LSE-Lancet Commission

Professor Elias Mossialos
Commission Co-Chair, Brian Abel-Smith Professor of Health Policy and Head of Department of Health Policy, LSE

Professor Mossialos’ research focus is comparative health systems and policy, addressing questions related to health reforms, financing health care, pharmaceutical policies, the impact of EU law on health care systems, cancer care and policy and incentives to develop new antibiotics.

He has advised the WHO, European Parliament, European Commission (EC), World Bank, UK Office of Fair Trading, Ministries of Health and Social Affairs in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Kazakhstan,  Kuwait, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Sweden, and health insurance funds in Croatia, France, Hungary and South Korea.

In 2010 he was awarded the Andrija Stampar medal by the Association of Schools of Public Health in Europe (ASPHER) and the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), for contributions to European public health. He received the 2002 and 2007 Baxter Awards from the European Health Management Association for the best publication in health policy and management in Europe and a Commended Prize in the 2002 BMA Medical Book Competition. In 2009, under his directorship, LSE Health was honoured with the biennial Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for outstanding achievement and excellence.

Professor Alistair McGuire
Commission Co-Chair, Professor of Health Economics and Deputy Head of Department of Health Policy, LSE

Professor McGuire has been interested in the economics of health care for over thirty years. His research interests cover all topics in health economics, including international comparisons, economics of the hospital, public/private sector interface, cost-effectiveness analysis of health technologies, and health economics alongside clinical trials. He has acted as an advisor to a number of governments and governmental bodies, including the UK government, the UK Competition Commission, the UK Medical Research Council, the German Institut für Qualität Wirtschaftlichkeit im Geshundheitswesen, as well as for a number of international bodies (including the World Bank, the WHO, and the IMF) and pharmaceutical and health care insurance companies.

Dr Michael Anderson

Research Officer and PhD student in the Department of Health Policy, LSE

Michael is a practicing primary care physician with an interest in health policy and public health. He now combines clinical work alongside working as a research officer for the LSE-Lancet Commission titled ‘The Future of the NHS’. His published work has a broad focus, ranging from strengthening policy responses to antimicrobial resistance, promoting the economic benefits of primary care, and health technology assessment. He has previously worked as a consultant for the World Health Organisation. He is currently a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, working towards a thesis focusing on measures of healthcare quality, having previously been awarded a distinction in a joint masters in Health Policy, Planning & Financing from the London School of Economics and the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

Dr Emma Pitchforth

Senior Lecturer in Primary Care at University of Exeter, seconded part-time to be a Senior Fellow on the Commission

Emma is a senior health services researcher with a PhD in public health. She has a significant track record of research in diverse health care settings and is interested in using social science methods and perspectives to understand the potential of different service configurations in meeting the needs of different population groups. Much of her current research looks at the interface between different services and sectors.

Professor Carol Brayne
Professor of Public Health Medicine at the University of Cambridge; Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health

Carol is an internationally recognised leader in academic public health. She has made outstanding contributions to dementia research and the studies she leads are acclaimed internationally. She leads the group of MRC Cognitive Function and Aging Studies which inform national policy and scientific understanding of dementia in whole populations. Her research measuring changing dementia and depression prevalence, and behavioural and psychiatric symptoms in dementia is critical to defining long-term care needs for the population. After training in general medicine, she moved to epidemiology with a MRC Training Fellowship in ageing and dementia. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences with leadership roles in public health nationally, regionally and locally, and was responsible for training programmes in epidemiology and public health for many years.

Professor Barbara Casadei
British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the BHF Centre of Research Excellence, University of Oxford

Barbara is an outstanding leader in cardiovascular medicine and is the President-Elect of the European Society of Cardiology and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. She is Deputy Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Fellow of Wolfson College. She leads the Myocardial Theme of the Oxford BHF Centre of Excellence and the Cardiovascular Theme of the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. She graduated in Medicine (cum Laude) at the University of Pavia, Italy and then moved to Oxford to undertake her clinical and research training. She was awarded the Joan and Richard Doll Fellowship at Green College in 1991, a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine in 1995, and a BHF Senior Research Fellowship in 2001.

