About EMPHO

There are 12 Public Health Observatories (PHOs) working across the five nations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The nine Public Health Observatories in England work together through a single work programme which contains both national and local elements. We produce information, data and intelligence on people's health and health care for practitioners, policy makers and the wider community. Our expertise lies in turning information and data into meaningful health intelligence to support decision-makers.

On behalf of the Department of Health, EMPHO works in partnership with the NHS, local authorities, researchers and national agencies. EMPHO's national lead areas are teenage pregnancy, food and health, renal health and cancer. EMPHO is currently hosted by Nottingham City Primary Care Trust.

The key overarching roles of PHOs are:

• promoting and delivering health intelligence to decision-makers to improve health and reduce health inequalities
• acting as advocates for population health information, ensuring that high-quality, relevant information is available to a range of stakeholders
• being a single port of call for those who need such information
• developing a skilled health intelligence workforce. 

We do this by:

• monitoring health and disease trends in the Region and highlighting areas for action;
• providing information about key health issues to support commissioning for health improvement and well-being;
• providing information and analysis to support PCTs, local government and local partnerships to promote local action and monitor its impact on health;
• producing and refreshing Health Profiles for each local authority area;
• providing a regional service for analysing Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data;
• acting as a source of expertise in health intelligence, indicator development and inequalities measurement;
• providing advice and information in support of our national lead areas of teenage pregnancy, food and health, renal health and cancer
• providing advice on methodologies such as Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Health Equity Audit, Health Impact Assessment, inequality measurement and evaluation;
• supporting the local healthcare community to maximise the use of health intelligence in decision-making;
• developing capacity and capability in the health intelligence workforce through teaching and training

EMPHO works closely with the Directorate of Public Health and Social Care East Midlands, NHS East Midlands, Primary Care Trusts and local health partnerships within the region.  We also work with other regional organisations with intelligence functions, including the National Treatment Agency (Drugs and Alcohol), the Health Protection Agency and the East Midlands Quality Observatory.

In 2005, EMPHO merged with the Trent Cancer Registry to create an integrated public health intelligence service for the East Midlands, including information on cancer incidence, survival and treatment.  It has also enabled the sharing of expertise in areas such as Geographical Information Systems and Statistical Analysis.  It also provides a more secure basis for the continuing provision of Cancer Registration and Intelligence services to the various stakeholders and health communities covering the population of South Yorkshire.

EMPHO’s programme of work is agreed by a Steering Board consisting of representatives of the major stakeholders and chaired by the Regional Director of Public Health. 

PAGE CREATED: 1 April 2007 | PAGE REVISED: 5 July 2011