Policy engagement

Dr Olga Perski regularly contributes to health policy formation, including service on expert academic panels.

Smoking and COVID-19

In 2020–2022, Dr Perski co-led an evidence review written for the UK Royal College of Physicians (RCP), which was subsequently used to inform Public Health England’s (PHE) statement on smoking and COVID-19. PHE then requested that the RCP review be converted into a living review. The review was updated 12 times, with the manuscript shared directly with PHE’s ‘tobacco and smoking cell’ and updated on a preprint server (version 7 was published in a peer-reviewed journal). PHE referred to the review in response to a parliamentary question on smoking and COVID-19.

In 2021, Dr Perski was invited, alongside members of the UK SPI-B, to provide expert input into the development of the UK coronavirus contact tracing app.

Digital health policy

Dr Perski has contributed to health and technology policy formation in several ways:

She led the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change’s submission to NICE’s consultation on updating its guideline on behaviour change to incorporate evidence on digital behaviour change interventions.
In 2019, she provided academic stakeholder input into NICE’s Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies.
In 2020, she was invited to provide input into the WHO–ITU mHealth Hub in EU’s ‘Knowledge Tool 1: Assessment Frameworks in mHealth’.

European Union flags outside a glass office building

Photo by Unsplash