Following her own experience of overcoming breast cancer, McPherson co-founded the Database of Individual Patient Experiences or 'DIPEx', with the aim of providing a resource that would enable patients, families and health professionals to understand the experience of a variety of health conditions, by watching video clips of people talking about their experiences. The websites healthtalkonline.org and youthhealthtalk.org now cover over 60 health conditions. The research is carried out by The Health Experiences Research Group at Oxford University. The group was founded by McPherson herself and she held the position of Medical Director, until her death in 2011.
