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Globally, many health research-funding organisations, public and charitable, felt the need to demonstrate to policymakers and the public how their investments in research were benefitting society. HERG's research on developing techniques for assessing the payback (or impact) from health research tackled this need. The payback stream of research itself has had significant, wide- reaching and cumulative impacts. First, internationally, health research funding bodies adopted the framework in their evaluation strategies, including to provide accountability. Second, many stakeholders made extensive use the findings of payback studies in public debate and private lobbying for public expenditure on health research. Third, governments, public research funding bodies and medical research charities, from the UK to Australia, used the findings from payback studies to inform decisions regarding the levels and distribution of health research funding, with the aim of increasing the health and economic benefits that come from investments in research.
Professor Mark Jackson's research on the history of allergy and asthma, carried out in the Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter, has been successful in enhancing clinical, commercial and policy understandings of the social, political and cultural, as well as biological, determinants of allergic diseases in the modern world. It has also helped to raise public and patient awareness of historical trends in asthma and allergies and to increase public understanding of evolving methods of diagnosis, prevention and treatment through focused collaboration with the charity Asthma UK as well as through various outreach and engagement activities. Professor Jackson was appointed to the Centre of Medical History at Exeter in 1998.
Research at the University of Nottingham (UoN) has had influence on development of health policy in the UK and internationally. It is recognised that the risk of diseases related to obesity and insulin resistance, is partly determined by the nutritional environment experienced during early life. Against a background of scepticism researchers at the UoN have generated data that has been critical in demonstrating the biological plausibility of such associations. This has influenced expert panels and non-governmental organisations in framing their current recommendations for nutrition in pregnancy and infancy, which benefit women and children worldwide.
Our biomarker research and underpinning technologies have commercially impacted upon the global R&D strategies of Unilever, Philips and Mars, realising new market areas for them, resulting in several million GBP invested in related R&D as well as "claim support" for products both in development and already available on shelves. Unilever have adopted biomarker outcomes as endpoints in clinical trials of new products, and Philips and Mars are developing with us saliva-based near-patient diagnostic tests for the human and small animal markets. We have also spun out two SME's: A) Oral Health Innovations (OHI) Ltd has developed online risk and disease analysis software for oral conditions, which was piloted, adopted and launched by Denplan, the UKs largest dental capitation plan operator (accessing 6500 dentists and 1.8 million patients), at the 2013 annual British Dental Association conference; and B) GFC Diagnostics makes SmokeScreen™ a non-invasive, sensitive and objective saliva test developed from our biomarker research at Birmingham University. Both technologies have already provided demonstrable social and commercial impact and given their uptake to date, will also deliver economic, environmental and health impacts.
Strathclyde research underpinned formation of the Scottish Chikhwawa Health Initiative (SCHI) in 2006, to deliver tangible health benefits by reducing major causes of disease and death in Chikhwawa, Malawi. Health impact occurred through training of government personnel and community volunteers, combined with increased infrastructure capacity, at health facilities and in the community, producing improvements in water quality, sanitation and communicable disease control. Within the first 2 years of implementation among a population of 5700 people, a 30% reduction in diarrhoeal disease was achieved, and access to safe water improved through increased water points and improved water storage [1]. Initial success saw expansion of the initiative to 150 communities covering a population of 110,000.
In November 2008, Professor Sir Michael Marmot and his team at UCL were asked by the Secretary of State for Health to chair an independent review to propose the most effective evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England. The Marmot Review, published in 2010, has fundamentally shifted discourse on health inequalities in the UK and internationally. It has shaped public health services across England and around the world, guided government and international policy, and has given rise to a new commitment from service providers and health professionals to reducing health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health.
Impact: Health and welfare; policy in the form of national and international guidelines; diagnostic service; engagement with patient groups.
Significance: UoE-formulated diagnostic criteria adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), enable reliable case ascertainment and longitudinal study of disease trends. The UoE Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease Unit acts as an international reference centre for diagnosis. Case ascertainment has improved.
Beneficiaries: Patients with prion disease and their families, policy-makers, the NHS, charities.
Attribution: The UoE CJD Unit led the work with international collaborators.
Reach: Worldwide; diagnostic criteria are WHO-endorsed and have been adopted worldwide. Pooling of data across Europe has enabled assessment of 11,000 cases of sporadic CJD.
Dr Sunil Amrith's research has enhanced understanding of the historical roots of many contemporary policy problems, making him a leading expert on the history of public health in South and Southeast Asia. The critical success of his monograph Decolonizing International Health, and its positive reception among non-academic specialists in the field, led to his involvement in dialogues with policymakers in international NGOs and invitations to contribute a historical perspective to discussions about public health issues in the developing world. His work has influenced policy development and shaped capacity building programmes.
Infantile nystagmus (IN), previously known as congenital nystagmus, is a condition that impairs vision by causing continual and involuntary oscillatory movements of the eyes. IN begins in infancy and is a lifelong disorder, affecting over 88,000 people in the UK. Leicester is the leading UK centre for research into the underlying mechanisms and treatment of IN: discovering the genetic mutations behind some of the common forms of nystagmus; pioneering early diagnosis of IN; and conducting randomised clinical trials into drug treatments and other therapies. The centre provides advanced scientific and medical knowledge, and support and advice to sufferers of this physically and psychologically debilitating condition. The work has resulted in new methods of diagnosis which are more comfortable and convenient for patients and enable cost-savings for healthcare providers; and has led to the testing and subsequent prescription of pharmacological treatments which offer patients improvements in quality of life.
Our research has had impact on the activities of practitioners and their services, health and welfare of patients, on society and on public policy. New diagnostic tests for genetic deafness have been introduced, and healthcare guidelines and professional standards adopted through our investigation of the aetiology of childhood-onset hearing loss. Disease prevention has been achieved by our research on antibiotic-associated deafness, public awareness of risk to health and hearing has been raised, and we have increased public engagement through debate on scientific and social issues. We have also influenced public policy on ethics of genetic testing for deafness with our research resulting in improved quality, accessibility and acceptability of genetic services among many hard-to-reach groups (deafblind, culturally Deaf, and the Bangladeshi population of East London).