This paper looks at health policy, asking what we know about the factors influencing the patterns and effectiveness of health policy change and how can we move the agenda forward in order to improve health outcomes. It finds that policy analysis can contribute to meeting health objectives by untangling the complex forces of power and process that underpin change.In addition, it argues that health policy analysis has not been adequately developed and applied in low and middle income countries and that building a critical mass of networked researchers and policy-makers provides the key to developing the field and improving its contribution to health outcomes.