London, 04 March 2021: Today the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) announced a research partnership with the Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The partnership – one of the first academic partnerships focusing on private provision of healthcare in the UK – will look at maximising the use of PHIN data for understanding the quality of care within sector. The research partnership will draw upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches and initially focus on three projects, including patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), adverse events, and the substitution of care between the public and private healthcare sector.
Through the partnership PHIN and LSE will produce high-quality and impactful research that will benefit patients and demonstrate the potential of the unique data PHIN holds to a wider audience. The partnership has begun with the secondment of a research officer from LSE to PHIN, Dr Michael Anderson, who is also a practising NHS GP and currently undertaking a PhD in health economics and health policy.
Dr Jon Fistein, Chief Medical Officer of PHIN, said:
“PHIN has been collecting robust and detailed patient level data on activity, outcomes, patient satisfaction, and adverse events for several years creating significant opportunities for research. Our partnership with LSE will allow us to adopt an academic approach and understanding to our data insights.
“This is our first academic partnership, and we hope it will help us explore the value of our unique dataset and raise the profile of PHIN and our work within the academic community.”
Dr Michael Anderson, Research Officer, LSE, and Clinical Fellow, PHIN, said:
“There are only a few pre-existing studies which explore quality issues in the private healthcare sector in the UK, so this remains a gap in the literature and a relatively untapped area for health policy research. We are therefore very grateful to be the first research institution invited to analyse PHIN's unique data.”