Dr Laura Sbaffi

BSc (Urbino), MSc (Urbino), MA (Manchester Metropolitan), PhD (Trieste)

Information School

Senior Lecturer in Health Informatics

l.sbaffi@shef.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2686

Room C238, The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Laura Sbaffi
Information School
Room C238
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

I joined the Information School in June 2016. I started my academic career as Visiting Scholar at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge between 1996 and 2000. In the years following my PhD degree I held research positions at the University of Urbino (Italy), the University of East Anglia (UK) and the Australian National University (Australia).

I then worked as research Scientist at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (Geoscience Australia) for several years. In 2012 I completed my MA in Library and Information Management at Manchester Metropolitan University and, immediately after, I joined the Department of Information and Communications there, where I worked in the Information and Interactions Research Group.

In June 2015 I joined Ashfield Insight and Performance in Macclesfield as Healthcare and Scientific Researcher, where I specialised in current pharmaceutical market research strategies.

In 2021 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer.

University Responsibilities

Head of the Health Informatics Research Group
Unfair Means Officer
Member of the Senate Discipline Panel

Research interests

I have a number of ongoing research interests:

I have been working on digital trust formation in relation to health information, by focussing on what modalities and cues young adults follow when looking for online health information and how they differ from those of more mature people. I have also worked on gender attitudes towards online information and trust judgements.
I am conducting research both in the UK and Malawi (GCRF QR grant) to address the information needs of informal carers of people with degenerative conditions such as dementia and HIV. I am also looking at ICT solutions to promote the development of Shared Health Records to improve health data use for action within the Uganda health system.
I am looking at strategies to reduce information overload in healthcare workers and, at the moment, am focusing on NHS emergency doctors and the factors influencing such perceived overload.
I recently completed a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fund grant (217871/Z/19/Z) with Dr Jonathan Foster and Prof Suzanne Mason to improve our understanding of the factors that influence patients to consent to sharing their personal data for purposes beyond their direct care, e.g. research and planning.

I am also interested in topics beyond health informatics:

I have been exploring the attitudes of academics towards open access publishing and regularly collaborate with Taylor & Francis on similar topics.
I am interested in the Research Data Management policy and practice in countries around the world and currently focussing on China.

I would be interested in supervising PhD topics in the following areas:

Information needs of informal caregivers from BAME groups
Needs of informal caregivers in national and international settings, with a particular interest in the developing world
Digital inclusion of under-represented groups

