Warwick Business School launches new research centre for health and care

Warwick Business School is hoping to bring service improvements to the health and care sector with the establishment of a new centre of excellence for applied research.
The Centre for Organising Health and Care Research (COHCR) will focus on creating new knowledge in areas that will have the most impact in policy and practice, and on building a community of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and institutions who can collaborate at a local, regional, national and global level.

“We want to capitalise on the useful research into health and care already being carried out at WBS,” said Helen Bevan, Professor of Practice and Co-Director of COHCR.

“This is all about leveraging our assets, our partnerships and our networks to make bigger, bolder things happen in the sector.”

The emphasis will be on interdisciplinary research as the COHCR collaborates with Warwick Medical School, Warwick Manufacturing Group and other departments at the University of Warwick, as well as multiple local partners in the NHS.
Researchers affiliated with COHCR already work with NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands, a five-year initiative dedicated to improving care services across the region.

Ila Bharatan, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of COHCR said: “We have fantastic local and regional partnerships that the centre can expand on, while, at the same time, lowering walls between different academic subject groups working in the health and care space.

“By building these synergies, we hope to co-create new knowledge and have a more joined-up approach to applied research.”

Early career researchers will also be encouraged, with a summer school for ECRs to be held on the University of Warwick campus on the 17 and 18 June 2025.

Fast-track health and care research

The Centre will be promoting knowledge in three particular areas of research: service improvement, workforce and digital transformation.

“If we are going to make an impact in policy and practice in these areas, we need to be able to go fast and slow,” Dr Bevan said.

“So much research will take four years or more to be applied to health systems. So, it’s really important that we are also able to fast-track some research so it can be making a difference to patient care sooner.”

Dr Bharatan added: “It will be a balancing act between keeping that academic rigour while making sure we are able to bring speed and agility as well.”

Comparative analysis of healthcare systems

Another departure for the Centre will be a focus on the global, not just the local.

“Too much research in the UK focuses solely on the NHS and the British health systems without any comparative analysis of other systems overseas,” Dr Bevan said.

“So, we want to look at the health and care experiences of other high-income countries, and low and middle-income countries too, to explore issues such as access to care and so on.”

She added: “One thing is certain: there are massive problems with healthcare delivery everywhere, so we want to learn lessons from around the world.

“We need to look at different ideas and approaches, so we can bring new thinking to the sector. If you look at the history of the world, the biggest breakthroughs have always come when you bring ideas from one system to another.

“A lot of current practice in the health service is aimed at small incremental changes-in degree while we are seeking change-in-kind – the sort of change that will make a real difference.”

WBS has a long history of being at the forefront of health and care policy and practice in the UK. In 1992, Andrew Pettigrew, Ewan Ferlie, and Lorna McKee published Shaping Strategic Change, which introduced revolutionary ideas for transforming health and care services. This work has been integrated into countless strategies and initiatives led by practitioners and policymakers.