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 (including priority setting), the economics of antimicrobial resistance and economic analysis of 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-directs the new MSc in Health Economics and Health Policy Analysis which began in September 2023.  She has supervised 16 doctoral students to completion, and is currently supervising six 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 a Non-Executive Director for One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System, for which she chairs the System Resource Committee.  She was the Chair of the Scientific Committee for the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) Congress (online) in 2021 and co-chair for the Congress (Basel) in 2019.