Now, the book Public Health Intelligence: Issues of Measure and Method, has been published by award-winning nursing, social sciences and medical publishers the Springer Publishing Company and is believed to be the first such textbook on the subject.

Dr Regmi said: “I am very proud to have finished the book and to have had the opportunity to contribute to the topic of public health intelligence. I am also grateful to everyone who helped make it possible.”

Principal lecturer and portfolio lead – Public Health, Dr Regmi worked closely with Dr Ivan Gee, senior lecturer in Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University. Between them they wrote most of the 12 chapters and edited the whole book. The remaining chapters were provided by experts from other universities in England and the US.

Dr Regmi joined the University in October 2012 and initially taught epidemiology which relates to the study of disease or health related events among human population. It was when he started to teach health intelligence that he struggled to find suitable resources.

He said: “Public health systems worldwide have recognised the importance of basing local action on evidence and local intelligence, and appropriate decision-making in healthcare practice requires reliable health intelligence. There was no suitable textbook for the course so I started to put together an outline for one.

“I had previously written for Springers so I sent them the outline and was given the go-ahead. Because of the nature of the work I decided it would be good to bring together experts from around the world to contribute to the project.”

The book is suitable for both graduates and healthcare professionals and aims to help readers apply theory to real-life scenarios. It features activities, case studies and discussion tasks.

University of Bedfordshire colleague Gurch Randhawa, Professor of Diversity in Public Health and Director of the Institute for Health Research, said: “This book is a ‘must-read’ for students contemplating a career in Public Health or for anyone who is already in practice. A key strength is that it is written with both students and practitioners in mind.”

Dr Regmi added: “I initially hoped to complete the book in 12 months but coordinating everyone and working with the Department of Health has meant the project has taken longer. It is out in hardback but hopefully will be available in paperback very soon.”

Dr Regmi previously wrote “Decentralizing Health Services: A Global Perspective”. He is now thinking about his next project – a textbook on international health, working with national and global health experts.

The book can be bought from Springer’s at link.springer.com