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Health Strategy Board

Activities

There are three main strands to the activities that fall within the remit of the Health Strategy Board:

Undergraduate Teaching

Durham teaches a cohort of some 90 students during their first two years (Phase 1) of the joint MBBS degree with the University of Newcastle. They then transfer to Newcastle for Phase II of the programme.

Postgraduate teaching, training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities

Proposals are currently being developed for a suite of linked taught Masters and associated CPD courses in health and medicine, ranging from Medical Physics and Infectious Diseases, Public Policy and Health, to Ethics.

The University of Durham’s Department of Philosophy, Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, and School for Health have also announced their new Taught Masters Programme (MA) in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine (HPSM).

This suite of courses is central to the development of health and medicine in the University and to the development of Queen’s Campus around research and postgraduate teaching in health and medicine. The Masters courses will form an entry point to doctoral research as well as help provide for the training needs of the NHS, both via Masters courses and related CPD courses.

Wolfson Research Institute

Research

The Wolfson Research Institute forms the research arm of the Health Strategy Board and provides the broad inter-disciplinary and University-wide framework within which the University’s health and medical research is brought together. Its research activities focus on medicine, health and the well-being of people and places. This research, which draws upon the work of 11 Research Centres and Units drawn from all three Faculties of the university, is organised under four main themes, each with a convenor, who is a senior researcher in the University:

  • Clinical and Health Services (Convenor: Professor Pali Hungin);
  • Life Sciences and the Life Cycle (Convenor: Professor Chris Hutchison);
  • Medical Humanities (Convenor: Professor Martyn Evans);
  • Public Policy, Health and Wellbeing (Convenor: Professor David Hunter).

The overarching principle that guides this research programme is that of ‘Frontiers of Knowledge’, pushing these back in three ways: within academic disciplines; between academic disciplines; and between the University and its partners, stakeholders and other organisations, especially (but not exclusively) in the north east of England.

As part of this programme, there is a broad framework agreement relating collaborative work with colleagues in the NHS, covering eight more specific research areas of mutual interest. This is co-ordinated by Professor Pali Hungin, Dean of Medicine.