Three students \u2013 Abbie Simpson (University of Glasgow), Ashish Singh (University of Oxford) and Anika Gogia (King\u2019s College London) \u2013 reflect on the NIHR Health Economics Internship they undertook last summer at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (NDPCHS), University of Oxford. \r\n\r\nComing from backgrounds in medicine and psychology, they each brought different perspectives to the programme. In this Q&A blog, they share on their motivations for applying, what they learned and how the experience has influenced their future ambitions.
Our Department Values guide how we work together, support each other, and create a positive place to be. They aren\u2019t just words \u2014 they influence our wellbeing every day. This blog series invites the winners of our Values Awards to share what their award means to them, and how living these values has shaped their own and others\u2019 wellbeing. In this blog, Stavros Petrou talks about why being Kind and Respectful matters.
As climate change increasingly shapes population health outcomes, health systems must adapt in ways that are both sustainable and context-specific. In this blog, Baraka Mu'azu reflects on her experience of the Sustainable Health Care (SHC) module and how its systems-based approach has informed her work at the intersection of climate and public health policy in Nigeria.
We're delighted to share this blog from our Oxford Primary Care Public Partners Group, which marks just over a year since the group was established. Brought together in October 2024, the group unites seven members of the public from across the Thames Valley with our course leads to ensure that the people our students will go on to care for have a genuine say in how they are taught.\r\n\r\nOver the past year, the group has made a real difference \u2014 refining the language in our teaching materials, shaping how we present healthcare access and equity, and contributing to wider departmental discussions. The blog reflects honestly on the challenges too, including the risk that partnership can become box-ticking rather than meaningful, and the importance of continually asking whose voices are still missing.
In advance of Social Prescribing Day, on 26 March 2026, researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (University of Oxford) launched an online tool. This tool aims to assist cultural organisations and groups in developing inclusive provision and activities to support people\u2019s health and well-being. Stephanie Tierney, who was involved in the launch, provides a summary of the event in this blog.
Lia Willis, a member of the Green Impact Team, highlights the benefits of eating in-season produce and offers practical tips for incorporating it into your diet while supporting local communities and reducing your carbon footprint.
In this blog, we share reflections from Professor Sara Shaw and Dr Amy Booth who run the Sustainable Health Care Module of the MSc in Translational Health Sciences programme. Last week the course was honoured to host Chris Gormley, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of the NHS, as a guest speaker for a critical, and nuanced conversation about how to bring about change in complex political and economic environments.
As part of the SHIFT research project, a digital interactive at Manchester Museum invites visitors to become the \u201cMayor of Mancunia\u201d and make decisions about building a healthier, more sustainable food system. Developed through community workshops, it shares research on food and climate while gathering public views on potential policy changes.
To mark National No Smoking Day, we reflect on both the remarkable progress made in reducing tobacco-related harm and the challenges that remain, particularly in addressing persistent inequalities in smoking across society.
New research with older people from minoritised ethnic communities reveals what helps \u2013 and hinders \u2013 engagement with cultural activities. The freely available CIRCLE tool gives cultural organisations a practical, evidence-based framework to make their offers more inclusive and strengthen social prescribing partnerships.
AI tools in healthcare often work in isolation but stall in practice. Reflections from Oxford's AI in Healthcare event on why implementation, not algorithms, is the real bottleneck \u2013 and what primary care research brings to the problem.
In this blog, MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership (MGHL) student Didier Chaukron introduces our new bi-monthly blog series on \u2018The Importance of Healthcare Innovation: Reflections from MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership Students'. In this series, 5 current students from the MGHL programme will share how they have translated their learnings from Module 5 into practical solutions addressing real-world healthcare challenges.\r\nDidier talks about how he has applied insights from Module 5 to address important challenges within healthcare fintech and how finding ways to solve these problems can have a huge impact on communities and hopefully the world.
Digital fertility trackers promise control and empowerment, but how are they reshaping women\u2019s experiences of conception and care? In this blog, Kate Sheridan draws on her DPhil, Femtech for Fertility, to explore how these tools influence reproductive norms and healthcare interactions, alongside an arts-based event she ran that invited participants to imagine both utopian and dystopian futures of women\u2019s health technology.
A health economist and father reflects on how his family's experience with childhood bone cancer exposed stark disparities in cancer innovation. Drawing on life inside an NHS oncology ward, he argues that rare childhood cancers demand renewed scientific, policy, and societal commitment - and that turning away from these children is not an option.
In this blog, we welcome back MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student Michelle Kwok (Cohort 4) as she reflects on Module 2 of the programme and her experience delivering allergy care in northern Qu\u00e9bec. Through stories from Nunavik and Cree territory, she examines leadership, complexity and decision-making in health systems where uncertainty is not an exception but the norm.
MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership student Michelle Kwok reflects on the start of the programme, including the first module, matriculation and debates at the Oxford Union.
With Veganuary underway, Lia Willis\u00a0explores how our everyday food choices affect both the planet and our wellbeing -\u00a0and how small, achievable changes can make a real difference.
Emergency departments are central to the NHS, but inequalities in emergency care may begin well before patients arrive. Drawing on new evidence, this blog explores how socioeconomic deprivation shapes routes into emergency departments, and why referral pathways, more than deprivation itself, influence patient experiences and outcomes. The findings highlight the wider urgent care system as a key lever for reducing inequality and pressure on emergency services.
As concerns about workforce sustainability in general practice continue to grow, particularly in under-served communities, this blog reflects on how evidence and lived experience can inform one another. Drawing on the Workforce Voices research programme and a co-production workshop with GP tutors, it explores what sustains people in their roles \u2013 and why listening to those on the frontline matters as much as policy ambition.
Medical debates around early detection and overdiagnosis have become increasingly polarised, often masking shared values and ethical complexity. Here, Elspeth Davies reflects on why evidence alone cannot resolve these conflicts \u2013 and how changing our language and listening practices could help move medicine from entrenched disagreement toward more constructive dialogue.
![\"Abbie](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/blog/seeing-healthcare-differently-student-reflections-from-the-nihr-health-economics-internship/responsive_image?ratio=r16x9&scale=w760\")
\n \n \n\n\n ![\"Stavros](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/stavros-petrou-1/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Laura](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/laura-ingle/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Stephanie](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/stephanie-tierney/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Lia](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/lia-willis/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Lucy](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/lucy-yates/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Debra](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/debra-westlake-1/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Gavin](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/gavin-hubbard/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Kathryn](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/kathryn-sheridan/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Apostolos](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/apostolos-tsiachristas/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Catia](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/catia-nicodemo/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Eleanor](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/eleanor-hoverd/@@images/image/w120\")
\n ![\"Elspeth](\"https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/elspeth-davies/@@images/image/w120\")
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