UK

Citation

(2008), "UK", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 21 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2008.06221fab.008

UK

Article Type: News and views From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 21, Issue 6

Keywords Health quality, Healthcare improvement, Evidence based research

A new research programme which will help the Government to continue to improve public health and reduce health inequalities has been launched by Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo.

The Public Health Research (PHR) Programme is being established by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will evaluate a wide range of public health interventions. These could include social marketing for the promotion of safe sex, to the prevention of obesity in children, and speed bumps for the prevention of road traffic accidents. The funding will rise over each of the next three years to reach £10 million a year.

The research programme has been designed to provide new knowledge on the benefits, costs, acceptability and wider effect of non-NHS interventions.

The NIHR PHR programme forms part of a coordinated approach to health research by the NIHR and the Medical Research Council.

Dawn Primarolo said: “In order to continue improving the health and wellbeing of the people of this country we need reliable, relevant evidence on the most effective ways of protecting from disease, preventing illness and promoting good health. This information can only come from research. The NIHR Public Health Research Programme will provide policy-makers, front-line professionals and members of the public with the information they need to improve health and reduce health inequalities.”

Following the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review in support of best research for best health, and the cooksey review recommended the need for more PHR, the government has awarded the NIHR additional money to set up this new programme.

Many agencies are involved in the improvement of health and are potential users of such knowledge; all have a particular need for reliable evidence to underpin their action and guidance on public health interventions.

The NIHR PHR Programme will mainly work in responsive mode, taking applications for both primary and secondary research and assessing them at regular intervals. The programme will look to fund primary research at all phases but especially pragmatic evaluation studies. The first call for research proposals will be taking place in November 2008.

Professor Sally C. Davies, Director General of R&D at the Department of Health said: “The NIHR Public Health Research Programme will address the shortage of research into the real effectiveness and impact of interventions that can really affect the health of the public. The substantial budget for this programme will give it the scope to fund both smaller-scale studies and large studies of national or international importance, which may be beyond the capacity of most other funders.”

For more information, please visit: www.coi.gov.uk