Blog from Professor Mike Kelly, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Primary Care Unit The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a lot about the health of the UK population. Not least that certain health conditions, including being overweight, are linked to an increased risk from infectious diseases like COVID-19, and perhaps more significantly, that this risk is […]
Increasing healthy life expectancy equitably in England by 5 years by 2035: could it be achieved?
In this Lancet Comment, Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Professor Martin White and colleagues explain how increases in healthy life expectancy for the poorest as well as the rich might be achieved, in the context of an expected new prevention strategy for England setting out how the UK Government seeks to achieve life expectancy goals it […]
Does communicating evidence of policy effectiveness influence public support for the policy?
Increasing the prices of products that harm health is an effective intervention for changing behaviour to improve health, but public support for such interventions is generally low. When a proposed intervention is unpopular, yet has the potential to have an impact, policy makers may seek to increase public support. Research associate Dr James Reynolds, working […]
Winners and losers? The challenges of communicating policy options
“To make policy decisions that align with our goals and values, we need to understand the expected outcomes of the different options. In this paper, we review existing communications of policy options, guidance for design, and evidence for effectiveness across a wide range of domains,” said Professor Theresa Marteau, introducing this review of policy option […]
Influencing NICE guidelines – a case study on Dr Robbie Duschinsky’s impact on assessment for vulnerable children
Dr Robbie Duschinsky, of Cambridge’s Primary Care Unit at the School of Clinical Medicine, mobilised international colleagues to ensure draft NICE guidelines that had the potential to impact on the experiences and outcomes of children suspected of being the victims of maltreatment were revised to reflect the most robust and up-to-date evidence. Dr Duschinsky is […]
Influencing the future of primary care – a case study on Professor Martin Roland’s engagement with policymakers
Professor Martin Roland CBE, Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge, used a career’s worth of research and insight to influence primary care policy. This included chairing a government commission on the primary care workforce and working hard to ensure that the Commission’s recommendations were effectively communicated to the relevant policymakers. […]