Strategy for Department of Health Care Management & Policy 2011-2014 BACKGROUND Our current strengths are the successful MSc in Health Care Management and the research base of our existing staff in key topic areas. The Department also benefits from a culture of creativity, integrated teaching and research. Presently our key research areas are: Health Policy Organisational Development and Patient Experience Health Economics Clinical Informatics We are looking to grow our Department to one that is the best in its field, and achieve critical mass in both teaching and research. GOAL To achieve excellence in teaching, research and enterprise that is compatible with our mission and vision statements and that build upon our unique characteristics and strengths. Critically we seek to ensure we are: Strategic, avoiding short-term, quick fixes. Outcome-orientated, gathering and learning from all forms of evidence Change focused, engaging with people who can make a difference, be it at a policy level or in front-line delivery Collaborative, building a community of people, who, though from different disciplines, thanks to strong communications, understand each other s work, Communicative, disseminating our findings and listening to our stakeholders Supportive of new ideas, sanctioning research, designed to nurture fresh thinking and mentor talent Funded, that we receive public funding and some private sponsorship and Presenting research and publication in a time focused fashion that addresses contemporary needs We seek to influence thinking and practice at all levels, from those leading policy to those delivering care, specially helping: Government to spot and resolve policy incoherence and irrationality. Managers to streamline institutional relationships, reducing resources required to coordinate multiple organisations when pursuing change in services or technology infrastructure. Frontline staff to develop ways to create a better working environment, a safer workplace Fewer clinical errors and technologies that are fit for purpose Users to have a better and safer experience, where care is high quality and as convenient as possible Innovation to be embedded as everyday practice in healthcare organisations 1
MISSION STATEMENT To deliver expertise in our key topic areas and respond as a coherent group, demonstrating success by delivering research that is: Evidence-based, outcome-focused and rational, both economically and socially. Reflective of current / future needs, rather than historic patterns, and better informed than at present. Addresses major health conditions and gains better outcomes. Offers a better understanding of how to tackle the constraints to innovation and development in healthcare Embedded into practice in health care. VISION STATEMENT To support the development of programmes that help health care managers and systems: innovate, measure and deliver quality, and address the challenges of demonstrating value. As a department, pursuing this vision, we will seek to create and maintain an ethos that is: World-class, respected for the quality of its research, the skills of personnel and the size of its impact. Sustainable, with sufficient momentum, skilled staff and funding so that it continues to achieve its short and long-term goals. Collaborative, involving long-term, embedded engagement with key partners in, for example, Government, the NHS and the supply chain. Strategic, tackling issues in a systematic way. Practical, focused on real life problems, not only theoretical issues. Working towards these goals we need to ensure we focus on: 1. Developing strategic coherence amongst the different stakeholders, organisations and multiple ambitions within our department 2. Future thinking so need is anticipated and our research agenda is flexible to new demands 3. Demonstrating quality of experience and improved outcomes for patients and staff UNIQUE STRENGTHS AND CHARACTERISTICS Working towards these long-term goals demands that our work with organizations emphasizes some key features: 4. 360 o perspective: We have a vibrant and creative team. Our unique strengths are our ability to take as a team a 360 o perspective as a multidisciplinary team. Our perspectives range from frontline clinician, to frontline manager, to health informatics, economics and policy. We will apply this systemic perspective to important challenges for health systems set out in our crosscutting themes. 5. Combination of theoretically rich academics & discipline spanners: Our team combines academic expertise; advance methodologies and discipline spanning academics with strong links into clinical practice. 6. Strong health service links. We have very strong links with the NHS at local, regional, and national level. We also have strong European and International health services connections. 2
