[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
Well known global and regional health inequalities have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. For example, a baby boy born today in the London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, has a life expectancy of 95 years, compared with 75 for one born in Gorton, Manchester and 51 for one born in Lesotho, South Africa.\u00a0 The COVID mortality in Manchester was 59% higher than the national average and Greater Manchester (GM) has a higher prevalence of many long-term physical and mental health conditions than most of England.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Research at The University of Manchester quantifies the nature and degree of health disparities; enables understanding of the causes of disparity and identifies potential interventions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recognition of our expertise in experimental medicine research, the University was recently awarded \u00a359.1 million by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) for the Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC),<\/a> to enable us to translate our scientific discoveries into new treatments, diagnostic tests and medical technologies that will improve people\u2019s lives. The new Centre will bring a health equity lens to the research that it does.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Additionally, Creative Manchester recently worked with the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership to launch the GM Creative Health City Region Strategy, where academics are using their research to engage with policymakers<\/a> to improve access to, and the outcomes of health systems in Manchester and around the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Addressing this complex problem requires us to go even further. We need to bring together disciplines spanning the natural sciences, engineering and maths; the social sciences and humanities and biological, medical and health sciences, because real life health disparities are multi-faceted, complex and require us to work in an interdisciplinary way to conduct research that makes a difference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There is also concern that much medical research happens at a distance from where \u2018need\u2019 is greatest. For example, Greater Manchester has the highest prevalence of common mental health conditions of the NIHR regions (201 people per 1000 population compared with the England average of 156 per 1000) but the lowest proportion of mental health service users recruited to its research (approximately 3 people per 1000 compared with 11 for England). Health researchers and funders have recognised that this needs to change, and that we need to try much harder to ensure that relevant research gets done in the areas with the greatest health need.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With much of the current evidence focussing on describing health inequalities, future research must focus on how to \u2019level up\u2019 health. We need to develop and test potential solutions and ensure that the research we do is relevant by working with the communities who are most affected, their local authorities, local businesses and the voluntary sector.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Our research should contribute to the development and testing of policy and other interventions (including diet, lifestyle, housing, environment) to improve health and reduce health inequalities. Crucially we need to ensure that our research measures both the benefits and harms of any policy or intervention, to ensure inequalities are not unintentionally widened. For example, work promoting smoking cessation has improved overall population health, which is great, but some of the most under-served populations have not benefitted from this societal level progress (so the gap is widened, not reduced).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Research to advance the development of new medicines for the management and treatment of conditions which most disproportionately affect populations at the highest risk of inequalities (for example, addiction, severe mental illness) is needed. We also need a greater focus on illness-prevention; medical research tends to overestimate the role of medicine per se<\/em>, and underestimate the role of the wider determinants, so a more holistic view is needed. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Scalable, low-cost interventions (for example, digital health applications) have potential to improve health and reach under-served populations. However, this research must include people from populations and communities who experience the greatest disparities (otherwise we risk widening inequalities) and be conducted with an inequalities lens. Similarly, personalised medicine risks widening inequalities due to disparities of access to primary care and in referral patterns so we need to ensure we collect the data that will enable us to monitor inequalities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There is already much research related to health inequalities thriving here. We have a wealth of expertise, to tackle not only medical challenges, but the underlying socio-economic and environmental causes of inequalities and their impacts. As a University with social responsibility at its core, we have a duty to address these challenges. Over the coming months we will bring existing research groups, centres, individuals, and external partners together, to explore how\u00a0 we can better support collaboration and innovation, so that we can better apply our expertise and resource to make a real difference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Explore an overview of University of Manchester research addressing health inequalities with the Global Inequalities<\/a> research beacon at:<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well known global and regional health inequalities have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Our University is developing its role to address this, inviting colleagues to join the conversation and the work ahead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]\r\n\r\n When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]\r\n\r\n [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[36,37,23,33,34,35],"class_list":["post-3719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-beacons","tag-global-inequality","tag-global-influence","tag-health","tag-inequality","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Chris Taylor: Grasping the opportunities of AI<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Professor John Holden and Carol Prokopyszyn: Making the Leap: A Powerhouse of Innovation<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Nalin Thakkar: Why research security matters more than ever \u2014 and how we\u2019re here to help<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>\r\n