A review of the effectiveness of capacity building strategies

This standardization will assist with synthesizing findings across studies and guide capacity-building practice and research.

What strategies are used to build practitioners’ capacity to implement community-based interventions and are they effective?: a systematic review
J Leeman, et al.
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:80

Read more here.

Effectiveness of short stay programmes for breast cancer surgery

"We provided a detailed case description of how implementation costs can be determined. Notable differences in implementation costs between hospitals were observed."

A detailed report of the resource use and costs associated with implementation of a short stay programme for breast cancer surgery
SMC Ament, et al.
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:78

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Co-production in practice

"The low uptake of telecare and telehealth services by older people may be explained by the limited involvement of users in the design."

Co-production in practice: how people with assisted living needs can help design and evolve technologies and services
J Wherton, P Sugarhood, R Procter, S Hinder, T Greenhalgh
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:75

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A case study to improve the management of mild traumatic brain injury in the emergency department

"Despite the availability of evidence-based guidelines for the management of mild traumatic brain injury in the emergency department (ED), variations in practice exist."

Developing a targeted, theory-informed implementation intervention using two theoretical frameworks to address health professional and organisational factors: a case study to improve the management of mild traumatic brain injury in the emergency department
EJ Tavender, et al.
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:74

Read more here.

Assessing an experimental approach to industrial policy evaluation

"In this paper we consider the arguments for applying experimental methods to industrial policy measures, and propose an experimental policy evaluation approach (which we call RCT+)."

Assessing an experimental approach to industrial policy evaluation: Applying RCT+ to the case of Creative Credits
H Bakhshi, JS Edwards, S Roper, J Scully, D Shaw, L Morley, N Rathbone
Nesta Working Paper 15/10
May 2015

Read more here.

English devolution: Local solutions for a successful nation

"This paper sets out local government’s offer of a new partnership with Government to tackle the big challenges facing our country and secure a bright future for all."

English devolution: Local solutions for a successful nation
Local Government Association
May 2015

Read more here.

The practice of system leadership

"The unprecedented service and financial challenges facing the NHS require staff and leaders to work and behave differently. A critical skill for the future is the ability to work across services and organisations to meet the needs of the growing number of people with complex medical conditions and those who rely on care and support from different agencies."

The practice of system leadership: Being comfortable with chaos
The King's Fund
N Timmins
May 2015

Read more here.

Role of the Secretary of State for Health, in their own words

"What is the role of the Secretary of State for Health? What should it be? How far, in an almost entirely tax-funded NHS, can health ministers be removed from the day-to-day operations of the NHS? How far should they be, if the service is to remain accountable to its patients, to taxpayers and to the public at large? These are the core questions that lie behind this review."

Glaziers and window breakers: The role of the Secretary of State for Health, in their own 
words
N Timmins, E Davies
The Health Foundation
May 2015

Read more here.

Primary health care interventions for Indigenous people with chronic diseases

"Future interventions should consider the findings of this review as it provides an evidence base that contributes to the successful design, implementation and sustainability of chronic disease interventions in primary health care settings intended for Indigenous people."

Enablers and barriers to the implementation of primary health care interventions for Indigenous people with chronic diseases: a systematic review
O Gibson, et al.
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:71

Read more here.

Choosing Wisely in the UK

"An initiative recently developed in the US and Canada called Choosing Wisely aims to change doctors’ practice to align with best practice by getting them to stop using various interventions that are not supported by evidence, free from harm, and truly necessary."

Choosing Wisely in the UK: the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ initiative to reduce the harms of too much medicine
A Malhotra, et al.
British Medical Journal, 2015, 350: h2308

Read more here.

Value based assessment of drugs

"In 2010, the Government proposed moving towards a broader value-based system for assessing and pricing branded drugs. Such an approach aims to ensure that the price the NHS pays for a medicine better reflects its benefits. This briefing outlines recent proposals to change the current assessment methods."

Value based assessment of drugs
Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology
Houses of Parliament
Postnote, number 487, January 2015

Read more here.

Integrated health and social care: making it happen

"Integration isn’t an end point in itself: it’s part of the journey, and should be part of a broader shift to improving population health and wellbeing."

