“The evidence-based healthcare movement is now a quarter-century old. It is diversifying and maturing. Our libraries of evidence are expanding, and our tools for assessing its quality are getting sharper. But we also know, after two decades of implementation science, that evidence rarely falls neatly into practice, nor does it necessarily sit beyond conflicts of interest, redress inequalities or take the politics out of policymaking. This timely conference is appropriately interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral and international. The focus is on the diverse and complex contexts in which evidence is generated, distributed, understood and implemented – or, alternatively, contested, suppressed and dismissed.  The programme is bold; the setting will be glorious; the networking will be unparalleled.  Hope to see you there!”

Trish Greenhalgh is Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences and Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. She studied Medical, Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge and Clinical Medicine at Oxford before training first as a diabetologist and later as an academic general practitioner. She has a doctorate in diabetes care and an MBA in Higher Education Management. She now leads a programme of research at the interface between the social sciences and medicine, working across primary and secondary care.

Her work seeks to celebrate and retain the traditional and the humanistic aspects of medicine and healthcare while also embracing the unparalleled opportunities of contemporary science and technology to improve health outcomes and relieve suffering. Three particular interests are the health needs and illness narratives of minority and disadvantaged groups; the introduction of technology-based innovations in healthcare; and, the complex links (philosophical and empirical) between research, policy and practice.  

Trish is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed publications and 16 textbooks. She was awarded the OBE for Services to Medicine by Her Majesty the Queen in 2001. She is a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners and Faculty of Public Health. She was made a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014.