CROSS-CUTTING THEMES We have identified important cross-cutting themes that are important to challenges for health care systems and also reflect the needs of health care management students. They also provide a framework for pursuing bids and funding. Our themes are: 1. Chronic disease management. The ageing population, changes in lifestyle, new therapeutic options and growing public expectations for good health all contribute to the growing burden of chronic disease. Many research calls are themed around specific disease areas and we need to be able to make a collaborative response. 2. Sustainable innovation and implementation and implementation in health care often fails. The process of adoption of technology, infrastructure and new workforce configurations is complex. Our broad team is uniquely placed to provide expertise to support more effective adoption and diffusion. 3. Evaluation of complex service interventions. This is potentially an area where we should be able to attract high quality research. We can collectively provide the expertise to evaluate the impact of policy and other change on complex systems. 4. Impact of policy and technical innovation on the clinician-patient relationship. We have expertise in observing and theorising how policy and technology impact on frontline clinical care. We have developed a unique multi-channel video approach for observing the consultation; and theoretical approaches to how the policy framework might affect doctor clinician interactions. OBJECTIVES The following objectives are proposed for the Department: Objective 1: Partnerships in research, teaching and enterprise We will develop Faculty, intra-departmental partnerships and university wide collaborations, and then broaden them to include a wider network of collaborators nationally and internationally. This will be measured through collaborative working achieved in teaching, research, publication metrics and enterprise between departmental members. Objective 2: Enhance reputation as a national and international centre for health care management research, teaching and enterprise Student numbers, grants and publications are the key way that we enhance our reputation and attract others to want to collaborate and study with us. However, esteem such as membership of editorial boards, conference organising committees, delivering key-note addresses, are all part of how we should promote ourselves and the Department. Deliverables: Increased numbers and quality of students, grants achieved, publication metrics, and academic profile. Objective 3: Maintain and grow reputation in niche areas We need to grow our reputation in our key areas. As a minimum we should have PhD students and some active grants in each of these domains. Deliverable: topic area leads nominated and student, grant, and publications monitored. Objective 4: Attract resources to achieve critical mass Attracting resources is a key goal of the Department as without these we can t achieve critical mass. Resources will come from a number of sources: 3
External funding Grants and students. Metric: Value of grant funding Internal funding we need to bid for internal support funding to achieve critical mass. We should aim to appoint to posts most likely to bring in income in and provide positive feedback and further growth. Metric: Response to Gap analysis and creation an appropriate business plan. Value of grant funding and return on investment. Mentorship and support. The academic environment is key to achieving success as a department. A supportive can-do culture. PhD students should be active members of the Department making an academic contribution as part of their general academic development. We need to develop a culture of visitors (including international visitors), seminars, tutorials and regular team meetings. Metric: baseline diary for first academic year of the Department compared with subsequent years. Academic and community links: The Department needs strong strategic links with publishers, academics, the health service and the broader University and local community. Metric: Profile of links at baseline and in subsequent years. GAP ANALYSIS & INVESTMENT CHOICES The Department does not have the critical mass to be year-on-year self-sustaining. To achieve critical mass we need to develop roles and take risks with new appointments that will generate developmental opportunities underpinned by an income stream. Teaching In addition to maintaining and building the current viable MSc in Health Care Management, the foundation programme for the Faculty, we need to weigh up what course options we can add to improve the status and sustainability of the Department. This will be assessed during the course of this academic year. Research We should strengthen the existing team through bringing in expertise and disciplines that bridge between our existing strengths. Our options include: o Modelling Methodological expertise to give a long term or system level view. System dynamics Comparing care pathways o Statistician capable of supporting high level statistical techniques needed for predictive and other modelling. o Operational research methods that support research in our cross-cutting theme areas. o Health Policy o Research undertaken should demonstrate impact. Enterprise There remain opportunities to develop KTPs (Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) and other links with industry. We currently have little company funded projects. New posts The next round of investment in academic posts should focus on early wins. We should deploy these where we are most likely to achieve a return on investment. Even extending our PhD numbers (if the applicants are of sufficient quality) would add to critical mass. 4
KEY LINKS Professor Terry Desombre, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, DH, NHS Foundation Trusts Professor Simon de Lusignan, St George s Medical school, RCGP, DH & Clinical Informatics groups Dr Jane Hendy, Imperial College Dr Carole Doherty, NHS Trusts, Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust, Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, QMW Dr Charitini Stavropoulou, Imperial College, QMW Dr Tom Chan, Clinical Informatics groups, St Georges Medical School, Mental Health Foundation Trusts Health Care Management & Policy Group February 2013 5