Dr Rebecca Hunter

Assistant Professor

School: Communities and Education

Rebecca is an Assistant Professor of Health and Social Care Evaluation and a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at Northumbria University. After more than 10 years practising as a physiotherapist specialising in chronic pain, she moved into research, where her focus is evaluating programmes in complex, dynamic settings, particularly in musculoskeletal and digital health. She aims to make sense of this complexity, understanding what works, for whom and in what circumstances, to provide meaningful answers for policy makers, practitioners, patients and the public. Her expertise spans realist synthesis and evaluation and patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE). She held a NIHR School for Primary Care Research Fellowship, using realist economic evaluation to evaluate a digital self-management app for low back pain, and is now part of the research team for the IDEAS-NET national evaluation of neighbourhood health. She also sits on the guideline development group for the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) national clinical guideline on the management of chronic pain, and delivers training in realist methodology internationally.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Rebecca’s interests centre on advancing theory-led evaluation, including realist methodologies and mixed methods approaches. She is interested in evaluating programmes in real-world settings using natural experimental designs. Her applied focus is chronic pain and low back pain, and digital therapeutics. She is also interested in creative approaches to communicating research, including the use of visuals, so that findings are accessible and usable beyond academic audiences. She leads the NoRTH realist research discussion group and is part of the IDEAS National Evaluation Team.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Developing a Neighbourhood Health Theory of Change: Large scale system transformation for integration of care in England, Scott, J., Bate, A., Sen, A., Wildman, J., Williams, J., Hibberd, V., Hunter, R., Dalkin, S. 15 Apr 2026, International Conference on Integrated Care
Developing an initial Theory of Change for Neighbourhood Health to inform future evaluation, Scott, J., Bate, A., Wildman, J., Sen, A., Williams, J., Hunter, R. 30 Jun 2026, HSR UK
Mobile App–Supported Self-Management for Chronic Low Back Pain: Realist Evaluation, Hunter, R., Gorely, T., Beattie, M. 17 Feb 2026, In: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in methodological research: exploring challenges, tensions and learning from the perspectives of PPIE and researchers in the Realist Economic Evaluation Methods (REEM) study, Fletcher, A., Rook, V., Mountain, S., Shenton, F., Fenocchi, L., Kumar, M., Dalkin, S., Bate, A., Hunter, R. 4 Sep 2026, In: Research Involvement and Engagement
Searching smarter, not harder: leveraging AI to enhance literature searches for theory-driven reviews—A methodological case study: leveraging AI to enhance literature searches for theory-driven reviews—A methodological case study, Hunter, R., Booth, A., Wood, L. 10 Apr 2026, In: BMC Medical Research Methodology
What does Neighbourhood Health mean to stakeholders?, Williams, J., Scott, J., Bate, A., Sen, A., Wildman, J., Hunter, R. 30 Jun 2026, HSR UK
What works, for whom, and under what circumstances for recipients of training in opportunistic behaviour change conversations: A mixed methods realist evaluation protocol, Nichol, B., Rodrigues, A., Anderson-Weaver, R., Dalkin, S., Hunter, R., Brown, H., Morgner, C., Stuart, B., Albury, C., Haighton, C. 24 Aug 2026, In: PLoS One
A protocol to develop a Quality Assessment Tool for Realist Synthesis (QUATRES), Mukumbang, F., Gilmore, B., Hunter, R., Dada, S., Dalkin, S., Booth, A. 10 Sep 2025, In: PLoS One
Characterising patients undergoing surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis associated neurogenic claudication in the UK: what does the British Spinal Registry tell us?, Wood, L., Hunter, R., Williamson, E., Salem, K., Sahota, O., Phillips, B., Hendrick, P., Lamb, S. 1 Jul 2025, In: European Spine Journal
Prehabilitation for lumbar spinal stenosis: understanding mechanisms and contexts for enhanced engagement—a realist review, Hunter, R., Booth, A., Lamb, S., Williamson, E., Hendrick, P., Sahota, O., Phillips, B., Fitch, J., Wood, L. Oct 2025, In: Age and Ageing