The economic case for preventing and treating musculoskeletal conditions
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, such as osteoarthritis hip and knee, back pain and neck pain have a huge negative impact on the health of the population.
Brian Ferguson
Brian joined PHE in April 2013 having previously been Director of the Yorkshire & Humber Public Health and Quality Observatories since 2004, and Co-Director of the Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Registry & Information Service since April 2010. Brian was Chair of the UK & Ireland Association of PHOs from April 2006 to March 2011. Within PHE Brian was interim national Director of Knowledge and Intelligence between October 2013 and March 2015. He is now Chief Economist for PHE.
Brian has previously held posts as Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Economics, University of York, and was the founding Professor of Health Economics in the University of Leeds. He was a member of the National Public Health Career Scientist Award Panel for five years and was a PCT non-executive director for four years. Brian was a member of NICE’s Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee from 2005-08, and was a member of the Programme Advisory Board of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme between 2009-14. Brian has chaired the Research Advisory Committee of the National Diabetic Eye Screening Programme since 2011. He is a member of the International Editorial Board for the journal Public Health. Brian was admitted to the UK Public Health Register in February 2007.
Making the economic case for prevention
Next week PHE will host our fifth annual conference at the University of Warwick. As we prepare to bring together the public health community I’m taking a look with PHE colleagues at three key topics which are at the forefront …
Understanding the costs and benefits of investing in cancer
Understanding the costs associated with cancer is vital in order that resources are used for maximum effect. And investing in prevention and early intervention is critical if we are going to reduce the emotional and physical impact of cancer on …
Investing in prevention: sharing the burden and the benefits
The NHS Five Year Forward View states that a ‘radical upgrade’ in prevention and public health is required to avoid spending billions of pounds in the future on avoidable illness. We all know that the NHS is facing a significant …
Investing in prevention: counting the cost
As budgets continue to tighten across the NHS and local government, it’s vital that we make the case for investment in prevention and early intervention. In my second blog in this four-part series, I argued that public health and prevention …
Investing in prevention: is it cost-effective?
In the first blog of this series I explained why it is so important that we make the case for investment in preventive activity, as highlighted in the NHS Five Year Forward View. If we are to ‘get serious’ about …
Investing in prevention: the need to make the case now
This is the first in a series of four blogs, by PHE Chief Economist Brian Ferguson, looking at health economics and the case for investing in prevention initiatives: I've recently been running a series of workshops here at PHE to …
Making the economic case for public health
Posted by:
Kevin Fenton and Brian Ferguson, Posted on:
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Categories:
Health and Wellbeing, Reducing preventable deaths, Reducing the burden of disease
How do we make the financial case for investing in public health? It’s an important question for Public Health England, because unless our recommendations and advice stack up economically, they are less likely to be implemented, however compelling the scientific …
Strengthening our intelligence
Posted by:
Brian Ferguson, Posted on:
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Categories:
A single knowledge and intelligence service, Chief Knowledge Officer, Reducing preventable deaths
English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power”. The more of it we have, the better informed and equipped we are to address any issues and drive improvements. And this too is true for health. Within Public Health …