Dr Pepita Barlow COW 2.05

This course is available on the MSc in Global Health Policy, MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, MSc in International Health Policy and MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Priority will be given to students in the Department of Health Policy.

This course aims to introduce students to different ways in which evidence is generated and can be used to inform health policy. Taking a case-based approach, students will be introduced to a selection of key health issues and approaches to intervention in order to appreciate how different types of quantitative and qualitative evidence can inform analyses of complex policy problems. Students will also learn to interpret and critique health policy research and formulate policy-relevant conclusions from study results. Examples will be drawn from low-, middle-, and high-income countries, and will focus on forms of evidence and interventions that regularly feature in health policy analysis. Students will also be encouraged to draw on examples from their own countries and to relate the course content to their professional experience. Students will gain practical skills and learn to apply the concepts covered during the course to develop an evidence-informed policy brief.

Following the completion of this course, students will have an advanced understanding of the role of research in policy analysis and the role of theory in health policy research. Students will also be able to interpret the results of research concerning contemporary health issues and interventions, formulate policy conclusions, and develop an evidence-informed policy brief. Furthermore, students will be able to critically discuss evidentiary hierarchies in health policy and describe the respective roles of different approaches to evidence generation and their use in informing specific health policy questions.

The course will be delivered in no less that 28 hours during Michaelmas Term, and consist of lectures and seminars

Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the MT.

• 1 x 1,500 word policy brief

• Craig, P., Dieppe, P., Macintyre, S., Michie, S., Nazareth, I. and Petticrew, M., 2008. Developing and evaluating complex interventions: the new Medical Research Council guidance. BMJ, 337, a1655.
• World Health Organization, 2012. Health policy and systems research: a methodology reader. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Policy brief (100%) in the LT.

Additional information: