Rate My Professor Katriina Whitaker

Professor Katriina Whitaker is Professor of Psychology in the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, at the University of Surrey, where she co-leads the Cancer Care Expert Group with Dr Robert Kerrison. She obtained her BSc in Experimental Psychology with first-class honours from the University of Bristol in 2002, an MSc in Research Methods with distinction from University College London in 2004, and a PhD in Psychology funded by a Cancer Research UK studentship at University College London in 2008. Whitaker held a Cancer Research UK Postdoctoral Fellowship shared between University College London and the University of Surrey from 2012 to 2015. In 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Her research centres on health psychology, focusing on early diagnosis of cancer, including cancer knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and help-seeking behaviours, symptom appraisal, doctor-patient communication, health inequalities, and the impact of comorbidities and language barriers on cancer care pathways.

Whitaker has published extensively on these topics in high-impact journals. Key publications include 'The role of smoking status in making risk-informed diagnostic decisions for potential lung cancer: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals and patients' (2024), 'Understanding and tackling cancer inequities: What opportunities does intersectionality offer researchers, policymakers, and providers? A scoping review' (2024), 'Delivery of interpreting services in UK primary care by population needs: a multisite case study' (2026), 'Assessing awareness of blood cancer symptoms and barriers to symptomatic presentation: measure development and results from a population survey in the UK' (2023), 'Help seeking for cancer 'alarm' symptoms: a qualitative interview study of primary care patients in the UK' (2015), and 'Earlier diagnosis: the importance of cancer symptoms' (2020). Her work examines socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in help-seeking for cancer symptoms, patient experiences with interpreting services, and strategies to improve primary care contributions to timely diagnosis. As co-lead of the Cancer Care group, comprising around 25 staff and PhD students, she drives interdisciplinary efforts to optimise cancer outcomes, address inequities, and enhance patient experiences through mixed-methods research, data linkage, and policy-relevant insights.