Cat Tottie at the UK Public Health Science Conference

This year’s annual UK Public Health Science conference took place in Newcastle, and I had the pleasure to attend alongside other researchers, practitioners and policymakers to think about how evidence shapes population health. Organised by the National Institute for Health Research in collaboration with the Society for Social Medicine and Population Health, the theme of "Research to reality: implementing public health science in practice and policy" set the tone for a couple of days focused on bridging the gap between research and real-world impact.

As part of the programme, I presented a poster based on my research, "Factors associated with higher secondary care use among people experiencing homelessness". My abstract was accepted as both a poster and a reserve oral presentation, which felt like a great outcome as this was my first time submitting to a large conference and as we were later informed there were 340 submissions altogether.

The conference began on Monday 20 April with an early career researchers’ event. This relaxed session focused heavily on patient and public involvement (PPI) and co-production. It was coordinated by Beth Bareham (a former senior researcher on Work Package 7 and a familiar name to ACRC colleagues) and included a range of engaging speakers. Will McGovern spoke about the practical challenges of doing co-production in communities facing health inequalities, making a case for a pragmatic, action-focused approach. Masuma Mishu also highlighted the importance of grounding research in patient experience and allowing this to evolve with time rather than following a fixed model too strictly.

Into the second day, the main conference programme kept a strong focus on health inequalities. Alice Wiseman opened the day by outlining the frustrations of delivering healthcare and sending people back to the circumstances that made the patient sick in the first place. Claire Bambra later dug beneath this, outlining health inequalities have changed over time and between settings, laying out the wider social and political factors behind this alongside a selection of surprisingly flattering photos of Tony Blair.

Alongside the keynotes, there were rapid oral presentations covering a wide range of topics from energy drink consumption to maternal health, which refreshingly featured researchers at all career stages. This was a good snapshot of the breadth of work currently happening across public health, again with a strong focus on health inequalities.

In the afternoon, the University of Edinburgh’s own Nason Maani delivered a keynote on the commercial determinants of health, looking at how corporate practices contribute to health inequalities by targeting advertisement for harmful products towards communities more at risk from those harms. The conference wrapped up with a final set of presentations, including a particularly engaging session on the experiences of people from minority ethnic backgrounds pursuing careers in public health.

Overall, it was a varied and thought-provoking couple of days, all tied together by a shared focus on health inequalities. What stood out most was how inclusive the event felt, bringing together academics, practitioners, people with lived experience, and colleagues from charities and local authorities. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to take part, and look forward to sharing the findings of my own research further.