Development of the ACTIVE framework to describe stakeholder involvement in systematic reviews

Involvement of patients, health professionals, and the wider public (‘stakeholders’) is seen to be beneficial to the quality, relevance and impact of research and may enhance the usefulness and uptake of systematic reviews. However, there is a lack of evidence and resources to guide researchers in how to actively involve stakeholders in systematic reviews. In this paper, we report the development of the ACTIVE framework to describe how stakeholders are involved in systematic reviews

Shared Decision Making to Improve Care and Reduce Costs

Asleeper provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) encourages greater use of shared decision making in health care. For many health situations in which there's not one clearly superior course of treatment, shared decision making can ensure that medical care better aligns with patients' preferences and values. Shared decision making has the potential to provide numerous benefits for patients, clinicians, and the health care system, including increased patient knowledge, less anxiety over the care process, improved health outcomes, reductions in unwarranted variation in care and costs, and greater alignment of care with patients' values.

Patient centred care for multimorbidity improves patient experience, but quality of life is unchanged

The UK has an ageing population. A 2018 study of multimorbidity in England found that 54% of people over 65 had multimorbidity in 2015. This is expected to rise to 68% by 2035, with 17% of people over 65 expected to have four or more conditions. National guidelines tend to focus on single conditions. People with multimorbidity may have their conditions managed individually without due consideration of the overall burden of their diseases and treatments. Recognition of this prompted the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and other international organisations to develop guidelines on managing multimorbidity. These focus ...

Continuity of care and referral rate: challenges for the future of health care

As health care costs rise, an increasingly greater proportion of the gross domestic product is spent on health care. In this context, Continuity of care could reduce health care consumption by patients and reduce the number of referrals to specialist care, but it is unknown if there is a difference in referral rates to specific medical specialties.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between continuity of care and both the referral rate (referrals per patient per year) and the medical specialties for which this relationship was strongest.

Continuity of care and referral rate: challenges for the future of health care

Continuity of care could reduce health care consumption by patients and reduce the number of referrals to specialist care, but it is unknown if there is a difference in referral rates to specific medical specialties. The aim was to determine the relationship between continuity of care and both the referral rate (referrals per patient per year) and the medical specialties for which this relationship was strongest.

Closing the gap: Key areas for action on the health and care workforce

Staffing is the make-or-break issue for the NHS in England. Workforce shortages are already having a direct impact on patient care and staff experience. Urgent action is now required to avoid a vicious cycle of growing shortages and declining quality. The workforce implementation plan to be published later this year presents a pivotal opportunity to do this. In this joint report with the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, they set out a series of policy actions that, evidence suggests, should be at the heart of the workforce implementation plan. They focus on nursing and general practice, where the workforce ...

Health literacy as a social practice: Social and empirical dimensions of knowledge on health and healthcare

Health literacy has become a hot topic in health research and public health promotion. Most definitions specify health literacy as an individual cognitive skill, and surveys such as the EU-HLS which ask people to self-rate their decision-making capacity in the health system, grade a majority of the population as having an inadequate health literacy. Inspired by a praxeological understanding of knowledge and based on an empirical study on welfare bricolage in superdiverse urban neighborhoods, this paper explores health literacy ethnographically and highlights people's knowledge, creative practices and experiences concerning health and healthcare.

1st Transnational Conference on Integrated Community Care: "Making the case for Integrated Community Care"

This is a synthesis report of conference documents, discussions and learnings of the first conference in Hamburg, “Making the case for integrated community care”. This conferences aimed to develop a common understanding of the meaning of integrated community care and demonstrate through evidence the positive impact integrated community care can have on tackling inequalities, improving care experiences and care outcomes. This included the exploration of essential design elements in the provision of integrated community care that make the approach successful.

A guide to enabling the spread of person- and community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing

This guide is addressed to people who champion person- and community-centred approaches in health and social care. It is part of the NHS England-funded Realising the Value programme led by Nesta and the Health Foundation, which seeks to develop person- and community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing. Two main contents are included in the guide: a framework for understanding and changing behaviour, and real-world examples of how these changes happen in practice. Change is more likely to spread when both statutory organisations and community-based organisations align approaches. For this reason the guide feature case studies from both parts of the ...

Tomorrow’s World: Is Digital Health the Disruptive Innovation that will Drive the Adoption of Integrated Care Systems?

The idea of this study is that disruptive digital innovations can play a significant role in curbing the long-term rise in the costs of health and care, empower and engage service users, and enable better care outcomes and experiences.
In many ways, the strategy has similar objectives to the integrated care movement in the need to design and implement new ways of care delivery. Indeed, the role of information, communication and technology is commonly regarded as one of the essential ingredients in enabling the success of integrated care. It has the most uncommon dual property in this regard. It is ...