National survey of local innovation and research needs of the NHS

What does this mean for libraries?

• Libraries can actively look to disseminate information about national or local research and innovation projects to their users / organisation through current awareness services, literature searches or in specific focused events or activities to raise awareness.
• This could be an opportunity to establish links with local research & development departments to establish which subject areas are of interest so current awareness services or bulletins addressing those topics can be provided; and raise awareness within the research and development team of the library’s ability to assist with literature searches, access to information databases, and searches for grey literature.
• Libraries could host research coffee mornings or similar as meeting opportunities for researchers and those interested in innovation in their organisation to meet up and discuss potential projects, and lessons learned from failed projects.
• Libraries could find out about their local regional Academic Health Science Network and disseminate to their organisation / service users information about what projects the research network is currently running.

Source: AHSN (Academic Health Science Network)

Link to main document

Date of publication: April 2019

Summary of driver:

This report summarises the national findings from a survey to identify local NHS innovation and research needs in England.

The views of local health stakeholders, including clinical leaders, managers and directors, within each AHSN (Academic Health Science Network) were sought.

There were some differences in regional priorities, but common themes emerged that reflected wider challenges facing the NHS and align with the NHS Long Term Plan.

These include a need for innovation and research addressing:

• workforce challenges
• delivering mental health services and providing care for patients with mental health needs
• integrating services to provide effective care for patients with complex needs – including multi-morbidity and frailty.
• research into the needs for specific patient groups – people with mental health conditions, older people and socially-isolated people.
• using digital and artificial intelligence technology.

The survey also asked about respondents’ ability to access innovation and research in their region and confidence in implementing it.

The survey identified where research existed in the respondents’ priority areas, using it and implementing the research were identified as potential problems.

Improvements in communication and dissemination of information were identified as improvements needed to raise awareness of research and innovation; whilst sharing knowledge was identified as important for improving the application of innovation and research.

Innovative Models of General Practice

Optional wording for policy briefings: A policy briefing is available for LKS staff to share in their organisations.  Produced by the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Feel free to reproduce it (with acknowledgement).

What does this mean for libraries? 

This report would be of interest to library staff supporting General Practice, Community Services and Clinical Commissioning Groups. Library staff may be involved in:

• Providing evidence to enable service and quality improvement.
• Negotiating access to resources and services if practices merge or grow in size.
• Conversations about how care is provided, facilitating access to evidence to underpin these discussions.
• Ensuring equitable access to high quality resources exploiting collaborative purchasing opportunities as available.

Source: King’s Fund

Link to main document 

Date of publication: June 2018

Summary of driver:

The paper considers innovative models of general practice being delivered in  the UK and internationally:

• Team-based working;
• Digital innovations;
• Community-centred approaches;
• Segmentation;
• New roles in general practice;
• Whole-system redesign.

Case studies and lessons learnt are provided for each model. The report suggests that the following features will be important for future designs:

• Building and maintaining strong relationships;
• A shift from reactive to proactive care;
• Using technology;
• General practice working within a wider health system;
• Supporting general practice to change.

The report concludes by making recommendations to general practice, system leaders and commissioners and policy makers.

Expert Patients

Title of driver: Expert patients

Source: Reform

Link to main document: http://www.reform.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Expert-patients.pdf

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: February 2015

Summary of driver: This report recommends stronger patient engagement in the NHS as it is key for the health service to achieve savings of £22 billion by 2020-21.

Patient engagement can improve outcomes and use of resources through patients being better able to manage their conditions, and so reducing medical interventions and invasive procedures, as well as improved public health.

Key features of driver:

• Patient engagement could achieve £2 billion savings by 2020-21 (10% of NHS England target savings).
• These savings would come from better self-care, improved public health, and greater patient contribution to their care.
• For the NHS to become fit for “full engagement” private providers and outside expertise will be needed.
• Outside the NHS, apps and social networking sites are already used by the public to take control over their health and conditions, helping the expert patient to emerge more quickly outside the NHS than within it. The NHS has made limited progress in the use of social media and technologies to improve the patient experience.
• NHS providers and commissioners should appoint a “Director of Patient Experience” at board level.
• The NHS should measure levels of patient engagement, activation and involvement and embrace patient engagement regardless of where it originates (whether outside the NHS or within).

