The Population Health Agent based Simulation nEtwork
Awarded £402k for 4 years
The PHASE network will focus on the application and use of agent-based models among researchers and decision makers in order develop insights on the interdependent and interacting processes that result in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and health inequalities.
Professor Laurence Moore
Director, MRC/CSO Public Health Sciences Unit
Laurence Moore is a social scientist and statistician interested in the development and evaluation of complex interventions to improve public health, underpinned by frameworks such as the socio-ecological model of health and an awareness of the complex interdependencies between individual, social, environmental and economic determinants of health. Working in multidisciplinary teams and in collaboration with policy makers, practitioners and the public, he has completed mixed methods evaluations of diverse interventions and programmes, which have then had a direct impact on policy and practice. These include randomised trials of the strengthening families programme, national exercise referral scheme, fruit tuck shops, peer-led smoking prevention (the ASSIST trial), the free school breakfast initiative in Wales and smoking cessation in pregnancy.
Network
The PHASE network will focus on the application and use of agent-based models among researchers and decision makers in order develop insights on the interdependent and interacting processes that result in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and health inequalities. The network seeks to foster greater interest in simulation methods for health and to develop understanding of how to simulate various factors and their influence on populations. This will be achieved by building a community of scientists, computer software developers, government workers, charities and university researchers.
On 25 September 2019 the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) held a kick off meeting with the award holders from the first funding round. Download the slides presented by PHASE (PPT, 644KB).
For further details see the PHASE website.
Network membership
Initial network membership includes research academics as co-investigators and users such as the UK Health Forum, the Scottish Government, and the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland.
Alice MacLachlan
Research Associate, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
