. M., Doheny, S., Dimond, R., Lucassen, A. M. and Clarke, A. J. 2025. Predictive genetic testing for Huntington's disease: Exploring participant experiences of uncertainty and ambivalence between clinic appointments. Journal of Genetic Counseling 34(1), article number: e1911. (10.1002/jgc4.1911)
2024
- Clarke, A., Ballard, L. and Doheny, S. 2024. Patients and consultations. Communication & Medicine 19(1), pp. 77-81. (10.1558/cam.23724)
2023
- Doheny, S., Delbridge, R., Morgan, K. and Henderson, D. 2023. City and growth deals innovation challenge funds: Advice and guidance for Northern Ireland. Technical Report.
2022
- Doheny, S. 2022. Recontacting in medical genetics: the implications of a broadening knowledge base. Human Genetics 141, pp. 1045-1051. (10.1007/s00439-021-02353-5)
- Dimond, R., Doheny, S. and Clarke, A. 2022. Genetic testing and family entanglements. Social Science & Medicine 298, article number: 114857. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114857)
2021
- Doheny, S. and Jones, I. R. 2021. What’s so critical about it? An analysis of critique within different strands of critical gerontology. Ageing and Society 41(10), pp. 2314-2334. (10.1017/S0144686X20000288)
2019
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2019. Doing evidence-based medicine? How NHS managers ration high-cost drugs. Social Science and Medicine 235, article number: 112304. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.009)
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2019. Constructing 'exceptionality': a neglected aspect of NHS rationing. Sociology of Health and Illness 41(8), pp. 1600-1617. (10.1111/1467-9566.12976)
2018
- Carrieri, D. et al. 2018. Recontacting patients in clinical genetics services: recommendations of the European Society of Human Genetics. European Journal of Human Genetics 27, pp. 169-182. (10.1038/s41431-018-0285-1)
- Doheny, S. et al. 2018. Dimensions of responsibility in medical genetics: exploring the complexity of the “duty to recontact”. New Genetics and Society 37(3), pp. 187-206. (10.1080/14636778.2018.1510309)
2017
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical practice: the views and expectations of patients in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(10), pp. 1106-1112. (10.1038/ejhg.2017.122)
- Dheensa, S., Carrieri, D., Kelly, S., Clarke, A., Doheny, S., Turnpenny, P. and Lucassen, A. 2017. A 'joint venture' model of recontacting in clinical genomics: challenges for responsible implementation. European Journal of Medical Genetics 60(7), pp. 403-409. (10.1016/j.ejmg.2017.05.001)
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A. J., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical genetics and genomic medicine? We need to talk about it [Letter]. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(5), pp. 520-521. (10.1038/ejhg.2017.8)
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A. J., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical practice: an investigation of the views of healthcare professionals and clinical scientists in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(3), pp. 275-279. (10.1038/ejhg.2016.188)
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2017. Community, rurality, and older people: critically comparing older people's experiences across different rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies 50, pp. 129-138. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.12.003)
2016
- Carrieri, D., Lucassen, A. M., Clarke, A. J., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Turnpenny, P. D. and Kelly, S. E. 2016. Recontact in clinical practice: a survey of clinical genetics services in the United Kingdom. Genetics in Medicine 18(9), pp. 876-881. (10.1038/gim.2015.194)
- Allen, P., Hughes, D., Vincent-Jones, P., Petsoulas, C., Doheny, S. and Roberts, J. A. 2016. Public contracts as accountability mechanisms: assuring quality in public health care in England and Wales. Public Management Review 18(1), pp. 20-39. (10.1080/14719037.2014.957341)
2015
- Doheny, S. 2015. Social class in later life: power, identity and lifestyle [Book Review]. Social Policy and Administration 49(5), pp. 674-675. (10.1111/spol.12160)
2014
- O'Neill, C. and Doheny, S. 2014. Healthy debate? Reconstructing third sector influence in the transformed NHS in Wales. Contemporary Wales 27(1), pp. 127-147.
