Penny Hawe

It takes one type of science to improve the health of an individual or patient. It takes another type of science to improve the health of a whole population. My work centres on strengthening the theory and logic of policies and programs that improve the health of thousands or millions of people.

Many things can be done at a population level to improve health, like tobacco and alcohol pricing and sale restrictions. Or improving the quality of the physical environment. Or programs and policies in schools to prevent bullying and promote social Inclusion. The trouble is that many things done in the name of disease prevention and health promotion are not particularly effective at first. So we need to work out ways to boost effects and make sure programs and policies reach the people who need them most. When a lot of public money is spent, and not much happens as result, that is often when I get brought in. How do we rethink this? How do we better show where the effects lie?

My PhD was in measles control. Since then my research has moved to community-level interventions,complex systems thinking and network analysis. A parallel interest is to promote better public understanding of population health science.