Jo's research interests lie in the theory underlying economic evaluation (including capability), developing broader measures of outcome for use in economic evaluation (including measures of capability, particularly the ICECAP suite of meaures), health care decision making, the economics of antimicrobial resistance and the organisation of care, particularly end of life care. She currently holds a Wellcome Investigator Award to develop a life-course approach to measuring capability for economic evaluation of health and social care interventions, which also incorporates the development of ICECAP measures for children and young people.  Jo also has a methodological interest in the use of qualitative methods in health economics and is recognised as an international authority in this field; her edited book on Qualitative Methods for Health Economics was published in July 2017. She has published extensively in all of these areas.

Jo co-ordinates the MSc in Public Health module on Introduction to Health Economics for Public Health and co-ordinates the short course on Qualitative Methods in Health Economics.  She has supervised 15 doctoral students to completion, and is currently supervising seven doctoral students in areas including health care decision making, the capability approach, and end of life.  

Jo is Senior Editor, Health Economics for Social Science & Medicine, and is the Chair of the Scientific Committee for the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) Congress in 2021.