Primary audience: Policy-makers, managers and leaders, commissioners, and NHS providers.

Impact on library policy/practice:

Libraries are in an ideal position to provide educational materials to enable patients to learn about their health and their conditions. Public libraries hold Books on Prescription and other resources while health libraries can support staff to educate patients.

Health libraries are also increasingly asked to provide resources or information for patients.

Libraries can adapt to the use of new technologies for customer service and can share expertise with the wider NHS.

Date last updated: February 2015

Due for review: February 2016

Group member responsible: (HS)

White Paper: the new era of thinking and practice in change and transformation

Title of driver: White Paper: the new era of thinking and practice in change and transformation: a call to action for leaders of health and care

Source: NHS Improving Quality

Link to main document

Publication format: Available as PDF and e-publication

Date of publication: July 2014

Summary of driver:

This paper examines trends in change and transformation from multiple industries, and argues that change needs to happen at a faster rate and become more disruptive.

The paper tries to identify the implications and opportunities for leaders of health and care, including embracing disruption and ‘disruptors’ to create an environment where innovation is encouraged. It provide leaders of change with 15 actions to support change, and makes available ideas, opinions, research and resources about the future direction of change.

Key features of driver: 

The paper asks several questions about organisational and system change, including:

• Who does it (many change agents, not just a few)
• Where it happens (increasingly ‘at the edge’ of organisations and systems)
• The skills and mindsets that change agents need

The paper also includes four case studies:

• Living Well in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – Striving for a collective humility in finding a way to work together for the person’s benefit
• A grass-roots movement sparked by students coming together to prevent avoidable pressure ulcers
• The NHS Change Day ‘hubbies’: a voluntary self-organising network of local leaders
• The School for Health and Care Radicals – teaching change agents to rock the boat and stay in it

Primary audience: Leaders in health and care

Impact on library policy/practice:

One of the five enablers of the ‘emerging direction’ in change outlined in the paper is ‘Curate rather than create knowledge’. It suggests that improvement leaders will need to become curators of knowledge (collecting, filtering, evaluating, contextualising and sharing knowledge from multiple sources) and this will include more tacit knowledge or ‘know-how’ in future.

This might mean library staff supporting the knowledge management agenda in their organisations, or supporting leaders to use the necessary tools to curate knowledge (which could include applications such as Twitter, Storify and LinkedIn).

In one sense curation of knowledge is something we already do in literature searches, and we already teach users how to collect and filter knowledge using traditional tools such as bibliographic databases. It may be that we simply need to rebrand some of what we do, or extend it to cover new tools.

Digital skills will become increasingly important for leaders, and again this may involve library staff in providing training and support for non-traditional information resources and applications.

Date last updated: October 2014

Due for review: October 2015

Group member responsible: JC

Research and Development Strategy (Draft) 2013 – 2018

Title: Research and Development Strategy (Draft) 2013 – 2018

Source: NHS England

Link to main document

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: Dec 2013

Summary of driver: The NHS England research strategy supports the goals set out in the NHS England business plan (NHS England 2013); supporting and developing the commissioning system to improve quality and outcomes. It seeks to develop a culture in the NHS that values and promotes research and engages staff and patients in research activities for improved healthcare outcomes.

Key features of driver:

Key Objectives:

• Working closely with Department of Health (DH) and National Institute for Health and Research (NIHR) to coordinate research into commissioning health services;

• Develop an evidence base to support effective decision making by commissioning groups;

• Enable NHS England and commissioning staff to undertake and implement research in order to help improve the quality of care and treatment in the NHS;

• Encourage patients to take part in research and to be considered when setting priorities for research;

• Better inform the public on current research and outcomes from completed research;

• Maximise outcomes from research to stimulate innovation, improve income generation, develop knowledge and achieve impact.

Key Priorities:

• Promote non-commercial and commercial research in the NHS that have the greatest impact on outcomes;

• Engage with clinical leaders across all professions, with academia, industry, and with non clinical researchers in health and social care;

• Support the NHS Outcomes Framework 2014-15 and innovative practice as outlined in Innovation, Health and Wealth, Accelerating Adoption and Diffusion in the NHS (2011)

• Develop a patient engagement and involvement in research strategy

Primary audience: NIHR, Health Research Authority, Clinical Commissioning leads, NHS Trusts.

