|
NIHR is improving care for people with multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) by jointly investing £17.9 million in 3 innovative new research partnerships.
This is a collaboration between NIHR and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The partnerships are funded through the Systems Engineering Innovation Partnerships for Multiple long-term Conditions (SEISMIC) Programme. The latest funding takes NIHR and EPSRC’s total co-investment in the programme to £19.6m - following the joint awards for SEISMIC’s development phase launched in 2023.
Funded for 5 years, the partnerships aim to improve health and care services for people with MLTC. They bring together 2 distinct research disciplines - systems engineering and health care evaluation.
MLTCs refer to people living with 2 or more chronic conditions (physical or mental - often referred to as multimorbidities). Older people are more likely to live with these conditions, yet the burden at all ages is significant. Younger people living with these conditions also have complex care needs requiring treatment, and support.
SEISMIC builds and strengthens links between researchers from both systems engineering and health care evaluation. This enables them to work more closely and share expertise.
Using this innovative new approach, researchers will apply systems engineering to service redesign. They will consider elements of a complex system to drive transformation in health and care services. The successful partnerships will aim to:
- understand how best to configure services around the needs of people with MLTC
- improve services sustainably, in the longer-term.
The investment demonstrates how NIHR is addressing the Government’s 10-Year Plan - through the shifts of hospital to community, and analogue to digital. It also shows how NIHR is meeting the Life Sciences Sector Plan by addressing its 3 core pillars. These are: Enabling World Class R&D; Making the UK an Outstanding Place in Which to Start, Grow, Scale, and Invest, and Driving Health Innovation and NHS Reform.
Professor Kathy Rowan, director of the NIHR/EPSRC SEISMIC Programme, said: “Millions of people are now living with chronic conditions, meaning they have increasingly complex care needs, requiring extra treatment and support. By joining forces with the EPSRC, we are bringing together the very best skills and knowledge of systems engineers with researchers in health care evaluation, offering a unique and fresh perspective on how to tackle some of the key issues facing people with MLTC.
“These innovative new partnerships are harnessing cutting-edge methods with the aim to improve longer-term care, and to support more effective and efficient use of health and care resources. This includes making care more available on people’s doorsteps and in their homes as part of the shift from hospital to community.”
Person-centred care:
They include research to design care pathways that support person-centred care. This aims to improve services for children with complex needs in underserved communities; and to explore symptom-led and preventative care for people with MLTC in deprived rural and urban communities.
The new partnerships are:
• Re-Engineering Services for Health: Maximising Person-centred Care (RESHAPE-CARE) led by the University of Sheffield. The partnership aims to provide a new way to deliver care for MLTC. This is particularly for people in disadvantaged communities. They will focus on two groups of people with MLTC - those with type 2 diabetes, and those with breathlessness. The team will produce computer models of services called ‘digital twins’, to test interventions to increase the personalisation of care.
• SEISMIC SHIFT: Systemic Health Innovation Future Transformation led by the University of Strathclyde. The partnership aims to tackle health inequalities across urban and rural environments. It aims to explore a radical change from disease-based to symptom-focused management. This includes prevention, diagnosis, treatment and long-term care through the integration of health symptom science with systems thinking and systems engineering.
• SPROCKET: Systems and Process Redesign and Optimisation at Childhood Key Events and Transitions led by University College London. The partnership is focussing on children with complex needs and their careers. They will focus on times of transition (such as, when seeking a diagnosis, starting or changing school, or moving house), assessing opportunities for system improvement. This approach recognises the challenges in accessing the services they need, which are often spread across many providers.
Jane Nicholson, executive director of research at EPSRC, said: “SEISMIC brings together multidisciplinary teams from across the EPSRC and NIHR communities to develop innovative engineering and mathematical science approaches that can transform how we design health and care services for people living with MLTCs.
“By uniting diverse research disciplines, we can generate the evidence needed to shape sustainable, effective service configurations that truly meet the needs of people with MLTC and improve outcomes across the UK. We are excited to work with NIHR on this challenging area and look forward to seeing the impacts from the funded groups which will transform care for people with MLTC.’’
|