Professor Anita Charlesworth
Director of Research and Economics at the Health Foundation; Honorary Professor in the College of Social Sciences, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham

Anita joined the Health Foundation in 2014 and, in 2016, acted as the Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on the Long-term Sustainability of the NHS, chaired by the Lord Patel. Her previous roles were Chief Economist at the Nuffield Trust, where she led the Trust’s work on health care financing and market mechanisms, and Chief Analyst and Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Prior to this, she was Director of Public Spending at the Treasury (1998–2007), where she led the team working with Sir Derek Wanless on his reform of NHS funding in 2002. She has been a non-executive director in the NHS at Islington PCT and the Whittington Health NHS Trust. She is a Trustee of Tommy’s, the baby charity.

Professor Angela Coulter
Independent Expert in Public and Patient Involvement in Health Care and Health Policy

Angela is a UK-based health policy analyst and researcher, with special interests in patient and public involvement. She is currently Chair of the Public Advisory Board at Health Data Research UK (HDR UK). Her previous roles include Honorary Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Chief Executive of Picker Institute Europe, Director of Policy and Development at the King’s Fund, Director of the Health Services Research Unit at the University of Oxford and Director of Global Initiatives at the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation. A social scientist by training, she has higher degrees in health services research from the University of London and the University of Oxford. She was the founding editor of Health Expectations, an international journal on patient and public involvement in health care and health policy.

Professor Bryony Dean Franklin
Professor of Medication Safety, University College London

Bryony is a hospital pharmacist and has been involved with patient safety research for nearly twenty years. Her works spans both primary and secondary care, and she has published widely on medication safety, the evaluation of various technologies designed to reduce errors and how we can support the public role in patient safety. She is Director of the Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality (CMSSQ) and a theme lead for both the NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance.  She is an associate editor for the BMJ Quality and Safety, co-editor of the textbook Safety in Medication Use and co-author of a book aimed at the public, Going into Hospital? A guide for patients, carers and families.

Professor Cam Donaldson
Yunus Chair in Social Business and Health and Pro Vice Chancellor Research, Glasgow Caledonian University

Cam is a leading health economist, known for his work on eliciting public and patient preferences, developing frameworks for priority setting and applied economic evaluation. His current focus is on investigating relationships between community-based social enterprise and microfinance initiatives and public health, funded through grants from the MRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust and Chief Scientist Office. His work has been recognised with senior investigatorships at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institute for Health Research. He has also held chairs at the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne (Health Foundation Chair), Calgary (SVARE Chair) and Aberdeen and been a visiting professor at McMaster University in Ontario and University of the Mediterranean, Marseille.

Professor Michael Drummond
Professor of Health Economics and former Director of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York

Mike’s field of interest is the economic evaluation of health care treatments and programmes and he has undertaken evaluations in a wide range of medical fields including care of the elderly, neonatal intensive care, immunization programmes, services for people with AIDS, eye health care and pharmaceuticals. He was chair of a Guideline Review Panel for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK and has advised several governments on the assessment of health technologies and acted as a consultant to the WHO and the EU. In 2010, he was made a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the USA, and is a former President of the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of Value in Health.

Dame Karen Dunnell
Former National Statistician and Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom

Karen has over 30 years’ experience in national statistics with a focus on health and social care. Joining the Government Statistical Service in 1974, she carried out social surveys on health and demographic topics such as fertility and Community Nurses. She then became responsible for the General Household Survey and a portfolio which included disability and lifestyle factors such as drinking and smoking. She moved to work on medical statistics and became the Chief Medical Statistician, covering the data sets on births, deaths, cancer and congenital anomaly registration, GP data, hospital episodes, abortion and the longitudinal linkage study. Her appointment as Director of Social Statistics at the ONS included medical as well as social, family and labour statistics. In 2005, she became the National Statistician and Registrar General and oversaw the implementation of a new Statistics Act and the setting up of the UK Statistics Authority.