Publications

Journal articles

Marincowitz C, Hasan M, Omer Y, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Fuller G, Sbaffi L & Wallis L (2024) Prognostic accuracy of eight triage scores in suspected COVID-19 in an Emergency Department low-income setting: an observational cohort study. African Journal of Emergency Medicine, 14(1), 51-57. View this article in WRRO
Fuller GW, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Omer Y, Wallis L & Marincowitz C (2023) Training and testing of a gradient boosted machine learning model to predict adverse outcome in patients presenting to emergency departments with suspected covid-19 infection in a middle-income setting. PLOS Digital Health, 2(9). View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L & Zhao X (2022) Evaluating a pedagogical approach to promoting academic integrity in higher education: An online induction program. Frontiers in Psychology.
Sbaffi L, Walton J, Blenkinsopp J & Walton G (2020) Information overload in emergency medicine physicians: a multisite case study exploring the causes, impact, and solutions in four North England National Health Service Trusts. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(7). View this article in WRRO
Aylward K, Sbaffi L & Weist A (2020) Peer-led information literacy training: a qualitative study of students’ experiences of the NICE Evidence search Student Champion Scheme. Health Information and Libraries Journal. View this article in WRRO
Huang Y, Cox A & Sbaffi L (2020) Research Data Management Policy and Practice in China.. Int. J. Digit. Curation, 15, 1-18.
Millares Miller P & Sbaffi L (2019) Electronic health record and problem lists in Leeds, United Kingdom: Variability of general practitioners’ views. Health Informatics Journal. View this article in WRRO
Cox A, Pinfield S, Kennan MA, Lyon L & Sbaffi L (2019) Maturing research data services and the transformation of academic libraries. Journal of Documentation. View this article in WRRO
Cox AM, Kennan MA, Lyon EJ, Pinfield S & Sbaffi L (2019) Progress in research data services : an international survey of university libraries. International Journal of Digital Curation, 14(1), 126-135. View this article in WRRO
Cox AM, Gadd E, Petersohn S & Sbaffi L (2019) Competencies for bibliometrics. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(3), 746-762. View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L & Bennett J (2019) Postgraduate students’ experience of a jointly-taught, distance learning degree : the example of a Russell Group university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. View this article in WRRO
McKinney P, Cox AM & Sbaffi L (2019) Information literacy in food and activity tracking among three communities: parkrunners, people with type 2 diabetes and people with IBS. Journal of Medical Internet Research. View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L & Zhao C (2019) Modeling the online health information seeking process: Information channel selection among university students. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. View this article in WRRO
(2019) Corrigendum. Information Development, 35(2), NP1-NP1.
Joung KH, Rowley J & Sbaffi L (2019) Medical and health sciences academics’ behaviours and attitudes towards open access publishing in scholarly journals: a perspective from South Korea. Information Development, 35(2), 191-202. View this article in WRRO
Ahmed W, Bath PA, Sbaffi L & Demartini G (2019) Novel insights into views towards H1N1 during the 2009 Pandemic: a thematic analysis of Twitter data. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36(1), 60-72. View this article in WRRO
Almanea A, Bath P & Sbaffi L (2019) Empowering people with type two diabetes through online support groups. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 171(Suppl), 3-3. View this article in WRRO
Rowley J & Sbaffi L (2018) Academics' attitudes towards peer review in scholarly journals and the effect of role and discipline.. Journal of Information Science, 44, 644-657. View this article in WRRO
Mazalan L, Bell AJ, Sbaffi L & Willett P (2018) Cross‐Classified Multilevel Modelling of the Effectiveness of Similarity‐Based Virtual Screening. ChemMedChem, 13(6), 582-587. View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L, Hallsworth E & Weist A (2018) Peer teaching and information retrieval: the role of the NICE Evidence search student champion scheme in enhancing students’ confidence. Health Information and Libraries Journal. View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L & Rowley J (2017) Trust and Credibility in Web-Based Health Information: A Review and Agenda for Future Research. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(6). View this article in WRRO
Rowley J, Johnson F, Sbaffi L, Frass W & Devine E (2017) Academics' behaviors and attitudes towards open access publishing in scholarly journals. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(5), 1201-1211. View this article in WRRO
Rowley J, Johnson F & Sbaffi L (2016) Gender as an influencer of online health information-seeking and evaluation behavior. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(1), 36-47. View this article in WRRO
Johnson F, Rowley J & Sbaffi L (2016) Exploring information interactions in the context of Google. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(4), 824-840.
Johnson F, Sbaffi L & Rowley J (2016) Students' approaches to the evaluation of digital information: Insights from their trust judgments. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(6), 1243-1258.
Rowley J, Johnson F, Sbaffi L & Weist A (2015) Peer-based information literacy training: Insights from the NICE Evidence Search Student Champion Scheme. Library & Information Science Research, 37(4), 338-345.
Sbaffi L, Johnson F, Griffiths J, Rowley J & Weist A (2015) NICE Evidence Search: Student Peers' Views on their Involvement as Trainers in Peer-based Information Literacy Training. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(2), 201-206.
Sbaffi L & Rowley J (2015) Public libraries and non-users: A comparison between Manchester and Rome. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 47(2), 104-116.
Rowley J, Johnson F & Sbaffi L (2015) Students’ trust judgements in online health information seeking. Health Informatics Journal, 21(4), 316-327.
Johnson F, Rowley J & Sbaffi L (2015) Modelling trust formation in health information contexts. Journal of Information Science, 41(4), 415-429.
(2009) Constraints on the magnitude and patterns of ocean cooling at the Last Glacial Maximum. Nature Geoscience, 2(2), 127-132.
Heap AD & Sbaffi L (2008) Composition and distribution of seabed and suspended sediments in north and central Torres Strait, Australia. Continental Shelf Research, 28(16), 2174-2187.
Post AL, Sbaffi L, Passlow V & Collins DC (2007) Benthic foraminifera as environmental indicators in Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua. Special Paper - Geological Association of Canada(47), 329-347.
Hayes A, Kucera M, Kallel N, Sbaffi L & Rohling EJ (2005) Glacial Mediterranean sea surface temperatures based on planktonic foraminiferal assemblages. Quaternary Science Reviews, 24(7-9), 999-1016.
Marchal O, Cacho I, Stocker TF, Grimalt JO, Calvo E, Martrat B, Shackleton N, Vautravers M, Cortijo E, Van Kreveld S , Anderson C et al (2002) Apparent long-term cooling of the sea surface in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Holocene. GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA, 66(15A), A482-A482.
Marchal O, Cacho I, Stocker TF, Grimalt JO, Calvo E, Martrat B, Shackleton N, Vautravers M, Cortijo E, van Kreveld S , Andersson C et al (2002) Apparent long-term cooling of the sea surface in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 21(4-6), 455-483.
Sbaffi L, Wezel FC, Kallel N, Paterne M, Cacho I, Ziveri P & Shackleton N (2001) Response of the pelagic environment to palaeoclimatic changes in the central Mediterranean Sea during the Late Quaternary. Marine Geology, 178(1-4), 39-62.
Cacho I, Grimalt JO, Canals M, Sbaffi L, Shackleton NJ, Schönfeld J & Zahn R (2001) Variability of the western Mediterranean Sea surface temperature during the last 25,000 years and its connection with the Northern Hemisphere climatic changes. Paleoceanography, 16(1), 40-52.
McKenzie JA, Sbaffi L, Wezel FC & Tamburini F (1998) Late Quaternary climatic variations on the Latium and Campanian Margin of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Rendiconti Lincei, 9(4), 293-313.
Sbaffi L, Wezel FC & Shackleton NJ (1998) Paleoclimatologia dell’ultima deglaciazione nel Bacino di Cefalù — Mar Tirreno meridionale. Rendiconti Lincei, 9(3), 177-200.
Rousaki A, Zamani ED, Sbaffi L, Hamblin K & Black R () The digitalisation of social care in England and the implications for older unpaid carers: a constructionist thematic analysis (Preprint). Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath P, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y & Wallis L () LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting. PLoS ONE.
Sbaffi L, Zamani E & Kalua K () Addressing the information needs of informal carers in Malawi: a healthcare intervention based on co-creation. Journal of Documentation.
Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath P, Omer Y & Wallis L () External validation of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study. Emergency Medicine Journal.
Ives G, Sbaffi L & Bath P () Can all healthy adults use the current evidential breath alcohol analysers? An investigation using a large spirometry database.. Medico-Legal Journal.
Sbaffi L, Zamani E & Kalua K () Promoting wellbeing among informal caregivers of people with HIV/AIDS in rural Malawi: a community-based participatory research approach (Preprint). Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Sbaffi L, Hargreaves S & Ford N () Information seeking amongst informal caregivers of people with dementia: a qualitative study. Journal of Documentation.
Huang Y, Cox A & Sbaffi L () Research Data Management Policy and Practice in China. International Journal of Digital Curation, 15(1), 18-18. View this article in WRRO
Huang Y, Cox A & Sbaffi L () Research Data Management policy and practice in Chinese University Libraries. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
Sbaffi L, Rowley J, Sugden M & Gilbert A () Factors influencing researchers’ journal selection decisions. Journal of Information Science.
Sbaffi L & King K () Living with endometriosis: the role of the Internet in supporting the diagnosis and treatment process. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet.
Sbaffi L, Rowley J, Gilbert A & Sugden M () Investigating gender differences in journal selection decisions: a survey of academic researchers. Learned Publishing.
Sbaffi L & Hargreaves S () The information trust formation process for informal caregivers of people with dementia: a qualitative study. Journal of Documentation.