Impact on library policy/practice:

• Opportunity to engage with clinical commissioning groups and encourage evidence-based decision making – for example, outsourcing library services to CCGs/CSUs where appropriate;

• Responsibility to support the dissemination of clinical research outcomes to wider stakeholders, including patient groups;

• Responsibility to disseminate NICE guidelines and other high quality research to clinical teams and managers to help foster research awareness, translation of research evidence into practice and the rapid adoption of innovation within local NHS Trusts.

• Good practice to identify clinical and non-clinical priorities within the Trust and provide evidence update services to assist teams / managers with health service planning (e.g. pathway re-design), clinical improvement, commissioning plans and health systems design;

• Good practice to support effective knowledge transfer pathways /systems within local Trusts by ensuring that the library service has clear relationships with key departments and effective reporting channels e.g. Chief Knowledge Officer, Team Knowledge Officers and library representative attends relevant department meetings e.g. Education, Learning and Development, Research and Development, Clinical Governance, Informatics.

Date last updated: 14/07/2014

Due for review: July 2015

Group member responsible: ME

Increasing research and innovation in health and social care

Title of driver: Increasing research and innovation in health and social care

Source:  Department of Health

Link to main document 

Publication format: HTML (Webpage)

Date of publication: 25 March 2013

Summary of driver:  Department of Health (DH) policy document outlining plans to encourage leading-edge health research across NHS England and increased use of innovative approaches and technologies in healthcare to improve quality and the effectiveness of NHS patient care.

Evidence-based decision making will be applied across Public Health and Social Care. By supporting strategies that are proven to work, improvements in productivity, value for money and the quality of NHS health services can be achieved.

Key features of driver:

• Making innovation and research a priority in the NHS with 9 key deliverables set out in an NHS England report: Innovation health and wealth, accelerating adoption and diffusion in the NHS (NHS England, 2011) and progress report Innovation Health and Wealth: One Year On (DH, 2012).

• DH will continue to provide large scale funding into health and social care research programmes through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Additional funding made available by Medical Research Councils and Small Business Research Initiatives.

• Partnership working between the NIHR, DH and Health Research Authority (HRA) to make research quicker and easier within the NHS. From 2012 this will include performance-linked funding for clinical research conducted by NHS Trusts, based on meeting NIHR benchmarks.

• From April 2013 Public Health England (PHE) will collate evidence and advise NHS services and Councils on effective initiatives to target public health problems e.g. excessive drinking, smoking and obesity.

• From April 2013 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will publish evidence-based standards and guidance to inform decision making in Social Care. Further detail provided in DH White Paper: Caring for Our Future: Reforming Care and Support (DH, 2012).

Primary audience: NHS research providers (including: NIHR Clinical Research Network, NHS Trusts), NHS research partners (HE and private sector), Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), NHS social care providers, NHS Commissioning Board / Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)

Impact on library policy/practice: Whilst not directly applicable to NHS library services, the policy provides an opportunity for libraries to work collaboratively with colleagues in the following areas:

• Public health initiatives e.g. NHS Health Awareness Events throughout the year – highlighting innovative research which supports NHS / public health objectives such as: smoking cessation or awareness of obesity and its link to type II diabetes.

• Supporting NHS healthcare researchers – providing information / research skills training to help identify high quality clinical research, promoting relevant journals / research publications, circulating eTOC alerts and current awareness services (e.g. evidence update bulletins).

• Supporting clinical audit teams and clinical policy makers – literature searching and critical appraisal to enable effective review of current protocols and targeted monitoring of NICE technology appraisals and health technology assessments. This can help to inform changes to clinical practice and introduction of new drugs or healthcare devices.

• Strategic positioning – aligning the strategic aim and objectives of the library service with Trust priorities and the research and development programme. This can help direct business and financial planning to support research and innovative practice within NHS Trusts.

• Working with healthcare staff in their departments and remotely via outreach and clinical librarian initiatives, to assist access to NICE Clinical Guidelines and other reliable evidence. This can support professionals to remain up-to-date with clinical developments and best practice.