Margaret Foster
Chair of the NHS Shared Services Partnership, Wales

Margaret has considerable and wide ranging experience having worked in NHS Wales for over 40 years. She is a former Chief Executive of the Cwm Taf Local Health Board, and, in her current role, she leads an organization which brings together a range services across NHS Wales, including: audit and assurance, legal and risk, facilities, pensions, non-medical employment and contractor services. In 1994, she led on the establishment of the East Glamorgan Trust and later the Pontypridd and Rhondda NHS Trust. She was also Commissioner of the Isle of Anglesey County Council, appointed by the Minister for Local Government. She has held a number of non-executive positions including appointment to the Skills for Health Board, non-executive Director at the Principality Building Society and Governor at the University of Glamorgan.

Dr Ruth Hussey
Independent Public Health Consultant and Board member, Food Standards Agency

Ruth Chaired the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in Wales (2017–18) which set out the challenges facing health and social care over the next 5 to 10 years and concluded that Wales needs a different system of care. From 2006 to 2012, she was Regional Director of Public Health at NHS North West. Then, after secondment to the Public Health England Transition Team (leading the transition of the public health function from the NHS to local Government) she was appointed Chief Medical Officer for Wales (2012–16). She initially trained as a GP and went on to be a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Liverpool. This was followed by appointments as Director of Public Health in Liverpool and then Director of Health Strategy at Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority.

Professor Paul Johnson
Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies

Paul has worked and published extensively on the economics of public policy, with a focus on income distribution, public finances, pensions, tax, social security, education and climate change. As well as a previous period of work at the IFS, his career has included spells at HM Treasury (Director of Public Services), the Department for Education (Chief Economist) and the Financial Services Authority. Between 2004 and 2007 he was Deputy Head of the Government Economic Service. He is currently a member of the Committee on Climate Change and of the Banking Standards Board as well as being a visiting professor at UCL. He is a columnist for The Times. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Economic Society a council member of the ESRC.

Professor Martin Knapp
Professor in Health and Care Policy, Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC), LSE; Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research.

Martin has been conducting research in the adult social care and related fields for over 43 years, mainly in the areas of mental health, dementia, autism and long-term care. Much of his work has an economic focus, and in all of it he seeks to tease out the policy implications and his work has had numerous impacts on policy and practice in these areas. He has advised government departments and other bodies in the UK and elsewhere, and international bodies such as the European Commission and WHO. The Personal Social Services Research Unit has developed a strong track record in world-leading applied social care research at the LSE over 22 years, underpinned by a commitment to the engagement of people who use services, carers and professionals, and significant emphasis on knowledge exchange and impact.

Dr Gavin Lavery
Clinical Director, The HSC Safety Forum, Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland

Gavin is a Critical Care Physician at the Belfast HSC Trust. He is also a Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Trainer both for his organisation and the Northern Ireland Postgraduate Medical and Dental Training Agency. His interests are in using data to drive improvement, redesign of systems and process and reducing variability in the delivery of care. His previous roles include Lead for Patient Safety in Northern Ireland Health and Social Care, President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, Director of Critical Care in the Royal Hospitals Trust and Clinical Lead for Northern Ireland Critical Care Network. He also led the establishment of NICCaTS, the regional critical care transport service.

Professor Marcus Longley
Chair, Cwm Taf University Health Board, Wales

Marcus is currently an Expert Advisor to the Bevan Commission which provides advice to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport on matters relating to health and healthcare in Wales. He also chairs the Health and Social Care Group at the Institute of Welsh Affairs, is a Senior Associate at The Nuffield Trust and a Board member for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care. He was previously a Special Advisor for Health to the Welsh Affairs Committee in the House of Commons. He is former Vice Chair of the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Professor of Applied Health Policy at the University of South Wales, where he was also Director of the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care.

Professor Dame Jill Macleod Clark
Emeritus Professor of Nursing, University of Southampton

Dame Jill has been involved for many years in key health care policy initiatives linked to workforce reform, modernising professional careers and building leadership capacity in under-represented areas. She has held numerous national leadership and advisory roles which include leading the NMC review into education standards, serving on the UK REF Panels for Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health, and Chairing the UK Council of Deans of Health and the NIHR non-medical Clinical Academic Careers awards panel. She is a clinical academic nurse and health psychologist by background and, during her career, has worked in acute and community clinical settings and held senior academic roles as Director of the Nightingale Institute, Kings College London and as Dean of Health Sciences, University of Southampton. Her research interests focus around improving health outcomes through evidence-based practice, inter-professional learning and communication in health care.

