Dr Annie Sorbie
Senior Lecturer in Law (Health, Medical Law and Ethics)
Director of Knowledge Exchange and Impact; Head of Subject Area: Health, Medical Law and Ethics
LLB, Dip Law, PhD
Tuesday: 10:00 - 11:00
Tel: +44 (0)131 650 3633
Email: asorbie@ed.ac.uk
View my publicationsAnnie Sorbie is a Senior Lecturer in Health, Medical Law and Ethics at Edinburgh Law School, with a research and teaching portfolio. Prior to her career in academia, she had over 14 years’ experience in legal practice in the health, social care and regulatory sector (September 2001 – December 2015, Partner from 2009), with a speciality in professional regulation. She has extensive experience of providing strategic advice on matters of health regulatory practice and policy.
Dr Sorbie’s research interrogates two key and related areas, namely health research regulation, with a focus on the role of the public interest, and the regulation of individual health and social care professionals. She has been called upon to provide independent expert advice to a range of public and third sector bodies, including recently the Infected Blood Inquiry (on the duties of candour), and the Scottish Government (on unlocking the value of public sector data for public benefit).
Recent funded projects include:
- Witness to harm, holding to account: Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings (Funder: NIHR)
This interdisciplinary project has studied the experiences of witnesses who give evidence in professional conduct hearings about care provided by health and social care professionals. Dr Sorbie led a work package which explored how the legal and policy frameworks of the statutory regulators of social work and social care professionals in the UK approach the question of whether a witness at a Fitness to Practise hearing should be considered as ‘vulnerable’, and the steps that may be taken in response. These findings have been co-produced and disseminated in various ways, including at a recent presentation at CLEAR (Council for Enforcement, Licensure and Regulatory) in Baltimore, US, (September 2024) and a forthcoming journal article.
- Towards Self-Governance in Ukraine (Funder: Edinburgh Global) (Funder: Edinburgh Global)
Despite the ongoing brutal war, the government of Ukraine is moving ahead with transformational health sector reforms aimed at ensuring the right to health. For example, an NHS-like financing structure has been introduced (called the NHS Ukraine, or ‘NHSU’). However, the surrounding institutional architecture requires further enrichment and reinforcement. In collaboration with co-PIs at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and University of Edinburgh, Dr Sorbie has co-led this interdisciplinary, international project which is aimed at exploring the legal, ethical, and public administration implications of the current Ukrainian legislative agenda in relation to the introduction of a regime for the self-governance of healthcare professions.
On 24th November 2024 Dr Sorbie will Chair the Professional Health and Social Care Regulatory Event 2024, which is jointly run by the Scottish Government and statutory regulators of health and social care. This year the theme is ‘The Role of Regulation in the Workforce of the Future.
Dr Sorbie is a Deputy Director of the Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law, and co-leads its policy portfolio. She is also currently the Director of KEI within the Law School, and the head of the Health, Medical Law and Ethics Subject Area. From 2018 – 2024 she served on the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s Patient Safety Group as a lay adviser. In 2024 she has been appointed by the BMA’s Council to their Medical Ethics Committee.
