Events

SPECTRUM Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series

In collaboration with our partner the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities, SPECTRUM delivered  a webinar series to outline key findings from each of the SPECTRUM work packages. 

Between October 2024 and January 2025 webinars addressed a range of topics to build further understanding of unhealthy commodities and the role of systems research methodologies.  The webinars also discussed trends in smoking, vaping and drinking and explored inequalities in obesity policy, mental health and tobacco use.   The webinars are open to officials from all four nations - those working in public health agencies and in government - to provide CPD and support continued connections between SPECTRUM researchers and policy colleagues. 

Nicotine and Tobacco Current Issues: Policy and Practice Workshop: January 30^th – February 1^st, 2024

SPECTRUM was delighted to host a Nicotine and Tobacco Current Issues Workshop in January, building on our previous knowledge exchange events.  This 3-day event brought together a range of stakeholders to discuss current and emerging issues in nicotine and tobacco.  

The workshop included experts from across SPECTRUM, our wider community of academic researchers and alliance partners ASH, presenting across key themes including trends and policies; inequalities; the tobacco industry; and pricing.

The event was attended by 40 people representing policy and practice, public health sectors, local authorities, charities and government from across the UK.  Attendees provided positive feedback on the workshop, for many it was relevant and informative, exceeding their expectations.  There was a strong interest in seeing similar events repeated in the future. 

Additional comments from event participants:

“All of the speakers were incredibly engaging and the presentations were well paced and contained relevant information”

“This was a great few days that left me enthused but also with more knowledge and a greater understanding of some of the complexities. Thank you. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who works in the field.“

“A really great opportunity provided by SPECTRUM, and SO important that experts across multiple fields can come together and share experience like this around the huge impact of tobacco and tobacco control….. “

Previous Knowledge Exchange Workshops 

SPECTRUM previously delivered four other KE workshops (on Nicotine and Tobacco, and Alcohol Policy respectively) between 2019 and 2023, building on those established since 2008 through previous research Consortia that involved SPECTRUM members.

On 10 October 2022, SPECTRUM teamed up with the Association of Directors of Public Health for a webinar on the commercial determinants of health.

The commercial determinants of health have been defined as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health”. It is an area of growing interest for research, policy and practice.

Large corporations shape the price, availability and marketing of alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food to increase consumption of these products in pursuit of profit. This comes at the expense of the health of our communities.

This webinar offers an opportunity to find out about industry strategies from leading researchers and consider ways to counter these and improve the health of local communities.

Watch the webinar on YouTube

• Part 1: An introduction to SPECTRUM and the commercial determinants of health
• Part 2: How do the commercial determinants of health affect individuals and wider society?
• Part 3: Industry behaviour and responses

Members of SPECTRUM Work Package 8 - Governance and Health Equity, Jeff Collin, Rob Ralston and Sarah Hill, delivered a seminar on 'Health governance and the commercial determinants of health: managing conflict of interest in prevention of non-communicable diseases' at the University of Sydney on 30 March 2022.

Watch the webinar "Health governance and the commercial determinants of health" on MediaHopper

On 24 November 2021, the UKPRP held the third in their series of webinars sharing emerging findings from UKPRP-funded projects and exploring their implications for policy. Speakers from the SPECTRUM consortium shared new evidence to inform the prevention of NCDs caused by unhealthy commodities. 

Watch the webinar "Commercial determinants of health and health inequalities" on the UKPRP website

The Usher Institute also hosted a webinar in 2020 entitled "South Africa's response to COVID-19: trajectory of the pandemic and public health measures to address it, including a temporary ban on alcohol sales" with speakers Charles Parry, South African Medical Research Council (a member of the SPECTRUM International Advisory Board) and Cheryl Cohen, University of the Witwatersrand.

Watch the webinar "South Africa's response to COVID-19" on YouTube

You may listen again to the webinar, entitled "COVID-19 and Tobacco: Integrating communicable and non-communicable disease responses", from 21 May 2020, which included SPECTRUM members as speakers.

Watch the webinar "COVID-19 and Tobacco" on YouTube