News
Despair now accounts for one-sixth of all years of life lost
Deaths from drug misuse, alcohol use and suicide, often referred to as deaths of despair, are on the rise. New research, by the Strategy Unit and the Health Foundation, show how deaths rates vary by sex and socio-economic deprivation, and how these rates changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
News
Tracking Hospital Admission Thresholds Within Emergency Departments: A Feasibility Study
This new analysis explores the concept of hospital admission thresholds and assesses the feasibility of tracking these thresholds within emergency departments.
News
NICE vs Not So NICE: Clinical vs Operational Excellence
If operational decisions shape patient outcomes as much as clinical decisions, why doesn't the NHS support them with the same evidence infrastructure?
News
Waiting List Conference 2026: From Backlog to Breakthrough
Reducing elective care waiting lists remains one of the most pressing challenges facing the NHS.
Blog post Better use of analysis | Learning and development
Diagnosing harms?
All medicines are poisons. Everything that cures could kill if administered in the wrong doses, to the wrong people, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways.
News Better use of analysis | Comparative Analysis | Elective care | Finance and payments | Problem Structuring
Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments
The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.
Blog post Comparative Analysis | Elective care | Emergency care
Decisions to admit patients are not solely determined by clinical risk
Whether or not to admit a patient is one of the most routine yet important decisions a doctor in an Emergency Department
Blog post Complex Modelling | Emergency care | Inequalities
Strategy Unit analysis published showing changes in use of emergency departments under lockdown
We know that patterns of access to healthcare have changed during the pandemic.
News Elective care | Emergency care | Evaluation and impact assessment | Mental health | Primary, community and social care services
Evaluating Artificial Intelligence: a significant new win
The Strategy Unit, the Health Economics Unit and Leicester Clinical Trials Unit have been announced as evaluation partners to support success in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Awards.
Blog post
Bringing NHS analytics into the 21st Century
A marriage usually needs (at least): a matchmaker, two entities, a (little) money, a proposal and a home.
News Better use of analysis | Learning and development
Population Health Management Analyst Development Programme: An overview
The Population Health Management (PHM) Analyst Development Programme will introduce analysts from the Midlands CCGs, NHS Trusts, CSUs, Local Author
Blog post
Have cuts to public spending on social care for older people led to more emergency hospital admissions?
Cuts to council social care budgets are often cited as a cause of pressure on NHS urgent and emergency care services. Much of the evidence supporting this link, however, is anecdotal. We set out to try and quantify the effect of cuts to social care on older people’s use of emergency healthcare services, and our research has just been published in BMJ Open.