Dr Mari Imamura

Biography

Mari Imamura is a Research Fellow (Systematic Reviewer).  She completed a PhD in sociolinguistics from the University of Aberdeen.  She joined the Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health (University of Aberdeen) for the external evaluation of a national demonstration project on teenage sexual health in Scotland, Healthy Respect.  She then gained experience in systematic reviews in the area of reproductive health in EU countries as part of an EC-funded project, REPROSTAT2 (2004-2005), and in developing countries as part of Initiative for Maternal Mortality Programme Assessment (IMMPACT) (2005-2006).  She joined the Health Services Research Unit in 2007 and led a couple of systematic reviews of clinical effectiveness of health care interventions commissioned by the UK Health Technology Assessment programme.  She then moved to Academic Urology (2008-2013) to conduct a series of reviews on urological cancers funded by a Scottish urological cancer charity, UCAN, and then to IMMPACT (2013-2016) to conduct a review of complex interventions for guideline implementations to improve obstetric care in low- and middle-income countries.  She then re-joined HSRU in 2016 to conduct clinical effectiveness reviews as part of Health Technology Assessments.  She has experience of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and fieldwork experience of surveys and in-depth interviews.

Current Research

• Health Techonology Assessment of surgical interventions for stress urinary incontinence in women
• Health Technology Assessment of interventions for interstitial cystitis (painful bladder syndrome)

Funding and Grants

• Apr-Dec 2006 NHS Scotland (with van Teilingen E, Tucker J, Poobalan A, Philip K, Spratt J, Pitchforth E and Astin M).  'Sex and Relationship Education – Review of Programmes and Supporting Materials' (Project Reference 2005/2006 RE044) £59,872