Professor Sir Jonathon Montgomery introduces the OAHP-hosted NMAHPPs Research Conference, the first to bring together teams from across Oxford’s two universities and NHS trusts.
Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, OAHP’s Chairperson, reflects on his vision for Oxford’s academic-health partners and explores how academic health science centres can deliver better healthcare, foster innovation, and contribute to economic growth.
What sparked your interest in chairing the OAHP and leading its cross-cutting work across the Oxford region?
There are very few places with Oxford’s distinctive mix of academic and clinical expertise that can shape the future through both its education offer and academic research. When I was asked if I’d be interested in chairing the OAHP, it felt like a natural fit and a chance to bring together various strands of my career. I’m a lifelong academic with a strong research interest. I’ve always worked closely with health professionals, particularly in helping them articulate what good ethical practice looks like, and in shaping the regulation of health professions and health research so that it serves the public interest, has integrity, and is genuinely effective. I’ve also spent half my life serving on the boards of NHS organisations.
How do you see the role of the partnership evolving over the next three to five years – both within the region and in the broader national landscape of academic health science centres?
One of the key challenges for Oxford’s academic health partners is that we’re often an undervalued resource. There’s a great deal the partnership contributes that people simply aren’t aware of. Across the region, our shared goal is to deliver high-quality care. But you can’t do that without an evidence base, and that evidence base depends on having robust research. And even then, it’s not enough to just generate research – we also need the systems and relationships in place to share innovation and implement that evidence into practice.
And so the first task I think of OAHP, as opposed to its component partners, is to be able to demonstrate and explain why it’s so important that we have those resources locally, and to show how they work together to deliver something vital for the populations that we serve.
For Oxford, this comes with a responsibility to be a beacon for robust science, and by doing that well here we can show it’s possible to maximise the impact of high-quality research elsewhere.
Looking further ahead, I think the UK needs to do more to truly harness the potential of world-class science alongside frontline health and care delivery. There’s been a national tendency to spread research activity thinly, in the name of levelling up, but the reality is that places like Oxford have unique strengths that can’t easily be replicated. For Oxford, this comes with a responsibility to be a beacon for robust science, and by doing that well here we can show it’s possible to maximise the impact of high-quality research elsewhere.
So along with some of the other leading academic health science centres, I think we have a role in demonstrating how centres of excellence in health research can deliver added value to health services nationally and internationally.
At the previous OAHP Away Day, there was some really rich discussion with partners about the role of academic health science centres in NHS transformation and the three Darzi shifts. What’s your perspective on how OAHP can contribute to this?
One of the core Darzi shifts is around using data and digital technologies to make health services more accessible, effective, and efficient. This is an area where Oxford is particularly well-placed to lead. We have a uniquely rich environment of expertise in both data science and data ethics, and thanks to the infrastructure we’ve built for data-driven clinical research, we’re now in a strong position to shape what a data-powered NHS could look like.
There are already excellent examples in practice developed by Oxford’s researchers, like healthcare IT systems that use risk stratification data to help GPs offer tailored, evidence-based advice to patients about their specific health risks. But while it’s tempting to view all this from a purely academic perspective, the real challenge is on the ground and helping frontline clinicians understand the value of these systems and feel confident using them as part of everyday practice.
That’s where OAHP, and academic health science centres more broadly, come in. Our challenge is both in staying at the forefront of data innovation while making sure those innovations are designed with a clear path to application.
And that’s why the range of partners that make up the OAHP is important. We have two universities, each with different research focuses, we also educate the whole range of health professions, and we have a Health Innovation Network that works to make it as easy as possible for NHS organisations to adopt innovations in ways that make better health possible.
Do you see a potential for academic health partnerships like OAHP to act not just as health catalysts, but also as engines of economic development?
I tend to see academic health partnerships as playing a role in economic development through three main strands. The first is about the full innovation cycle – spotting a need, doing the basic science, testing solutions, and rolling them out into practice. The UK is very strong on early-stage health research, but we don’t invest enough in getting new ideas to market. They often head overseas to places like the US for development and come back a lot more expensive and better worked out. Oxford has the potential to deliver more of that innovation cycle locally. With the right investment, like in vaccine manufacturing, we can keep more of that economic benefit here, supporting the “Silicon Valley” vision behind the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
The second strand is about creating the kind of intellectual environment where people spark off each other. Oxford’s strength is in its density of researchers, clinicians and spinouts all working side by side. We saw that during the COVID-19 pandemic; relationships and conversations made rapid, life-saving innovation possible. Academic health partnerships can help keep that ideas culture going by supporting co-location and collaboration.
Oxford has the potential to deliver more of that innovation cycle locally. With the right investment, like in vaccine manufacturing, we can keep more of that economic benefit here, supporting the “Silicon Valley” vision behind the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
And third, there’s a role for the NHS and local government to think more ambitiously about health as part of economic growth. We know that investment in life sciences, like through the Biomedical Research Centres, creates jobs and wealth locally, which in turn supports healthier communities. That’s where I see academic health partnerships – not as the driver, but as a key connector of all those opportunities.
If you could shift one system lever tomorrow, what would it be?
Public trust in how we use health data. This is more of a vision than a lever, but with the right kind of understanding and confidence in how data is stewarded – particularly the data held within the NHS and generated through research – we could learn so much more about how to keep people healthy or help them recover from illness. But to do that well, we need a system where people genuinely believe that data is being used responsibly and that it’s ultimately for their benefit. That kind of trust is essential if we want to realise the full value of health innovation.