Professor Azeem Majeed
Head of Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London

Azeem is a highly experienced clinical academic and has served as an adviser to the WHO on areas such as health systems, universal coverage, primary care, health care evaluation, health improvement and integrated care. His research interests are chronic disease management in primary care, international health and the use of new technology and health informatics to improve quality of health care. He remains active in clinical practice as a general practitioner and is also Associate Medical Director (Public Health and Primary Care) for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chair of the Imperial Master of Public Health Programme, and a Board member of the Imperial General Practice Specialist Training Programme. He is Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education & Training at Imperial College.

Professor Martin McKee
Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Martin qualified in medicine in Belfast, with subsequent training in internal medicine and public health. He founded the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (a WHO Collaborating Centre), is Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and a Past President of the European Public Health Association. His contributions to European health policy have been recognised by, among others, election to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine, the award of honorary doctorates and visiting professorships at universities in Europe and Asia, the Andrija Stampar medal for contributions to European public health, the Alwyn Smith Prize for outstanding contributions to the health of the population, and the Donabedian International Award for contributions to quality of care.

Professor John Newton
Director of Health Improvement and Chief Knowledge Officer, Public Health England

John has a long-standing interest in the use of knowledge to drive public health practice. In 2005, he led work for the Department of Health on a national public health information and intelligence strategy and has recently been centrally involved in managing the information and intelligence function for Public Health England. He was the first Director and CEO of UK Biobank and Chairman of the WHO European Global Burden of Disease Network. He joined PHE having been Regional Director of Public Health for NHS South Central since 2007, and was Director of Research and Development in two large NHS teaching hospitals. He is Honorary Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the Universities of Manchester and Exeter, and was an academic epidemiologist at the University of Oxford.

Professor Ciaran O'Neill
Chair in Health Economics, Queens University Belfast

Ciaran’s current research includes the analysis of health preferences, disparities in health and in patterns of health service use. His interests span a wide range of topics that include the examination of health disparities, economic evaluation, public attitudes to health and end-of-life decisions, and the role of system structure on service use. He has acted as an advisor to the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Health Committee and was co-founder and chair of the Health Economics Association of Ireland. He is a former Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and has held Chairs in Health Technology Assessment (NUI Galway), Oral Health Research (Queens University Belfast) and Health Economics and Policy (the University of Ulster).

Professor Rosalind Raine
Professor of Health Care Evaluation, Head of Department of Applied Health Research, University College London

Rosalind advises on health policy internationally, nationally and regionally. She is a world-leading applied researcher and was selected by the BMA as a national role model in academic medicine. Her expertise is in the evaluation of complex interventions, major health service change and the determinants of widespread implementation of evidence-based care. Applying diverse techniques, from complex data analysis to ethnography, she examines the impact of health/public health interventions on outcomes, inequalities, quality and costs. She is a public health medicine doctor, and is currently Director of NIHR CLAHRC North Thames and Clinical Specialty Lead for Health Services Research and for Public Health, NIHR Clinical Research Network (North Thames). She chaired the UK Heads of Academic Departments of Public Health and, as a member of the HEFCE Research Excellence Framework Panel, helped inform the distribution of Government funding to UK universities.

Professor Sir Mike Richards
Former Chief Inspector of Hospitals in the Care Quality Commission

Sir Mike became CQC’s first Chief Inspector of Hospitals (2013–17) and led the development and implementation of a new approach to hospital inspection which assessed services on whether they are safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led. He was a hospital physician for more than 20 years, practicing as a consultant medical oncologist before becoming Professor of Palliative Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals. He was appointed as the first National Cancer Director at the Department of Health and led the development and implementation of the NHS Cancer Plan in 2000, the Cancer Reform Strategy in 2007 and Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer in 2011. In 2012, he was appointed Director for Reducing Premature Mortality on the NHS Commissioning Board (now NHS England) leading the development of a cardiovascular outcomes strategy.