Chapters

Zamani ED & Sbaffi L (2020) Embracing uMunthu: How Informal Caregivers in Malawi Use ICTs, Information and Communication Technologies for Development (pp. 93-101). Springer International Publishing
Ahmed W, Bath PA, Sbaffi L & Demartini G (2020) Zika Outbreak of 2016: Insights from Twitter, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 447-458). Springer International Publishing

Conference proceedings papers

Zhao X, Xie H, Roberts A & Sbaffi L (2024) Promoting Academic Integrity Through Gamification: Testing the Effectiveness of a 3D Immersive Video Game (pp 65-76)
Cai A, Bentley CM, Zamani E, Naiseh M & Sbaffi L (2023) Intersectional Analysis of the Challenges and Opportunities of Equitable Remote Operation in the UK Maritime Sector. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
Cao C, Sbaffi L, Zhao X & Hopfgartner F (2022) Using a Narrative-based Gamified Teaching Approach to Improve International Students' Sense of Belonging. Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hodkinson P, Mcalpine D, Hasan M, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Omer Y & Bath P (2022) 1482 Prognostic accuracy of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting. Emergency Medicine Journal, Vol. 39(12) (pp A976-A977) View this article in WRRO
Pretlove L, Cox A, Sbaffi L & Hopfgartner F (2020) Using a 360° camera as a mobile data collection method towards understanding information types and use in running. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 57(1), 25 October 2020 - 29 October 2020. View this article in WRRO
Cameron D, Sarda Gou M & Sbaffi L (2020) Trust in robot-mediated health information. The 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication Ro-man, Workshop on Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction (SCRITA)
Bates J, Cameron D, Checco A, Clough P, Hopfgartner F, Mazumdar S, Sbaffi L, Stordy P & de la Vega de León A (2020) Integrating fate/critical data studies into data science curricula: Where are we going and how do we get there?. FAT* 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp 425-435) View this article in WRRO
Almanea A, Bath P & Sbaffia L (2019) Online support groups as a source of empowerment for people with type 2 diabetes. MEDINFO 2019: Health and Wellbeing e-Networks for All, Vol. 264 (pp 1893-1894). Lyons, France, 25 August 2019 - 30 August 2019. View this article in WRRO
Ahmed W, Bath PA, Sbaffi L & Demartini G (2018) Moral Panic through the Lens of Twitter. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Social Media and Society
Ahmed W, Bath PA, Sbaffi L & Demartini G (2018) Using Twitter for Insights into the 2009 Swine Flu and 2014 Ebola outbreaks. iConference 2018 Poster Descriptions, 25 March 2018 - 28 March 2018. View this article in WRRO
Ahmed W, Bath PA, Sbaffi L & Demartini G (2018) Measuring the Effect of Public Health Campaigns on Twitter: The Case of World Autism Awareness Day (pp 10-16) View this article in WRRO
Sbaffi L, Wezel FC, Curzi G & Zoppi U (2004) Millennial- to centennial-scale palaeoclimatic variations during Termination I and the Holocene in the central Mediterranean Sea. Global and Planetary Change, Vol. 40(1-2) (pp 201-217)
Almanea A, Bath PA & Sbaffi L () The Benefits of Using Online Health Support Groups for Information Acquisition for People with Type 2 Diabetes in the UK. Proceedings of the 18th international symposium on health information management research

