Dr Bethan Treadgold (She/her)

Bethan Treadgold is a Chartered Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow working across the Department of Health and Community Sciences. Bethan is a staff member of the Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) and the Health Professions Education & Wellbeing Research Group. Bethan joined the University of Exeter in 2021, while submitting her PhD at the Univeristy of Southampton. Bethan's research is built on her expertise in understanding the psychological aspects of self-managing health and in the delivery of healthcare (BSc Psychology 2016; MSc Health Psychology 2017, PhD Primary Care and Population Sciences 2022). 

Digital health services research in Primary Care

Bethan is a qualitative methodologist, with interdisciplinary research expertise, focused around patients', carers' and primary healthcare professionals' use of and access to digital health services for self-managing or supporting others in managing, long-term conditions. Since securing funding (£54,000) to conduct a NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR)  PhD studentship at the University of Southampton (Treadgold et al., 2020, Treadgold et al., 2023), Bethan has been committed to exploring patients' and carers' use of peer online support forums to gain advice and support around self-managing their health. Bethan is equally interested in primary healthcare professionals' evolving engagement with peer online support forums, as well as how professionals can support patients and carers in accessing trustworthy and helful online advice. Bethan is passionate about promoting safe and benefical use of peer online support forums, alongside traditional healthcare, as an empowering method for self-managing long-term conditions.

In 2023, Bethan secured £148,000 in funding from the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) to lead a postdoctoral research fellowship project (Accessibility, acceptability, and accuracy of peer online support groups for primary care conditions), investigating the acceptability of, and potential procedures for, primary healthcare professionals quality approving peer-generated health information and advice exchanged in peer online support forums (supervised by Dr Emma Pitchforth, Professor John Campbell, Professor Neil Coulson, Dr Jeff Lambert). 

Bethan has also investigated patients', carers' and primary healthcare professionals' experiences of using remote consultation services in primary care as well as how professionals support disadvantaged groups of patients and carers in accessing such services  (Treadgold et al., 2025, Stockwell et al., 2025, Newbould et al., 2024, Abel et al., 2024, Parsons et al., 2024). Bethan has extensive experience in collaborating with a variety of stakeholder groups (patients, clinicians, employers, third sector organisations and policy makers) through leading public involvement and engagement on several research projects to date.

NHS staff wellbeing and recognition

In 2025, Bethan joined the NIHR Workforce Wellbeing Partnership: CARES-WELL (Collaborative Action for Research in Staff Healthcare Wellbeing) as a qualitative research fellow, working on develop solutions to improve NHS staff wellbeing and to create healthy workplaces where staff can thrive, using realist methods. Through working in partnership across academic institutions, integrated care systems, national policy and local service stakeholders across England, Bethan is focusing on identifying ways of monitoring workplace environments and measuring staff wellbeing which will drive meaningful change in healthcare organisations. Prior to this research, Bethan investigated the assessment process for the The National Clinical Excellence Awards in England and Wales, which were designed as a form of performance-related pay, to reward high-performing senior doctors and dentists. Bethan investigated how assessors and other stakeholders defined excellence, differentiated between levels of excellence, and co-developed a revised scoring scheme to ensure unbiased definitions and scoring (Treadgold et al., 2023, Abel et al., 2024). 

Since joining the University of Exeter, Bethan has worked as a qualitative research fellow on the following NIHR funded collaborative projects:

• INCEA (Investigating Clinical Excellence Awards) 2021-2022
• DI-FACTO (Digital Facilitation in Primary Care) 2021-2023
• UMPH (Understanding the Measurement of Postural Hypotension in Primary Care) 2023
• CARES-WELL(Collaborative Action for Research in Staff Healthcare Wellbeing) 2025