Improving the nation’s health: No place for anecdote and fairy tales

Prevention is better than cure

On Monday last week, the Department of Health & Social Care published, ‘Prevention is better than cure – Our vision to help you live well for longer’.

Few would argue that prevention is a bad thing and the themes discussed in the paper are entirely consistent with current health policy which stresses the importance of integrated care, built around the implementation of Population Health Management (PHM) strategies.

Yet despite the paper being published on 5th November, for me at least the sky above refused to colour and sparkle. There was little to celebrate here that was genuinely new and excessive claims are made for the game changing capability of new technology and personal responsibility. Read More…

Population Health Analyses tips

Ducks in a row

“Thanks for the data, but what am I supposed to do with it?” This is a typical and reasonable response when faced with the prospect of sifting through thousands of patient records to look for ways to improve services and care programmes. Our approach to population analytics is less about telling you what data you’ve got and more about showing you what you can do with it, revealing useful insights that you can act on. Here are some tips for getting the most out of population health analyses. Read More…

Using Multiple Lenses: From Black Holes to Patient Activation

Multiple Lenses - black holes to patient activation

In the realm of physics and astronomy research, combining data from multiple lenses has led to new discoveries about the universe. The same principle can be applied to patient data. When considering impactibility or patient activation, for example, a multiplicity of perspectives can lead to many new insights, crucial to successfully defining interventions to support specific groups. Making appropriate use of demographic, diagnostic, calculated, social, environmental and other perspectives, it becomes possible to meaningfully segment a local population and define appropriate interventions. Read More…

Identifying needs, building interventions and busting myths: adventures in population health

Identifying needs, building interventions and busting myths: adventures in population health

At the recent Health Plus Care Show at London Excel I spoke in the Transforming Primary Care Theatre. The insights I shared were harvested from a number of engagements that Sollis has had with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) over a five year period commencing in 2012. More recently this work has concerned itself with population health analytics, where we have worked with local commissioners, including clinicians, in order to help them gain a better understanding of the current and future health status/needs of their local populations. Read More…

How do we best serve the patients and populations with greatest need?

population segmentation pie chart

The challenges faced by the NHS today are in many ways those faced by health care systems across the world. The concern is a very human one; how best to serve the patients and populations with greatest need?
The starting point for those charged with service transformation has to be the need to understand who these patients are and how they currently use the health care system. There is a desperate need for insight that explains how healthcare resources are delivered and consumed. Only then can local health and care systems begin to adapt and transform in order to meet patient and population needs. Read More…

Are new care models working? When evaluating, always remember: human stories matter.

Val and James - Proactive Care New Care Models

On Tuesday this week I attended a Kings Fund event titled ‘Mainstreaming primary and acute care systems and multispecialty community providers’. The event focused on sharing the learning coming out of the multidisciplinary community providers (MCP) and primary and acute care systems (PACS) new care models vanguards. The various speakers spoke eloquently and passionately about what … Read more

A Way Forward for Community Based Care

Primary Care Home

This is the second of two guest posts by Professor David Colin-Thomé. Part one: Primary Care Home The Primary Care Home (PCH) is a concept I first described some ten years ago. It is a population budgeted, community based provider organisation able to provide an alternative to current NHS hospital centricity. A home not only … Read more