Health Policy and Systems
There is a growing interest in research into how primary care and the wider health and care system might be better organised and delivered.
Health policy and systems research seeks to understand and improve how societies organise themselves in achieving collective health goals, and how different actors interact in the policy and implementation processes to contribute to policy and health outcomes.
In the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences we seek to understand how primary care fits into the broader health system, and how people and organisations interact in developing policy and improvements that have primary care at their heart.
Our focus in on generating robust and up-to-date policy-relevant information to guide decision-making on how to reinforce health care planning, resource allocation and service delivery.
We use qualitative, quantitative,mixed-methods and evidence synthesis approaches to examine health system goals, the system building blocks to achieve them and the policies to support them.
The programme brings together research teams from across the department into three themes to develop high-quality research:
- Implementation, improvement and system change.
- Evidence, knowledge and policy.
- Research on research.
Health policy and systems research is inter-disciplinary, drawing from across social and health sciences. This involves researchers from across the department, primarily the Interdisciplinary Research in Health Sciences Group, the Health Experiences Research Group, the Centre for Health Service Economics and Organisation, and the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.
Theme leads:
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Trish Greenhalgh
Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences
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Sue Ziebland
Professor of Medical Sociology and Co-Director of MS&HERG
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Sara Shaw
Professor of Health Policy & Practice
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Kamal R. Mahtani
GP & Professor of Evidence Based Healthcare