Join the club: Many in the NHS are signing up to integrated health and social care. But how can we make it happen?
HSJ Integration: An HSJ Supplement, 10th April 2015

Read more here.

Understanding the upstream social determinants of health

"This paper describes and categorizes three types of approaches used to examine upstream Social Determinants of Health:

• Social disadvantage
• Life course approaches
• Health equity approaches"

Understanding the upstream social determinants of health
N Bharmal, K Pitkin Derose, M Felician, M Weden
RAND Health
May 2015

Read more here.

The challenge of overdiagnosis begins with its definition

"If overdiagnosis is to be understood and mitigated, the broad concept should be subdivided into different problems and its ethical dimensions better acknowledged."

The challenge of overdiagnosis begins with its definition
SM Carter, W Rogers, I Heath, C Degeling, J Doust, A Barratt
BMJ, 2015, 350:h869

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Paths to sustainability for innovative delivery system programs

"We found widespread interest and activity in testing new care delivery models to improve health care quality and reduce costs in Massachusetts. However, the environment presents great uncertainty for the sustainability of these programs."

Paths to sustainability for innovative delivery system programs
PS Hussey, C Armstrong, EC Schneider
RAND Corporation
May 2015

Read more here.

Using communications approaches to spread improvement

"A practical guide to help you effectively communicate and spread your improvement work."

Using communications approaches to spread improvement
S Randall
Health Foundation
March 2015

Read more here.

Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition?

"Our analysis suggests that while the NHS did improve its productivity in the early years of this parliament, performance has now tailed off sharply and the crude productivity of hospitals has gone backwards over the last two years."

Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition?
S Lafond, A Charlesworth, A Roberts
The Health Foundation
April 2015

Read more here.

The growing pressure on older carers

"If carers are to have healthy and fulfilling lives in older age, more must be done to ensure that there is adequate support in place from health and care services both for older carers and for the people they care for."

Caring into later life: The growing pressure on older carers
Age UK
April 2015

Read more here.

Explained: The legal challenges to CCG decision making

"As budgets are squeezed and decision making is more transparent, CCG decision making leaves them open to challenges through the legal system."

Explained: The legal challenges to CCG decision making
D Lawson
Health Service Journal, 1st May 2015

Read more here.

Individual care plans for chronically ill patients within primary care in the Netherlands

"We conclude that individual care plan (ICP) use among chronically ill patients within primary care in the Netherlands is low, even among diagnostic groups for which a nationwide disease-management approach was adopted. This implies that there is a gap between practice and policy aspirations to implement ICPs in primary chronic illness care."

Individual care plans for chronically ill patients within primary care in the Netherlands: Dissemination and associations with patient characteristics and patient-perceived quality of care
DL Jansen, M Heijmans, M Rijken
Scandinavian Journal of Primary Care: 2015

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e-Health and older people

"Acceptance of e-Health can be increased by informing people about the potential benefits of e-Health and letting them practice with the application. Special attention should be paid to people with less education and people who have not used the Internet before."

Determinants of the intention to use e-Health by community dwelling older people
AJE de Veer, JM Peeters, AEM Brabers, FG Schellevis, JJDJM Rademakers, AL Francke
BMC Health Services Research, 2015, 15:103

Read more here.

Assessing the potential for improvement of primary care

"We could largely confirm the hypothesis that a stronger primary care structure is associated with more person-focused care."

Assessing the potential for improvement of primary care in 34 countries: a cross-sectional survey
WLA Schafer, WGW Boerma, AM Murante, HJM Sixma, FG Schellevis, PP Groenewegen
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2015, 93:161-168

Read more here.

Do higher primary care practice performance scores predict lower rates of emergency admissions?

"Good-quality primary care management of patients with a SMI should reduce complications of a serious mental illness and comorbidities and should, therefore, be associated with lower unplanned admission rates."

Do higher primary care practice performance scores predict lower rates of emergency admissions for persons with serious mental illness? An analysis of secondary panel data
R Jacobs, et al.
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2015, 3(16)

Read more here.

Emerging practice in outcome-based commissioning for social care

"This paper is a progress report exploring the lessons learnt from a variety of approaches taken by councils to “outcome-based commissioning” in adult social care (sometimes called payment by results)."

