Karen Bloor
Professor of Health Economics and Policy

Profile

Biography

Karen Bloor is Professor of Health Economics and Policy, and she leads the Health Services and Policy Research Group in the Department of Health Sciences. She has worked at the University of York for over 30 years, focusing particularly on the application of economics to health policy. Her research covers a range of subjects relating to the financing and delivery of healthcare, including analysis of medical labour markets, medical practice variations, pharmaceutical markets and various aspects of healthcare reform. She co-leads the Partnership for REsponsive Policy Analysis and REsearch (PREPARE), a research programme in collaboration with the King's Fund, which provides fast, responsive analysis for the Department of Health and Social Care.

Qualifications

• BA Economics
• MSc Health Economics
• PhD Health Sciences

Departmental roles

• Research team lead for the Health Services and Policy Research Group 

Research

Overview

Karen's research interests are in medical labour markets, reimbursement of health professionals, medical practice variations, and child health.

Projects

• Partnership for REsponsive Policy Analysis and REsearch (PREPARE). Funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, and involving a team of researchers at the University of York (led by Karen Bloor) and the King's Fund (led by Richard Murray) this programme of research aims to improve the quality of evidence upon which strategic health policy decisions are based, by providing expert advice, policy briefings and empirical and theoretical analysis.
• General Practitioners and Emergency Departments (GPED): Efficient Models of Care.  Funded by the NIHR HS&DR.  Emergency Departments (EDs) in the UK are under severe pressure because so many people are using them.  This means that staff become stressed and patients may not always get the treatment they need in a timely way.  This study plans to research the different ways that GPs can work in or next to an ED.  The team includes very experienced researchers in Bristol, York and Newcastle, so will be able to examine a large area of the country.
• Realising the Benefits and Tracking the Impact of Medical Revalidation. Led by Professor Kieran Walshe at the University of Manchester, and funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, this project aims to evaluate the implementation and impact of medical revalidation in England. York researchers also include Chris Bojke and Nils Gutacker in the Centre for Health Economics.
• Values-based recruitment - what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, and led by Professor Karen Spilsbury at the University of Leeds, this research study aims to evaluate the effects of VBR, in particular to explore its implementation, how people respond, what is working well and what lessons can be learned.
• Nurse staffing levels, missed vital signs observations and mortality in hospital wards: modelling the consequences and costs of variations in nurse staffing and skill mix. Funded by the National Institute for Health Research: Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme, led by Professor Peter Griffiths at the University of Southampton and working with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and the universities of Portsmouth, this project will examine the relationship between nurse staffing levels, failure to observe patients’ vital signs and possible consequences – such as cardiac arrest calls, unanticipated admission to intensive care and death.
• NIHR CLAHRC.  Health Economics and Outcomes Measurement

Research group(s)

• Health Services and Policy

Supervision

Karen would be interested in supervising PhDs in the following areas: medical labour markets, particularly productivity of hospital specialists, health care variations and hospital performance.

Publications

Full publications list

• Karen Bloor's publications

Commentaries and reports

• "NHS reliance on EU staff in numbers - full scale of Brexit risk revealed", published in The Conversation, October 2018.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Various contributions to undergraduate nursing modules, particularly health policy and politics
• Occasional plenary sessions to HYMS students

Postgraduate

• Module lead - Health policy: principles, practice and the evidence base.

External activities

Memberships

• UK health economists’ study group
• International health economics association
• International medical workforce collaborative
• Wennberg international collaborative