I have diverse experience in the field of health policy analysis and evaluation. Before coming to the School I had worked in the National Health Service in England (with spells in public health and in representing consumers' interests), in academic health services research (at the Universities of Leicester and London (St Thomas' Hospital Medical School), and the Queen's University of Belfast), in the independent sector (with a think-tank, the King's Fund, where I was director of health services research) and as a civil servant (as a policy adviser with the New Zealand Treasury). I joined the School in May 2003 after almost five years in New Zealand. I maintain a direct involvement in health and wider social policy-making by continuing to provide periodic advice to the New Zealand Ministry of Health and the Treasury.

Between its inception in 2010 and 2023, I directed the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme-funded Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit (PIRU) which is a collaboration between LSHTM, the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economics and Glasgow University (http://www.piru.ac.uk/).  I continue to be involved in research with PIRU, currently focusing on public, patient and professional attitudes and views towards the use of animal organs for human kidney and heart transplants.