Date last updated: 24/12/2013

Due for review: December 2014

Group member responsible: ME

Academic health science networks

Title: Academic health science networks: request for expressions of interest to create AHSNs

Source: Department of Health

Link to main document

Links to DH policy Increasing research and innovation in health and social care

Publication format: PDF

Date of publication: June 2012

Summary of driver: This document sets out the draft designation and establishment process and seeks expressions of interest to create Academic Health Science Networks. These will provide a systematic delivery mechanism for the local NHS, universities, public health and social care to work with industry to transform the identification, adoption and spread of proven innovations and best practice.

Key features of driver: The AHSN will build on existing collaborations to deliver the following:

• Ensuring and supporting the adoption and spread of the nationally designated innovations (the high impact innovations and the designated “push” technologies); and identifying other innovations that the AHSN decides to prioritise for rapid diffusion;
• Leading local work in the NHS on innovation and its role in supporting the delivery of high quality cost-effective health care, thus enabling partners in the AHSN to help each other to improve and account for their adoption and implementation of innovation and best practice to their partners and peers;
• Supporting knowledge exchange networks to provide for rapid evaluation and early adoption of new innovations under tight surveillance and monitoring;
• Delivering research together, through the NIHR clinical research networks, to time and target;
• Supporting industry research using NIHR model agreements and processes
• Pump priming innovation projects, similar to the Regional Innovation Fund;
• Running Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) and similar competitions for innovations from industry, especially small and medium enterprises;
• Applying improvement science and the change model1 being developed by the NHS Commissioning Board to raise the standards and quality of NHS services across the network;
• Providing consistent advice on intellectual property management to the local NHS and universities together;
• Identifying and supporting the development, testing and commercialisation of ideas that have the potential to become best practice;
• Work with procurement teams to support systematic adoption and spread across the AHSN partners;

Six core functions and levers (page 10):

• Research participation
• Translating research and learning into practice
• Education and training
• Service improvement
• Information
• Wealth creation

Primary audience: All NHS Trusts; Higher Education; Industry; 

Impact on library policy/practice: Providing CPD (literature searching, training, current awareness) for staff in the the sector; Signposting opportunities for research and funding from outside the organisation; Supporting staff with research projects and writing for publication; Libraries in the NHS should contact their local AHSNs to provide support and highlight services available.

“Education must ensure that our future practitioners know how to access evidence, use evidence and contribute to the national research enterprise.” page 12

Case studies / Local service profile examples mapping to this driver: None as of 21.8.12

Date last updated: 5.10.2103

Due for review: Apri 2014

Group member responsible: Updated by TP

AQuA (Advancing Quality Alliance)

Source: Advancing Quality Alliance

Link to AQuA website

Publication format: Website

Date of publication: n/a

Summary of driver: The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) is the North West’s health care quality improvement organisation. AQuA aims to:

• promote and share best practice
• provide improvement training to strengthen NHS organisations locally
• provide intelligence and comparative information to stimulate innovation

Key features of driver:
AQuA run a number of projects, including Advancing Quality, Stroke 90:10, the North West Reducing Mortality Collaborative, Developing Safety Networks programme, plus a number of training packages.

AQuA also run the AQuA Observatory, which aims to compile intelligence and knowledge in order to ‘stimulate innovation’, share good practice and benchmarked quality intelligence within the North West.

AQuA also support local NHS Trusts in developing their own ‘improvement capacity’ and the training opportunities available are listed on their Portfolio of Improvement Activities.

Primary audience: All NHS Trusts. AQuA’s main focus is commissioner and provider organisations within the NHS. AQuA works with organisational leaders, boards and senior managers and clinicians, as well as with frontline staff.

Impact on library policy/practice: AQuA can provide a useful resource to library staff in highlighting areas of improvement in the NHS. As part of its Innovation Portal, AQuA collates case studies (and produces an accompanying RSS feed) which provide examples of innovation from across the region. These case studies may be useful for library staff in providing examples of good practice to library users via literature searching or current awareness services.

The AQuA website signposts a number of resources for clinical evidence (including NHS Evidence). HCLU are working closely with AQuA to ensure that NHS library and information services are on their ‘map’ of the information world.

Libraries should be aware of the work of AQuA, identify their Trust’s AQuA Associate and liaise accordingly. There is an opportunity that they could raise the profile of libraries. AQuA also provide free courses e.g. on Lean via Webex.

Case studies /Project plan examples mapping to this driver: None as of 30.12.10

Date last updated: 30.12.10

Due for review: 31.12.11

Group member responsible: Not yet identified