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Regional Update - Health & Medicine

Originally Published 30 July 2003

Warwick has a multiplicity of health and medical activities in the region which can be categorised into teaching and learning, supporting health care delivery and provision, and carrying out research and evaluation.

The main areas of the University involved in these activities are the Warwick Medical School (as part of the Leicester Warwick Medical School) which includes Medical Education (postgraduate and undergraduate), the Division of Health in the Community (Epidermiology and Public Health, Psychiatry and Primary Care) and Clinical Sciences and the Institute of Health which brings together individuals and research centres in the Faculty of Social Studies carrying out research and teaching in health.

Medical School students work and learn in clinical placements throughout the region in both hospitals, clinics and GP surgeries. New clinical appointments are being made, nurses, health visitors and doctors are involved in teaching and the level of health care is changing as the region becomes a centre of university teaching and research in medicine. Additionally, there are many continuing professional education activities across the University both within the Medical School in Primary Care, postgraduate medicine, and through the Institute of Health in the areas of mental health and philosophy, law and advocacy, health studies and sociology of health.

The Institute of Health has a number of foci. One is to establish NHS/academic collaborative research groups to enable clinicians and other service providers to meet with academic staff to develop collaborative research. Another is to build and enhance research capacity in the Trusts in the region through working in partnership with doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. Both of these activities are carried out in partnership with Coventry University.

Health research in the region is relevant to policy and practice. There is a body of research around tackling health inequalities and some of which is focused on understanding the social economic and behavioural determinants of health such as the impact of smoking on families with young children and the effects of income on child health. There is also work in the area of user involvement and the expert patient that identifies and evaluates ways of involving users in the development of services and policies.

In short, the teaching, learning and research at the University is being carried out in partnerships across the region on a multiplicity of levels with many partners. It has done and will continue to impact on the policy, practice and delivery of health care in the region.