Stellar line-up for Queen Mary’s Global Health Week

Professor Allyson Pollock

Speakers at Queen Mary, University of London’s Global Health Week included Sir Michael Marmot, author of the Marmot Review; Dr Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet; and the Right Honourable Lord David Owen.

They were joined by Queen Mary’s world-renown public health experts including Professor Allyson Pollock.

Professor Pollock, who teaches on three unique MSc programmes in global health at Queen Mary, presented on healthcare systems with colleague David Price. She was joined by Dr Evan Harris, a former medic and MP who recently became an honorary fellow at Queen Mary. An advocate for evidence in policy-making, he gave a talk on the political process and NHS reform.

Sir Michael Marmot’s review of Britain's health, published in 2010, exposed an alarming "social gradient"; showing that on average the poor die seven years sooner than the rich. Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL, Sir Michael gave the closing talk on social determinants of health.

Dr Richard Horton has edited The Lancet for more than 15 years. His presentation reflected on how the journal, with its international reach, aims to improve global health.

Lord Owen, also a former doctor, served as health minster in the 1970s before becoming leader of the Social Democratic Party. Now a crossbench peer, he led a discussion on the Health Bill and the House of Lords.

Global Health Week is an integral part of the curriculum for trainee medics at Barts and The London Medical School, part of Queen Mary, University of London.

For more information on studying global health at Queen Mary, visit: http://www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/graduatestudies/programmes/medicine/globalhealth/index.html.