Medical Sociology & Health Experiences Research Group

The Medical Sociology and Health Experience Research Group (MS & HERG) is based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Univeristy of Oxford.

The research team (past and present) at MS & HERG has conducted, or worked in collaboration with other universities to produce all of the research that appears on the HEXI website. 

The HEXI study (formerly DIPEx - Database of Individual Patient Experiences and then Naratives of Health and illness for Healthtalkonline) has conducted 122 different projects over the last 25 years under ethics approval by Berkshire Ethics Committee REC No 12/SC/0495. Of those projects; 22 have been in collaboration with other universitities. Seven of the research projects from MS & HERG are now published on the Social Care Talk website.

The research material for each project on HEXI was collected and analysed using the same rigorous qualitative research methods - the MS & HERG methodology, to ensure that the information provided was balanced and accurate. 

The MS & HERG methodology has been taught to and used by all collaborating partners in UK universities. 

MS & HERG has also produced a significant number of academic papers relating to this research. 

For each interview our researchers conduct, just a few extracts will be chosen to feature on this website, but their whole interview will be used in the analysis. Full sets of interviews (usually 35-50 per collection) and supporting documents are retained in the Medical Sociology and Health Experiences Research Group (MS & HERG) archive. Interviews in the archive and website are all copyrighted to the University of Oxford and available to qualitative researchers for secondary analysis (subject to approval and administrative costs).