Dr Paterson is co-lead of The Vaccine Confidence Project with Dr Heidi Larson. Together, they established a global, internet-based information surveillance system on public concerns around vaccines and vaccination programmes.

Paterson has been researching issues of public confidence in immunisations since 2010. Specific research activities include qualitative analysis of parental reasons for not vaccinating their child with influenza vaccine in England, analysis of concerns surrounding HPV vaccine in India and Japan, and a systematic review on public trust in vaccination. She is a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Immunisation in partnership with Public Health England. Paterson also researches HIV risk perception in sub-Saharan Africa, and feasibility and acceptability of PrEP in Kenya, and is currently involved in carrying out a systematic review on conceptualisation of uncertainty and risk, implications for uptake and use of biomedical HIV prevention technologies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paterson has a Ph.D. in Epidemiology, an MBA, and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London. Her MBA project consisted of two systematic reviews and a case study in Thailand, in collaboration with the WHO, exploring health system preparedness to changes in malaria and dengue fever epidemiology as a result of climate change.