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2014. Older people, low income and place: Making connections in rural Britain. In: Hagan Hennessy, C., Means, R. and Burholt, V. eds. Countryside connections: Older people, community and place in rural Britain. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 193-220.
2012
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2012. Modernization and devolution: delivering services to older people in rural areas of England and Wales. Social Policy and Administration 47(5), pp. 501-519. (10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00870.x)
- Milbourne, P. and Doheny, S. 2012. Older people and poverty in rural Britain: material hardships, cultural denials and social inclusions. Journal of Rural Studies 28(4), pp. 389-397. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.06.007)
2011
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2011. Deliberating Tarceva: a case study of how British NHS managers decide whether to purchase a high-cost drug in the shadow of NICE guidance. Social Science & Medicine 73(10), pp. 1460-1468. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.023)
- Hughes, D., Petsoulas, C., Allen, P., Doheny, S. and Vincent-Jones, P. 2011. Contracts in the English NHS: market levers and social embeddedness. Health Sociology Review 20(3), pp. 321-337. (10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.321)
2010
- Powell, M., Greener, I., Szmigin, I., Doheny, S. and Mills, N. 2010. Broadening the focus of public service consumerism. Public Management Review 12(3), pp. 323-339. (10.1080/14719030903286615)
- Doheny, S. and O'Neill, C. 2010. Becoming deliberative citizens: the moral learning process of the citizen juror. Political Studies -Oxford- 58(4), pp. 630-648. (10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00799.x)
2009
- Powell, M., Doheny, S., Greener, I. and Mills, N. 2009. Introduction: Managing the 'unmanageable consumer'. In: Simmons, R., Powell, M. and Greener, I. eds. The Consumer in Public Services: Choice, Values and Difference. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 1-18.
2007
- Doheny, S. 2007. Responsibility and the deliberative citizen: theorizing the acceptance of individual and citizenship responsibilities. Citizenship Studies 11(4), pp. 405-420. (10.1080/13621020701476293)
Articles
- Ballard, L. M., Doheny, S., Dimond, R., Lucassen, A. M. and Clarke, A. J. 2025. Predictive genetic testing for Huntington's disease: Exploring participant experiences of uncertainty and ambivalence between clinic appointments. Journal of Genetic Counseling 34(1), article number: e1911. (10.1002/jgc4.1911)
- Clarke, A., Ballard, L. and Doheny, S. 2024. Patients and consultations. Communication & Medicine 19(1), pp. 77-81. (10.1558/cam.23724)
- Doheny, S. 2022. Recontacting in medical genetics: the implications of a broadening knowledge base. Human Genetics 141, pp. 1045-1051. (10.1007/s00439-021-02353-5)
- Dimond, R., Doheny, S. and Clarke, A. 2022. Genetic testing and family entanglements. Social Science & Medicine 298, article number: 114857. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114857)
- Doheny, S. and Jones, I. R. 2021. What’s so critical about it? An analysis of critique within different strands of critical gerontology. Ageing and Society 41(10), pp. 2314-2334. (10.1017/S0144686X20000288)
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2019. Doing evidence-based medicine? How NHS managers ration high-cost drugs. Social Science and Medicine 235, article number: 112304. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.009)
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2019. Constructing 'exceptionality': a neglected aspect of NHS rationing. Sociology of Health and Illness 41(8), pp. 1600-1617. (10.1111/1467-9566.12976)
- Carrieri, D. et al. 2018. Recontacting patients in clinical genetics services: recommendations of the European Society of Human Genetics. European Journal of Human Genetics 27, pp. 169-182. (10.1038/s41431-018-0285-1)
- Doheny, S. et al. 2018. Dimensions of responsibility in medical genetics: exploring the complexity of the “duty to recontact”. New Genetics and Society 37(3), pp. 187-206. (10.1080/14636778.2018.1510309)
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical practice: the views and expectations of patients in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(10), pp. 1106-1112. (10.1038/ejhg.2017.122)
