[4][5] It was set up to coordinate the activities of all hospitals operating outside London and helped inspire the creation of the National Health Service.
The Nuffield Trust is a centre of research and analysis, and focus their activities on six priority areas: workforce; technology and digital; primary care; small hospitals; quality and equity; and politics, legislation and governance.
Since its foundation the Nuffield Trust has commissioned a wide range of research on how to improve the health system in the UK, for instance by a Rock Carling Fellowship.
[7] In 1971, the epidemiologist Archie Cochrane received a Rock Carling Fellowship to write Effectiveness and efficiency: Random reflections on health services.
[9] Therein he summarized facts and arguments that supported what became known as the McKeown's thesis, i.e. that the growth of population can be attributed to a decline in mortality from infectious diseases, primarily thanks to better nutrition, later also to better hygiene, and only marginally and late to medical interventions such as antibiotics and vaccines.