Transforming Health Systems: Reforms, Renewals, and Reversals - How Health Systems Transform

Join us at UCL East for an evening with Professor Dame Anne Mills, one of the world’s most influential health economists, exploring the what, why, and how of health systems transformation.

The event will open with an introduction by Professor Nora Colton, Director of the UCL Global Business School for Health, followed by a wide-ranging dialogue between Dame Anne and Professor Kabir Sheikh.

Over five decades, Dame Anne has supported and analysed health system reforms across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Her work has informed malaria control strategies in Nepal, guided health financing reform in post-apartheid South Africa, and contributed to the design of Thailand’s universal coverage scheme. Beyond these direct contributions, she has mentored generations of health systems researchers and leaders, many of whom now play pivotal roles in advancing reform and scholarship across LMICs.

Dame Anne will reflect briefly on some of the most significant reforms she has observed or supported, drawing out their similarities and differences across settings. This will set the stage for a discussion of the big questions shaping the field today:

• What have been the most powerful drivers of change in health systems over the years, and how have these evolved?
• In an age of polycrises, which contextual challenges are most likely to shape the future of health systems?
• Are health systems in LMICs and high-income countries converging or diverging in the challenges that they face?
• What are the most critical unanswered questions in health systems research?
• And what guidance should be offered to students and future leaders entering this domain?

The event is free and open to all. Students, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and anyone with an interest in health systems, health policy, and health equity are warmly invited to join us at UCL East, and to continue the conversation at the reception that follows.