The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. The School of Clinical Medicine pursues its mission of medical education and research in close partnership with the National Health Service (NHS), and its Departments all have close relationships in teaching, research, and service delivery with partner NHS organizations. Cambridge is internationally recognized for the excellence of its research in public health and primary care, and the evaluation of interventions to improve health. These research programmes are based in the Institute of Public Health, which brings together the Department of Public Health and Primary Care with a number of complementary world class research institutions as well as interfacing NHS groups. These institutions include: the MRC Biostatistics Unit, the MRC Epidemiology Unit, and the MRC Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival (CNC). The partners in the Institute of Public Health, together with the Strategic Health Authority and the University of East Anglia, have recently been awarded a Centre for Public Health Excellence in Diet and Physical Activity by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration following a competitive process. This will greatly strengthen opportunities for work at the interface between population and individual strategies for health-related behaviour change. There is now an opportunity to build complementing strength in the important research area of the organization and delivery of health services, and how to facilitate the translation of research findings into clinical practice.
2. The Department of Public Health and Primary Care aims to generate evidence to inform strategies to prevent premature death and disability, particularly in relation to common chronic conditions and to translate this evidence into the development and evaluation of preventative and therapeutic interventions. The epidemiological work of the Department focuses on identifying the genetic and environmental determinants of disease in long-term studies. The Department teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level in public health, epidemiology, psychology, sociology as applied to medicine, and primary care and general practice. The General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit works at the interface between the population and the individual, drawing on the disciplines of clinical, epidemiological, social, and behavioural science. It is one of the UK's strongest research groupings in behavioural science and primary care, and one of only five departments of general practice in the UK awarded a 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. As such it is a founder member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research. The Unit is now developing research strengths in health services research and practitioner behaviour and intends to prosecute studies on the quality of care in primary care, and at the primary secondary care interface, taking a whole system approach to the NHS. There is now a timely and unique opportunity to secure a position for Cambridge as a centre of international excellence in Health Services Research.
3. The Department of Public Health and Primary Care has therefore put forward the case for the establishment of a Clinical Professorship of Health Services Research. This has been endorsed by the Council of the School of Clinical Medicine. The person appointed will be expected to provide research leadership in the Clinical School in evaluation of health service organization and delivery with particular attention to primary care, the primary/secondary care interface, and the patient experience, and to build within the Institute of Public Health a new Unit of Health Services Research making full use of the current strengths of the Institute, University, and other interested bodies. The Professorship will build on existing research collaborations and participate in teaching, research, administration, and clinical work as appropriate within the Department.
4. The School of Clinical Medicine have confirmed that the full costs of the Professorship, at Honorary Consultant level, can be met from resources available to the School. The General Board have accepted the proposal for the establishment of the Professorship on this basis. The Board are satisfied that an appointment at this level will be likely to attract a strong field of applicants. They are assured that suitable accommodation is available in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care for the Professor and the Department has undertaken to provide the necessary support and facilities. The Board have agreed that election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature should be open to all persons whose work falls within the title of the Professorship.
5. The General Board recommend:
That a Professorship of Health Services Research be established, for one tenure, in the University from 1 October 2008, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.
| 4 June 2008 | ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor | P. COULTHARD | D. W. B. MACDONALD |
| NICK BAMPOS | PHILIP FORD | MELVEENA MCKENDRICK | |
| GRAEME BARKER | RICHARD FRIEND | PATRICK SISSONS | |
| JOHN BELL | RICHARD HUNTER | I. H. WHITE | |
| WILLIAM BROWN | KATHERINE LINDER |