The first in a series of meetings that should ultimately help develop better healthcare gets underway today.
The University of Aberdeen is hosting a one day seminar which brings together policy makers, clinicians, healthcare managers, statisticians, social scientists, psychologists, researchers and patient groups.
The sessions provide a forum for a wide range of people involved in health care – from those on the receiving end, right through to those who are actually managing it.
All the different perspectives will be debated and pulled together and the findings will help guide interventions for research and also inform decision makers in healthcare policy and practice.
Key speakers include Professor John Creswell, an expert in different research methods from the University of Nebraska; Ms Sarah Buckland, Director of INVOLVE – a national advisory group which supports and promotes active public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research; Professor Martyn Hammersley, a leading sociologist from the Open University, and Professor Richard Smith, former editor of the BMJ who is Director of the Ovations initiative which aims to create centres in the developing world to counter chronic disease.
The seminar, which has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, has been organised by Dr Alexandra Greene, Senior Research Fellow, and Professor Lorna Mckee, Director of the Delivery of Care programme at the University's Health Services Research Unit.
Dr Greene said: "The seminar provides an opportunity to bring together a range of disciplines, professions and patients groups to debate the different ways that, for example, clinicians, patients, carers, researchers and policy makers, can inform the broader debate about health services policy and practice. The long-term aim of these seminars is to provide insights into how policy leads to action, and to enhance the relevance to patient and consumer needs of future research on health care services research."
Today's seminar takes place at the University's Linklater Rooms.
ENDS