- Dheensa, S., Carrieri, D., Kelly, S., Clarke, A., Doheny, S., Turnpenny, P. and Lucassen, A. 2017. A 'joint venture' model of recontacting in clinical genomics: challenges for responsible implementation. European Journal of Medical Genetics 60(7), pp. 403-409. (10.1016/j.ejmg.2017.05.001)
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A. J., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical genetics and genomic medicine? We need to talk about it [Letter]. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(5), pp. 520-521. (10.1038/ejhg.2017.8)
- Carrieri, D., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Clarke, A. J., Turnpenny, P. D., Lucassen, A. M. and Kelly, S. E. 2017. Recontacting in clinical practice: an investigation of the views of healthcare professionals and clinical scientists in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Human Genetics 25(3), pp. 275-279. (10.1038/ejhg.2016.188)
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2017. Community, rurality, and older people: critically comparing older people's experiences across different rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies 50, pp. 129-138. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.12.003)
- Carrieri, D., Lucassen, A. M., Clarke, A. J., Dheensa, S., Doheny, S., Turnpenny, P. D. and Kelly, S. E. 2016. Recontact in clinical practice: a survey of clinical genetics services in the United Kingdom. Genetics in Medicine 18(9), pp. 876-881. (10.1038/gim.2015.194)
- Allen, P., Hughes, D., Vincent-Jones, P., Petsoulas, C., Doheny, S. and Roberts, J. A. 2016. Public contracts as accountability mechanisms: assuring quality in public health care in England and Wales. Public Management Review 18(1), pp. 20-39. (10.1080/14719037.2014.957341)
- Doheny, S. 2015. Social class in later life: power, identity and lifestyle [Book Review]. Social Policy and Administration 49(5), pp. 674-675. (10.1111/spol.12160)
- O'Neill, C. and Doheny, S. 2014. Healthy debate? Reconstructing third sector influence in the transformed NHS in Wales. Contemporary Wales 27(1), pp. 127-147.
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2012. Modernization and devolution: delivering services to older people in rural areas of England and Wales. Social Policy and Administration 47(5), pp. 501-519. (10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00870.x)
- Milbourne, P. and Doheny, S. 2012. Older people and poverty in rural Britain: material hardships, cultural denials and social inclusions. Journal of Rural Studies 28(4), pp. 389-397. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.06.007)
- Hughes, D. and Doheny, S. 2011. Deliberating Tarceva: a case study of how British NHS managers decide whether to purchase a high-cost drug in the shadow of NICE guidance. Social Science & Medicine 73(10), pp. 1460-1468. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.023)
- Hughes, D., Petsoulas, C., Allen, P., Doheny, S. and Vincent-Jones, P. 2011. Contracts in the English NHS: market levers and social embeddedness. Health Sociology Review 20(3), pp. 321-337. (10.5172/hesr.2011.20.3.321)
- Powell, M., Greener, I., Szmigin, I., Doheny, S. and Mills, N. 2010. Broadening the focus of public service consumerism. Public Management Review 12(3), pp. 323-339. (10.1080/14719030903286615)
- Doheny, S. and O'Neill, C. 2010. Becoming deliberative citizens: the moral learning process of the citizen juror. Political Studies -Oxford- 58(4), pp. 630-648. (10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00799.x)
- Doheny, S. 2007. Responsibility and the deliberative citizen: theorizing the acceptance of individual and citizenship responsibilities. Citizenship Studies 11(4), pp. 405-420. (10.1080/13621020701476293)
Book sections
- Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2014. Older people, low income and place: Making connections in rural Britain. In: Hagan Hennessy, C., Means, R. and Burholt, V. eds. Countryside connections: Older people, community and place in rural Britain. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 193-220.
- Powell, M., Doheny, S., Greener, I. and Mills, N. 2009. Introduction: Managing the 'unmanageable consumer'. In: Simmons, R., Powell, M. and Greener, I. eds. The Consumer in Public Services: Choice, Values and Difference. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 1-18.
Monographs
- Doheny, S., Delbridge, R., Morgan, K. and Henderson, D. 2023. City and growth deals innovation challenge funds: Advice and guidance for Northern Ireland. Technical Report.
