Category: Data science and digital health

Health Policy MSc: Insights from a Second-Year Student

The Health Policy MSc at Imperial College London is led by the Institute of Global Health Innovation.  

Jazz Walker, a Year 2 Health Policy Master’s student and Biological Capabilities Policy Advisor at the UK Health Security Agency,  attended our recent in-person student workshop and shares her experience of the MSc programme. 

Why did you apply for the Health Policy MSc programme?  

Jazz: I applied for the programme mostly for career progression reasons. I’d gone through education—originally, I did an English degree—and then I got into health policy.  

One aspect that drew me to it is that, particularly in the policy world, you don’t often gain experience outside of your job’s specific focus.

New cohort of Digital health leaders share their enthusiasm to drive digital transformation in the NHS

Last week, over 100 students from the most recent Cohort of the Digital Health Leadership Programme (DHLP) came together for the first time to kick off their learning journey.

The two-day Forum in York gave students the opportunity to learn about expectations for the year, meet the academic team, and network with peers. Day 1 included talks and interactive sessions on individual strengths, while Day 2 focused on the collective, with participants engaging with their peer support groups. 

Commissioned by the NHS Digital Academy at NHS England, the DHLP empowers health and care leaders to drive digital transformation in the NHS.

Impact of the cost-of-living crisis on patient preferences towards virtual consultations

Since 2021, the world has faced a cost-of-living crisis that has adversely affected population health. With rising living costs, many people have been forced to make significant cuts in their daily expenses and adjust their lifestyles accordingly. But has this crisis influenced how people prefer to access health services? In this blog, we share the results of our international cross-sectional study involving 6,391 participants from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and Italy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by military destabilisation in Europe, has contributed to a major cost-of-living crisis characterised by significant price and tax rises, drastic cuts to social security, as well as rises in rent and energy bills.

Health in Ukraine: Prioritise health care reform across the Ukraine health system for recovery and stable peace

Two years on from the invasion of Ukraine, we share a series of blog posts highlighting insights from our Ukraine Health Summit last year, hosted in partnership with the British Red Cross to reflect on and support the delivery and restoration of health services in Ukraine.

The second blog post focuses on the prioritisation of health care reform across the Ukraine health system for recovery and stable peace, and is written by Niki O’Brien, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, with colleagues.

The war in Ukraine has caused substantial disruption to a health system that was already having to manage complex transitions.

Digital health In settings of extreme adversity: improving quality of care for vulnerable populations

Improving the quality of healthcare delivery is a major priority around the world. However, the barriers to improving healthcare quality can vary significantly by context, environment, and population. In settings such as conflict-affected areas or areas of sustained humanitarian crisis, challenges to improving healthcare quality can be extremely complex. In this blog, the term settings of extreme adversity is used to describe these areas, but other terms such as fragile and conflict-affected and vulnerable states, have also been used in research. This blog is written by Olivia Lounsbury, Quality and Safety Programme Co-ordinator, John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

How seldom heard groups are helping us shape our research priorities – learnings so far

Last summer, the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College Health Partners and Imperial College London were successful in being named as one of the five Network Data Labs (NDL) across the UK, funded by the Health Foundation.

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for our partnership. We have the opportunity to work with our local community in North West London to identify research priorities for health and care since COVID-19, and translate those findings into practice – helping to reduce inequalities.

In North West London we are also very fortunate to have access to a linked data set, known as Discover.