Introducing the i3HS Hub: Creating innovative, reusable learning materials for teaching
It has been the best year for myself, Prof Arpana Verma, and Prof Andy Brass, as we have had the great privilege of setting up the new Integrated Interdisciplinary Innovations in Healthcare Sciences Hub! We feel we have recruited the best set of people who can really drive interdisciplinary sciences teaching, research and capacity building.
The i3HS Hub is based on some major implementation gaps that cover the disciplines of clinical medicine, data sciences and public health. This started with the Cooksey Report, published in December 2006, and this first year has ended with the publishing of the Topol Review in February 2019.
The successes of the i3HS are too many to list, but include research successes, teaching innovations, and capacity building at a local, national and international level. We are also developing VR technologies, leading to our first spin out company VREvo.
Andy and I knew this was going to be exciting and challenging, but never bargained for the complete joy of working with some amazing people.
Find out more and help to shape the Hub on the website.
Author: Prof Arpana Verma
Prof Arpana Verma is Head of the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care. She is Director of Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health (MUCH) a WHO Collaborating Centre and honorary Consultant in Public Health at PHE. MUCH is based within the School of Health Sciences in the Faculty of Biology, Medical and Human Sciences. MUCH performs high quality research, teaching and training, in the field of public health and has established links to local, national and international public health organisations. MUCH was designated the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Health Indicators.
Prof Verma is currently the Programme Director for the Masters in Public Health and MRes in Public Health/Prim online distance learning course, which offers an innovative approach to learning, meeting the training needs for health professionals interested in a career in public health or those seeking new skills in this area. She is also the Evaluation Lead for Well North, a collaborative programme which is developing, testing and piloting a set of linked interventions to improve the health of the poorest, fastest, in some of the most deprived areas of the North of England. She is the teaching lead for the MAHSC Global Health theme and a board member of cities@manchester.
Prof Verma was the principle investigator (PI) of the European Urban Health Indicator System project (EURO-URHIS 2) funded by DG Research under the FP7 programme, and is also the president of the European Public Health Association section on Urban Health.
She is also PI on a number of health service research projects, primarily in hepatitis C and blood borne virus prevention, infection control, immunisation including MMR and HPV vaccine. Many of these projects involve data linkage of health indicators, risk factors and the wider determinants of health to help understand the urban challenges to health both within the UK and globally. The most recent EU grant consists of investigating health ageing in cities.
Prof Verma is also an expert for WHO, which has led to several publications (http://www.who.int/kobe_centre/publications/urban_metrics2011/en/index.html http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/172509/Developing-indicators-for-the-Health-2020-targets-Eng.pdf )
Prof Verma also runs training events for public health professionals including the Public Health Grand Rounds, Festival of Public Health and with MAHSC, the 11th International Conference on Urban Health 2014.
She also holds an honorary consultant post at Public Health England.
