Elizabeth Shephard

Dr Elizabeth Shephard is a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter Medical School within the Department of Health and Community Sciences, specializing in primary care cancer diagnostics since 2010 as part of Professor Willie Hamilton's Discovery group. Her work focuses on developing risk assessment tools (RATs) for over eight cancer sites, with three tools incorporated into the 2015 NICE cancer guidelines (NG12).

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Psychology from the University of Essex (2000-2004)
• MSc in Developmental Neuropsychology from the University of Essex (1999-2000)
• BSc in Psychology from the University of Surrey: Roehampton Institute

Dr Shephard's research centers on using observational data from electronic patient records like the CPRD to investigate early clinical features of cancer in primary care. She leads process evaluation for the ERICA trial assessing six electronic RATs for lung, colorectal, bladder, kidney, oesophago-gastric and ovarian cancers, aiming to increase early-stage diagnoses by ~4% and potentially avoid 6,000 annual cancer deaths. Her work bridges clinical practice with data-driven diagnostics to improve GP cancer identification.

Current projects include the INCODE Study on coeliac disease diagnosis inequalities (2024-25), OSCA Study on cancer investigation attendance in patients with mental health conditions (2023-24), and abdominal pain diagnostic pathway research for cancer (2018-20).

Her scientific awards include:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Dr Shephard co-supervises PhD students including Dr Alex Burns (researching diagnostic uncertainty in the ERICA trial) and served as Academic Tutor for Medical Sciences undergraduates (2017-2021). She ran the cancer RSSU for year 3 medical students (2017-2020) and contributed to teaching as Scientific Communication Group tutor and SSU Progress Support Tutor. Her work operates within the Institute of Health Research and ERICA hub, combining psychological expertise with clinical diagnostics to address healthcare inequalities.