Professor emeritus Andrew Stevens BA, MA, MSc, MBBS, FFPH

Andrew Stevens

Institute of Applied Health Research
Professor emeritus of Public Health

Contact details

Address
Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Institute of Applied Health Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT

Andrew Stevens is Professor emeritus of Public Health and former Head of Department and Division (of Primary Care, Public and Occupational Health).

Andrew is interested in Health Services Research including health care needs assessment, health technology assessment and horizon scanning. He has edited the 4 volume Health Care Needs Assessment Series, and the Advanced Handbook of Methods in Evidence Based Healthcare.

Andrew has had a close involvement with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) since its establishment in 2000, and has been Chairman of one of its Appraisal Committees for 6 years.

Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health 1995
  • MSc Community Medicine 1989
  • MBBS 1983
  • MA Environmental Planning 1977
  • BA Geography 1975

Biography

Andrew qualified in medicine in 1983, having been a geographer/incipient town planner before that. He specialised in community medicine/ public health and became a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 1995.

He has spread his public health career across: (1) Health authorities – Paddington and then Lewisham and North Southwark (1985 – 89); (2) The Department Health (1989-1993); (3) Universities – Southampton and Birmingham (1992- present).

He has over 120 publications including his 5 edited books.

His interest in needs assessment to inform the commissioning of health care stems from the 1989 NHS review and resulted in his producing the “Needs” series (published 1994, 2001, 2004 and 2007), which was greatly influenced the methods used in health care needs assessment in Britain.

He was the founding Director of the National Coordinating Centre for HTA (Now NETSCC) in Southampton in 1996, and of the National Horizon Scanning Centre (now NIHR Horizon Scanning Research & Intelligence Centre) in Birmingham in 1999 when he also co-founded the international network, EuroScan, with its secretariat in Birmingham.

Andrew’s interest in HTA progressed into working with NICE since 2000. As first Vice-Chair and then Chair of one its Appraisal Committees he has been closely involved with its scientific methods and processes since 2000. He has talked and taught widely on its methods including in Washington, Beijing and Brasilia.

From 2001 until 2011 he was a non-executive director of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS trust, and became its Vice-Chairman when it became an FT in 2006. In 2010 he also invited to join the Governance Board for the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (2010).

Andrew is an UK Research Infrastructure Advisory group member, a member of the 2008 RAE HSR sub-panel, a member of the NIHR Cochrane Programme Grant Scheme Commissioning panel 2010, a former member of NIHR Methodology Panel (2007-8), the Ludwig Boltzman Institute (Austria) International HTA evaluation Panel (2009), and the Institutes of Medicine National (US) Cancer Biomarkers Panel (2006).

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Andrew has supervised PhDs in

  • Horizon Scanning Methods
  • Health Technology Diffusion
  • The Prioritization of Health care

Andrew is happy to take on future PhD students in related areas such as the role of bodies like NICE.

If you are interested in studying any of these subject areas please contact Andrew directly, or 
for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email 
mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Research

RESEARCH THEMES

(1)   Horizon Scanning

Andrew Stevens and the Horizon Scanning Group have a research programme covering (i) the methodology of horizon scanning, (ii) the diffusion and impact of new medical technologies, eg on differential diffusion in different countries, and factors affecting uptake rates and (iii) trends in medical technology eg on pricing and rates of innovation.

(2)   Health Technology Assessment and Appraisal

Andrew’s work at NICE is accompanied by a research interest in the circumstances of NICE’s methods and outputs eg on NICE and the changing NHS, age biases, and appraisal methods. He has also published on several appraisal topics including: trastuzumab in gastric cancer, erlotinib in lung cancer, prasrugel in acute coronary syndromes, and drug eluting stents.

(3)   Health Services Research.

Andrew has been collaborating with the wider HSR group in HAPS on methodological topics principally related to (i) prioritisation methods and resource allocation, (Lilford), (ii) methodology of quality assessment and performance monitoring in NHS service provision (Mohammed), (iii) Evaluation of service provision (Modelling and RCTs) (Mant, Jolly).

Other activities

  • National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Appraisal Committee Chairman September 2003 to present …- Vice-Chairman Committee (1999 - 2003)
  •  Non-Executive Director of the ROH foundation trust (2002-2011)
  • Ludwig Boltzman Institute (Austria) International HTA evaluation Panel (2009)
  • Institutes of Medicine National (US) Cancer Biomarkers Panel (2006)
  • Euroscan, founder member and Vice-Chair 1998-2003) - Monitoring Emerging Medical Technologies (EC, Switzerland and Canada – secretariat in Birmingham)
  • NICE Working party on methods (member 2007-8, chairman 2011-12)
  • Governance Board for the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (2010..)
  • The UK Cochrane Infrastructure Advisory Group (2004-8), the UK Research Infrastructure Advisory Group (2008…), and NIHR Cochrane Programme Grant Scheme Commissioning panel 2010..
  • NIHR Methodology Panel (2007-8)
  • HEFCE RAE 2008 Subpanel (HSR) member 2004-2008.
  • WMPHO Board (2006 -2011.)

Publications

M Rawlins, D Barnett, A Stevens. NICE's Approach to Decision-making. Brit J of Clinical Pharmacology. 2010/ 70:3 / 346–349. doi .1111/j.1365-2125.2009.03589.x

D. Arnold, A. Girling, A. Stevens and R.Lilford. Capturing health-state utilities (preference weightings) for resource allocation - an empirical analysis of the literature comparing direct with indirect methods
BMJ 2009: 339:b2688

Mohammed M, Deeks J, Girling A, Rudge G, Carmalt M, Stevens A, Lilford R. Evidence of methodological bias in hospital standardised mortality ratios: a retrospective database study of English hospitals. Brit Med J 2009; 338; b780.

Jolly K, Taylor R, Lip GYH, Davies M, Davis R, Mant J, Singh S, Greenfield SM, Ingram J, Stubley J, Bryan S, Stevens A.   A randomised trial of the addition of home-based exercise to specialist heart failure nurse care: the Birmingham Rehabilitation Uptake Maximisation study for patients with congestive Heart Failure (BRUM-CHF) study. European Journal of Heart Failure 2009 11(2):205-213

Mant J, Barton P, Stevens A, et al. What is the optimum  model of service delivery for transient ischaemic attack? NCCSDO 2008: http://www.sdo.nihr.ac.uk/files/project/112-final-report.pdf

Packer C, Simpson S, Stevens A. (on behalf of Euroscan) International diffusion of new health technologies: a ten-country analysis of six health technologies. Int J Technol Asst in Health Care 2006; 22: 419-428


Parry J, Mathers J, Stevens A, Parson A, Lilford R, Spurgeon P, Thomas H. Admissions processes for 5-year medical courses at English schools – A review. BMJ 2006; 332: 1005-1009.

Stevens A, Raftery J, Roderick P. Can Health Technologies be assessed using routine data? Int J Technol Asst in Health Care 2005; 21: 96-103