Welcome to the Midlands Analyst Network

Thank you for being part of our growing community! If you are an analyst who works in health & care or the wider public sector, then join the Midlands Analyst Network!

Launched in April 2020, this thriving community now connects well over 1,300 members from a wide range of organisations - mainly in the Midlands, but increasingly from across the UK. The Network provides a supportive space for analysts to share ideas, resources, and good practice, as well as to seek advice, spark debate, and develop skills together.

I love how the huddles have grown into a space beyond simply sharing ideas and work, to a regular opportunity for analysts to come together as a community. They frequently lead to insightful and previously unconsidered questions and debates and also serve as a fantastic welcoming opportunity for those dipping their toes into the world of analytics and improved decision making. Andi Orlowski, Director of the Health Economics Unit

Meet your Network lead: Rachel Caswell

Rachel is a Senior Healthcare Analyst at the Strategy Unit and the Lead for Training & Development. She's passionate about developing the Network and supporting analysts across the system to connect, learn, and lead through collaboration.

Fortnightly Huddles

At the heart of the Network are our fortnightly online Huddles, hosted on MS Teams (see link below). The Huddles cover a large range of topics and you are very welcome to join one at any time – for quick access to a Huddle, just follow the link below.  You don’t have to be a member of the Midlands Analyst Network to come to a Huddle but if you’d like to be kept up to date with all future Huddles and training opportunities then contact Rachel (rachel.caswell@nhs.net) and we’ll take it from there.

We try to keep them as informal but as informative as possible and welcome contributions from Network members as well from academia, subject specialists, national and occasionally international presenters.

If you have any queries about the Huddles, how to access them, if you want to find out what’s gone before, or you want to present then please contact Rachel.

Next Huddle: 30th April (11-12): How to evaluate healthcare policy: from data to interpretation

This session, delivered by Professor Alex Bottle, Professor of Medical Statistics (Imperial College London) will cover key statistical methods for evaluating any healthcare policy, from the roll-out or update of vaccines, new surgical technology, or the implementation of NICE guidelines. He'll cover the challenges of how to frame the research question, prepare the data, choose and run the analysis, and interpret the output. 

Methods will include simple before v after comparisons, interrupted time series, and statistical process control charts. Real-world examples will illustrate throughout.

Same Teams link as usual and if you don't have this - it's here!

Click here to join the meeting Hop in at 11 am!