Professor Peter Smith
Emeritus Professor of Health Policy, Imperial College London

Peter has acted in numerous UK governmental advisory capacities, including membership of the Audit Commission board, and is currently chair of the NHS Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. He has also advised many overseas governments and international agencies, including the WHO, the OECD, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Global Fund and European Commission. He was previously director of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, where he is now Professor of Global Health Economics. His main research areas are in the finance and efficiency of health systems, with an emphasis on the link between research evidence and policy. Current interests include health system modelling, measuring and improving health system productivity, and universal health coverage.

Professor Aziz Sheikh
Professor of Primary Care Research and Development and Director of The Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, The University of Edinburgh

Aziz has long-standing interests in the potential of health IT to transform the delivery of healthcare and improve population health, which have led him to work with numerous governments, the WHO and the World Bank. He is also: Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, NHS Lothian; Director of the 16-university Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research; Director of the NIHR Global Respiratory Health Unit (RESPIRE); Co-Director of the NHS Digital Academy; and Co-Director of Harvard Medical School’s Safety, Quality, Informatics Leadership (SQIL) Program. He is on the editorial boards of PLOS Medicine, Medical Care, Health Informatics and BMC Medicine and is Editor-in-Chief of Nature Partnership Journal: Primary Care Respiratory Medicine.

Professor Andrew Street
Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics

A key strength of Andrew’s work is the interplay between scientific rigour and policy relevance. He regularly advises national bodies such as the English Department of Health, NHS England, Monitor, Office of National Statistics and National Audit Office, and policy-makers and practitioners around the world. He leads research into NHS productivity, the government recognising it as “the most comprehensive and reliable estimates of productivity”. His research into integrated care is helping shape policy to meet the needs of elderly people with multiple long-term conditions. He served as a member of the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research Commissioning Board (2010–17) and as special advisor to the House of Commons Health Committee’s 2016 inquiry into the Impact of the Spending Review on Health and Social Care. He is editor of the Journal of Health Economics, the leading international journal in the field.

Professor David G Taylor
Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical and Public Health Policy, University College London

David’s research interests include UK pharmacy and public health policy (particularly community pharmacy development), national and international research-based pharmaceutical industry policy regarding medicines affordability and intellectual property integrity, and the role of pharmaceuticals and pharmacy in global demographic and epidemiological transition and health care policy developments. He chaired the 2014 LSE Summit on Risk Sharing, and his previous posts include Chair of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Associate Director of Health Studies at the Audit Commission for England and Wales. At the Audit Commission he researched and wrote the national study Dear to our Hearts? and the audit that accompanied it. These were forerunners of the National Service Framework on coronary heart disease.

Professor Richard G Watt

Professor and Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health, University College London.

Richard is a dentist who graduated from University of Edinburgh and then completed a MSc and PhD in Dental Public Health from University College London.  Richard is currently a Professor and Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health, University College London. He is the Director of the World Health Organisation, Collaborating Centre on Oral Health Inequalities and Public Health and is also Director of Research, Development and Innovation for Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

He provides expert advice on oral health policy to the UK Department of Health, NHS England, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Public Health England. He has also provided policy advice to EU, International Dental Federation and WHO oral health expert groups. He is the founder and lead of the International Centre for Oral Health Inequalities Research and Policy. In 2014 he was awarded the International Association of Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Award for Behavioural, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research and in 2016 he gained the NIHR Senior Investigator Award, the only dentist in the UK gaining this recognition. In 2019 he led the publication of a Lancet Series on Global Oral Health. 

Professor Moira Whyte
Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine, The University of Edinburgh

Moira is Head of Edinburgh Medical School and practices in respiratory medicine. In 2015, she was appointed Director of the MRC University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research and joined the NHS Lothian Health Board as a non-Executive Director in 2016. She is active in the Medical Research Council as the Chair of the MRC Clinical Training and Careers Panel and a member of MRC Strategy Board. She is a former Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences and will Chair Unit of Assessment 1 (Clinical Medicine) sub-panel in REF 2021.