The Summer 2013 newsletter is now available on our website. The HEDS Director’s editorial gives a flavor of what’s inside:
“This newsletter shows the diversity of our research. HEDS was formed from four sections within the School of Health and Related Research – Health Economics, Operational Research, Information Resources and Health Policy and Management – in recognition of the need for multiple disciplines to inform decision making.
It is the expertise in each of these areas, combined with collaborative research between them, that gives HEDS its unique character. This is highlighted with updates on cost-effectiveness modelling, systematic reviewing and measurement of wellbeing. Before I give you my perspective on these three research topics, I want to advertise an exciting teaching initiative; our own MOOC.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a new way for educational organisations to provide learning materials to the public. They are free and open to everyone (with internet access). They differ from other online materials by typically being more formally structured and being developed by experienced University lecturers. MOOCs are developed and run principally for altruistic reasons and as tasters for fee-based courses that are available. The topic of our MOOC will be Health Technology Assessment and will run for the first time from October 2013; it is based on an existing module taught on our online MSc International Health Technology Assessment, Pricing and Reimbursement. We hope to run the course several times per annum, and develop further MOOCs, so any feedback would be warmly welcomed.
Back to research........just out of development is the Sheffield Type 1 Diabetes Model which is a simulation model that has been developed as part of a programme of work looking at interventions for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. This completes the set, as our Type 2 Diabetes Model was developed a few years ago and has continued to evolve, with amendments to incorporate pre-diabetes and other sources of new evidence.
Our work on the methods of systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis was brought together in the fourth annual Systematic Reviews Issues and Updates Symposium (SYRIUS). Internal and external speakers were present, covering issues related to reporting standards, economics, statistics and methods relating to complex interventions.
In another event, the Centre for Wellbeing in Health and Public Policy (CWiPP) hosted a lecture given by Stephen Hicks, Assistant Deputy Director of the Measuring National Wellbeing programme at the Office of National Statistics. And it is this, perhaps, that perfectly illustrates the diversity of HEDS; whilst health is central to our work (and the name of our host School), we recognise that health outcomes form just one part of people’s lives. The measurement, valuation and evaluation of broader wellbeing, therefore, should be part of all our work. Stephen’s talk shows what has been done at the national level on this topic, and as such, highlights the policy imperative behind health researchers looking at more than just health.”
