I see from your website your interest in the economics of healthcare so could you maybe
expand on that for the non-expert a little bit.
Yeah, I mean it’s basically what it sounds like, it’s the application of economics
to health issues.
So I see economics as a study of decisions relating to production and consumption decisions
and one of the most interesting issues I guess in health economics at the moment – or certainly
something we look at a lot in the UK – is the sort of decisions made about funding or
whether to fund or not to fund new treatments that come up for sort of approval by the NHS
and the issue there is do the benefits of those treatments justify how much they’re
going to cost.
So that’s one of the things that health economists investigate and develop methods
to study those sort of decisions.
OK.
So what are the big questions in your field at the moment?
Well I think it’s quite an interesting area to study at the moment because obviously with
declining public spending in particular areas there’s more pressure for different public
services to demonstrate value for money in different areas.
So there’s certainly a big role for economists in health to try and work out where health
spending can be best directed to get the most value or the most benefits from healthcare
services.
So that’s one of the big questions.
Also we’ve got an ageing population at the moment so the emphasis in terms of the delivery
of healthcare services is shifting from sort of trying to improve the quality of life for
people that are living longer and not necessarily saving lives and preventing diseases which
were the big challenges for healthcare systems maybe fifty or sixty years ago.
But basically looking after people as they age and maybe more of a focus on some of the
social services and some of the services provided for older people.
So I guess they’re two of the big issues at the moment in the subject.
OK.
And so what are the questions in particular you want to address during your Birmingham
fellowship?
So my research focuses on unpaid or family carers of people, so they are people that
are providing a lot of care for someone that’s elderly, sick or disabled, but in their own
home.
Traditionally, health services have focused very much on the needs of the patient or health
professionals but obviously for a lot of people, the family and unpaid carers at home, play
a big role in their care and wellbeing.
So my research is looking at how treatments and healthcare policies impact on those unpaid
or family carers, developing methods to take into account those impacts on those individuals
and looking a bit more generally about what role those unpaid carers can play in a health
system for the future.
So as austerity bites, is this something which is going to become more and more important?
Well I think so.
I mean from a sort of cynical perspective I guess governments might be interested in
shifting the emphasis in terms of patient care from hospitals where it’s obviously
very expensive, to patients doing more for themselves or families doing more to look
after people in their own homes.
But the evidence shows that often people would prefer to be looked after in their own homes
rather than in a sort of residential care setting or a hospital setting.
So I guess one of the big questions is how carers can best do that, best be enabled to
do that and whether they have the sort of skills to do that in the future.
OK.
And so what does the University of Birmingham help towards this research?
There’s a lot of work on clinical trials going on in the department I’m in, in the
Health and Population Sciences Department, so there’s sort of ready access to data
in terms of treatments and the impact that has on patients.
So one of the things I’m hoping to do is collect extra data on the knock-on impact
that those treatments are having on carers to see sort of how effective treatments are
for that group.
So from a sort of practical point of view in terms of getting data, it’s quite a useful
place to be and there’s a wide range of different disciplines that are represented
in my department from sort of economics to medics, statisticians, and the area that I’m
working in is quite multi-disciplinary so drawing on expertise from people of different
backgrounds is also something that I value.
OK.
So I saw from after your undergraduate you went into work in the government sector as
opposed to the academic sector.
Yeah.
So what pulled you back interesting academia?
I think I found that I ended up being in lots of meetings and talking on issues that I didn’t
feel maybe I was that experienced or qualified to talk on and actually I realised what I
really enjoyed doing was analysing issues, doing research and spending time I guess on
those sorts of things rather than necessarily just talking about it.
So it was really a bit of a leap of faith.
I went to do a PhD and I caught the research bug and that was at Bristol University where
I started out and I’ve been academia ever since then.
OK, excellent.
But you’ve now been in Birmingham for four years I think.
Yeah, that’s right.
I moved to Birmingham in 2008 for a post-doc post after my PhD and yeah, I’ve sort of
enjoyed being here and I found it a good environment to carry out my research and I’ve been fortunate
enough to have some extra funding through the Birmingham Fellowship and to carry on
working in a related area.
So that’s great.
OK.
So I’m new to Birmingham myself, so what’s the city like?
It’s good.
I think in the past it’s maybe got a bit of a bad press but I think it’s a great
place in terms of going out, there's always lots of things going on, it’s one of the
biggest cities in the country so if you’re interested in going to gigs, music or eating
out, it’s pretty god and there’s lots of parks so it’s quite a green city, contrary
to popular perception.
And being quite centrally based it’s easy to get around, so if you do find yourself
wanting to leave you can hop on a plane or a train pretty quickly and get around the
city.
So yeah, I’ve been quite happy here.
OK, excellent.
And so in your elevated position now, what would your advice be to future researchers,
or researchers in waiting I guess I should say?
I guess one of the things I didn’t realise when I came into research is that it’s quite
a, you have to play a long game to some extent.
Results aren’t always immediate so basically knuckle down.
Often things don’t happen in the first six months or nine months and if you find yourself
getting frustrated then actually you often tend to see the benefits if you work further
down the line and be glad you worked hard for that first year or two when maybe things
were a bit frustrating.
So yeah, be persistent I suppose.
And you think this is something that a Fellowship with the five years is –
Yeah, I mean I think the fact that it’s five years is great because it takes you away
from what can often happen on research contracts where you get stuck on lots of one or two
year contracts and it’s very hard to do the sort of work that can deliver results
three or four years down the line and do the sort of longer term work, maybe involving
a bit more creative thinking, but it’s the sort of thing we should be doing more of in
research if we want expanding knowledge and ideas in our particular sectors.
So to have five years where you’ve got the security of funding and a supportive network,
it’s great for making a real contribution in your discipline and having a chance to
be a bit more independent as well.
OK.
And so I think my final question is outside of academia, what’s the relaxing pursuits?
Well I’ve got a young baby at the moment so I really don’t –
So not so relaxing.
Not so relaxing!
But yeah, aside of work and family I guess the usual things, going out and meeting friends,
playing sport, watching a lot of the Olympics recently which I found very relaxing, so yeah,
it’s good.