Darrin Lloyd Baines is a British health economist and academic whose work focuses on health economics, health systems, and pharmacy practice.[3][4] His research spans topics including prescribing policy, pharmaceutical economics, evaluation of health services, and the role of community pharmacy within healthcare systems.[5][6]
Baines has held professorial appointments in the United Kingdom, including at Coventry University, where his work has combined academic research with health policy engagement.[7][8]
He has played a leading role in international knowledge-exchange initiatives in health economics, notably through UK–China and UK–Egypt partnerships supported by universities and the British Council, including collaborative programmes involving Cairo University.[9][10][11]
Baines has also worked with David Prior, Baron Prior of Brampton, the former chairman of NHS England, contributing academic expertise to discussions on NHS policy and healthcare reform through formal policy–academic exchange programmes.[12][13]
Education
Baines received an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York in 1993 and a PhD in health economics from the University of Nottingham in 1996, where his doctoral research examined drivers of prescribing behaviour in general practice.[14][15]
Baines has held various professorial appointments in health economics, including as Professor of Health Economics at Coventry University from 2014 to 2017,[17] and as Professor of Health Economics at Bournemouth University from 2017 to 2021.[18][19]
He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Lincoln.[20] In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Health Economics at Coventry University, following service as Associate Professor in Health Economics at the University of Nottingham.[17][21]
From 2023 to 2024, Baines was Interim Head of Health Economics at Clarivate, where he worked on applications of artificial intelligence and data science in health-technology assessment.[22][23]
His areas of work include economic evaluation, modelling, and the reform of health systems, with a particular interest in technology-enabled pharmacy.[24] He has also worked in consultancy and within the National Health Service (NHS) in economist and advisory roles, including engagement with UK health-policy institutions such as the Office of Health Economics.[25]
International collaborations
Baines has led international knowledge-exchange networks in health economics in both Egypt and China.[26][27] He helped develop a UK–Egypt pharmacoeconomics partnership, supported in part through the British Council.[28][29] He has also been involved in the UK–China Health and Economy Partnership, contributing to capacity development in health-economics research across Chinese universities.[30][31][32]
Research
Baines has published peer-reviewed articles, reports and other scholarly outputs on community pharmacy, NHS productivity, health service organisation and related topics.[33][34] He has also written on misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]
In his early research, Baines examined GP fundholding, including analyses of selection bias, and the development and application of prescribing-cost metrics such as ASTRO-PU and ASTRO(97)-PU.[36][37][38] His work has also addressed NHS commissioning, resource-allocation approaches and the design of information systems influencing medicines policy.[39]
Baines has contributed to pharmacoeconomic research in the Middle East and North Africa region, including the EQ-5D-5L valuation study in Egypt.[40] His evaluations of NHS service innovation include economic modelling and costing work related to the Namaste Care dementia programme and evaluation of the East Sussex Wellbeing & Employment Service.[41][42]
Baines, Darrin; Tolley, Keith; Whynes, David (1997). Prescribing, Budgets and Fundholding in General Practice. OHE Series on Health. London: Office of Health Economics.
Baines, Darrin; Whynes, David (1998). "The use of the ASTRO-PU and the ASTRO(97)-PU in the setting of prescribing budgets in English general practice". Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. 23 (3): 229–234. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2710.1998.00157.x. PMID9831975.
Baines, Darrin (2008). "Has pharmacy run out of time?". Pharmaceutical Journal. 281 (7509): 21–23.
Baines resided in Leominster, Herefordshire, where he assembled what was described in national media as the largest private collection of antique apothecary and pharmacy artefacts in the United Kingdom.[43][44]
In 2025, his complete Victorian pharmacist’s shop collection was consigned to auction, attracting widespread coverage in national and specialist pharmacy media.[45][46]
↑Bray, J.; Brooker, D.; Latham, I.; Wray, F.; Baines, D. (2020). "Costing resource use of the Namaste Care Intervention UK". International Psychogeriatrics. 32 (12): 1429–1438. doi:10.1017/S1041610218002314. PMID30786947.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
