Why is it so difficult to implement Evidence Based Healthcare? A joint speaker session.

Professor Sue Dopson, Said Business School

Professor Dopson has recently published ‘Knowledge to Action: Evidence based health care in context’ and explored the notorious difficulties in getting research evidence into changes in practice. She discusses the evidence based healthcare gap, professional boundaries and the diffusion of innovation and the lessons that can be learned to inform evidenced based policy in the future. The relationship between the professions, management and government inevitably leads to at least one important question; ‘who is accountable for quality improvement?’

Richard Gleave, Public Health England

Richard has for a long time had an interest in the various ways different countries organise their healthcare systems. There has been a huge growth in recent years in the use of the term ‘accountability’. A search of ‘accountability in healthcare’ on Google results in over 56 million hits. He proposes to shed light on what is meant by the term accountability, which is now regarded as obligatory for healthcare providers, by asking some fundamental questions about use of the term and putting forward thoughts on where the emphasis on accountability will lead us.