Research
I am a researcher with long standing research interests in knowledge, ethics, citizenship, ageing, medical sociology, and citical theory. I began my research career in social policy, and have gained a great deal of experience through work in health policy, management research, human geography, the sociology of ageing, and in the sociology of medicine.
Currently, I research how the Cardiff Capital Region's 'Challenge Fund' stimulates the development of innovative solutions to societal problems in the region. This is very much a formative evaluation of the challenge fund, and involves tracking the identification and development of innovations in response to challenges, to critically reflect on the experience with the aim of contributing to the overall sustainability of this kind of partnership.
My recent work focused on how patients made decisions about genetic and prenatal tests, when the outcome of the test was of more use to the patient than to clinicans. This project fouced on the experiences of patients in the predictive genetics clinic and in fetal medicine, and explored the use of knowledge and on ethics in patient decision making.
My continuing interest in knowledge, ethics and decision making takes me in various new directions. The context changes, but the issues remain, hence my continuing interest in critical theory as a forum for exploring the meaning and implications of empirical insights.
Biography
I began my research career with a focus in both theory and the empirical. I completed my MA in Sociology in Cork, focusing on Habermas's discourse ethics and then took up my first role as a research assistant in Luton conducting a small study of housing and homelessness. My career has brought me to work in a wide range of departments, but I have always maintained my commitments to engaging with empirical data mindful of the role and insights of philosophy and social theory.
I have had the privelage of working on a wide range of large and stimulating research projects. This includes a project as part of the ESRC's Cultures of Consumption programme, the Grey and Pleasant Land? project, the Recontacting in Mainstreaming Genetics project and acted as a research associate on the Cardiff Capital Region Challenge Fund project. I was a co-investigator on an ESRC project called Framing the Trajectories of Decision Making in Predictive and Pre-natal Genetic and Genomic Tests.
My current work focuses on the Barriers and Facilitators to the Mainstreaming of Genomics in the NHS.
Honours and awards
- "Technologies of Prognostication and the Communication of Uncertainty in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit", Welsh Government, (£10,634), Named researcher, 01/03/19 – 31/08/19
- "The UK/Japan Genetics and Genomics Research Network", ESRC/EPSRC, (£38,183), Principal Investigator, 01/02/19 – 31/05/20
- "Technologies of Prognostication and the Communication of Uncertainty in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit", Elizabeth Blackwell Institute, Bristol University, (£833,15), Named collaborator, 01/05/19 – 31/08/19
- "Framing the trajectories of decision-making in the context of predictive and prenatal genetic and genomic tests", ESRC, Co-Investigator, 01/02/18 – 31/01/21
- "Independent Review on the Commissioning and Provision of Social Services to Older People in the City & County of Swansea", Sponsor: City and County of Swansea (£26,000), co principal investigator with Dr Rod Hick, Duration: 1/6/14 – 31/8/14
- "Ordinary environmentalism: Community gardening in urban places", (£8,500), named researcher on a bid for college research funds, Cardiff University
- "Civil society and the public sphere in the environment of a transformed healthcare system" Sponsor: Welsh Assembly Government (£9,992), principal investigator, Duration: 01/10/2010 - 28/02/2011
Academic positions
- 2021 - Present Research Associate, Centre for Innovation Policy Research, Cardiff University
- 2018 – 2021 Research Associate, Institute for Medical Genetics, Cardiff University
- 2017 – 2018 Research Associate, WISERD, Cardiff University
- 2015 – 2017 Research Associate, Institute for Medical Genetics, Cardiff University
- 2014 – 2015 Higher Research Officer, National Assembly for Wales
- 2014 – 2014 Independent research consultant
- 2010 – 2014 Research Associate – School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University
- 2007 – 2010 Research Officer/Assistant Lecturer – School of Health Sciences, Swansea University.
- 2004 – 2006 Research Assistant/Assistant Lecturer – Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath
- 2002 – 2004 Research Assistant - Management Research Centre, University of Bristol