Dr Ballinger is a Senior Qualitative Methodologist for the Research Design Service South Central. She is also the Deputy Director for the service.

She trained as an occupational therapist in Oxford in 1982, was subsequently awarded a Masters in Rehabilitation Studies (Distinction) in 1991 and gained her PhD in 2001 on the topic of exploring elders’  perspectives about falling, both from the University of Southampton.

Her academic career commenced in 1991 as a Lecturer in Rehabilitation at the University of Southampton.  She joined to the School of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy (now the joint School of Health Sciences) in 1994 and in 2004 moved to London South Bank University as a Reader. She then moved to Glasgow where she held a Chair in Occupational Therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University from 2007-9.

Claire’s research interests include:

• falls and falls prevention;
• older people’s perspectives of chronic disease and health interventions;
• evidence-based rehabilitation;
• the use of qualitative methods in health care research.

Claire has over thirty peer-reviewed publications, and has co-authored seven book chapters and one qualitative research text.  Her current research projects include an MRC funded study exploring the use of dynamic visualisation of biomechanical data in rehabilitation (PI: Rowe) and an evaluation of the integration of occupational therapy provision in Glasgow.  She has supervised two PhD students and 14 MSc students and is currently co-supervising an additional four PhD/Professional Doctorate students.