Theses / Dissertations

Pretlove L (2022) iRun: a situational, neo-assemblage perspective of information and records in running..

Datasets

Cox A, Kennan MA, Lyon L, Pinfield S & Sbaffi L International survey of research data management in libraries.

Preprints

Rousaki A, Zamani ED, Sbaffi L, Hamblin K & Black R (2024) The Digitalization of Social Care in England and Implications for Older, Unpaid Carers: Constructionist Thematic Analysis (Preprint), JMIR Publications Inc..
Zhao X, Sbaffi L & Cox A (2023) The Digitisation of Writing in Higher Education: Exploring the Use of Wordtune as an AI Writing Assistant, Center for Open Science.
Sbaffi L, Zamani E & Kalua K (2022) Promoting wellbeing among informal caregivers of people with HIV/AIDS in rural Malawi (Preprint), JMIR Publications Inc..
Marincowitz C, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Sbaffi L, Hasan M, Omer Y & Wallis L (2022) LMIC-PRIEST: Derivation and validation of a clinical severity score for acutely ill adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Marincowitz C, Sbaffi L, Hodkinson P, McAlpine D, Fuller G, Goodacre S, Bath PA, Hasan M, Omer Y & Wallis L (2022) Prognostic accuracy of triage tools for adults with suspected COVID-19 in a middle-income setting: an observational cohort study, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Cameron D, Gou MS & Sbaffi L (2020) Trust in robot-mediated health information, arXiv.
Zhao X & Sbaffi L () Evaluating a Pedagogical Approach to Promoting Academic Integrity in Higher Education: An Online Induction Program, Center for Open Science.
Sbaffi L, Walton J, Blenkinsopp J & Walton G () Information Overload in Emergency Medicine Physicians: A Multisite Case Study Exploring the Causes, Impact, and Solutions in Four North England National Health Service Trusts (Preprint), JMIR Publications Inc..
McKinney P, Cox AM & Sbaffi L () Information literacy in food and activity tracking among three communities: parkrunners, people with type 2 diabetes and people with IBS (Preprint).

Research group

Current PhD students

Aisha Alshammari: Exploring and understanding factors that affect the adoption of Personal Health Records among healthcare providers and patients in Saudi Arabia
Suzanne Duffin: A study of information needs and information sharing amongst people on the autism spectrum, using online support and discussion groups
Rosie Higman: Open Access and the Role of the National Library
Muntaha Alam Nafisa: Adoption of integrated medical dental records in the UK.
Lee Pretlove: The quantified runner: the long-term value and preservation of parkrunners' self-tracking fitness data from the perspectives of the parkrunner, self-tracking device manufacturers and archival institutions

Teaching activities

INF115 - Statistics for Insight

INF6029 - Data Analysis

Professional activities and memberships

Membership of professional bodies

CILIP

Journal and conference reviewing

Journals:

Online Information Review
Health Informatics Journal
Program, Perspectives in Public Health
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Sustainability
Journal of Medical Internet Research
BMC Medical Education
Journal of Information Literacy
JASIST

Conferences:

Next Generation Computing Applications 2017 July 19-21, Mauritius
iConference 2018, Sheffield
CILIP HLG Conference 2018, Keele
EAHIL Conference 2018, Cardiff
iConference 2019, Washington
iConference2020, Borås

Other roles

PhD external examiner at Sheffield Hallam University and Huddersfield University
Reviewer for the Italian Register of Scientific Experts (REPRISE)
Advisor for the WellSpoken mark for quality accreditation of health online information