Emerging practice in outcome-based commissioning for social care: Discussion paper
J Bolton
Institute of Public Care
Oxford Brookes University
April 2015

Read more here.

Read the related paper here.

Workforce planning in the NHS

"This report explores experiences with workforce planning, and how they align with strategic policy in a number of areas: mental health, general practice and community nursing."

Workforce planning in the NHS
R Addicott, D Maguire, M Honeyman, J Jabbal
The King's Fund
April 2015

Read more here.

Can the NHS handle the outsourcing of clinical services?

"If the outsourcing of NHS clinical services to the private sector is to continue, and if patients and the public are to be confident that standards are being met and that value for money is achieved, a number of measures need to be taken to address the issues raised in this report."

The contracting NHS - can the NHS handle the outsourcing of clinical services?
Centre for Health and the Public Interest
March 2015

Read more here.

Mapping between different commissioners of healthcare

"This paper sets out how we created look-up files to map between different commissioning geographies. This enabled us, for example, to estimate overall health funding at an area-level despite the different geographical bases of the various commissioners."

Mapping between different commissioners of healthcare
Audit insights: Health
National Audit Office
March 2015

Read more here.

Measuring performance in psychiatry: A call to action

"This Open Forum reviews the current state of behavioral health quality measurement, describes the criteria relevant to assessing measures, and provides a case for encouraging the development, collection, and routine use of functional outcome measures in behavioral health care."

Measuring performance in psychiatry: A call to action
S Glied, et al,
Psychiatric Services, 13, February 2015

Read more here.

Using clinical practice variations to identify and prioritise opportunities for disinvestment

"Policy-makers could use geographical variation as a starting point to identify procedures where health technology reassessment or RCTs might be needed to inform policy. Commissioners can use benchmarking to identify procedures with high local use, possibly indicating overtreatment."

Using clinical practice variations as a method for commissioners and clinicians to identify and prioritise opportunities for disinvestment in health care: a cross-sectional study, systematic reviews and qualitative study
W Hollingworth, et al.
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2015, 3(13)

Read more here.

Personal budgets in mental health: Key points on implementation

"This briefing is part of a series of publications on personal health budgets produced by the NHS Confederation in partnership with Think Local Act Personal...Individuals who are supported to engage more effectively with their condition and with healthcare professionals have a positive experience of their care, and experience better health outcomes.”

Personal budgets in mental health: Key points on implementation
NHS Confederation
April 2015, Issue 284

Read more here.

Asset-based approaches in health care

"The title, ‘Head, hands and heart’ refers to a well-known asset-mapping technique, in which participants are asked to respond to three questions: What knowledge do you have? (‘head’); What skills do you have? (‘hands’); What are you passionate about? (‘heart’).

The report introduces the theory and practice of asset-based approaches, explores some of the key principles for developing health assets and the evidence and mechanisms of impact on health outcomes of asset-based projects in the UK. It also identifies areas for further investigation."

Head, hands and heart: asset-based approaches in health care: A review of the conceptual evidence and case studies of asset-based approaches in health, care and wellbeing
T Hopkins, S Rippon
The Health Foundation
April 2015

Read more here.

Insights from the clinical assurance of service reconfiguration in the NHS

"The objectives of this research are to determine the current pressures for reconfiguration within the NHS in England and the solutions proposed. We also investigate the quality of evidence used in making the case for change, any key evidence gaps, and the opportunities to strengthen the clinical case for change and how it is made."

Insights from the clinical assurance of service reconfiguration in the NHS: the drivers of reconfiguration and the evidence that underpins it – a mixed-methods study
C Imison, L Sonola, M Honeyman, S Ross, N Edwards
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2015, 3(9)

Why do patients with multimorbidity in England report worse experiences in primary care?

"Health policymakers should recognise that the patient experience and healthcare needs of people with multimorbidity are likely to be different to those with a single long-term condition, and should take this into account when designing health services for people with multiple long-term conditions. We recommend that research modelling the relationship between multimorbidity and patient experience of care should include the impact of health-related quality of life."

Why do patients with multimorbidity in England report worse experiences in primary care? Evidence from the General Practice Patient Survey
CAM Paddison, CL Saunders, GA Abel, RA Payne, JL Campbell, M Roland
BMJ Open, 2015, 5:e006172

Read more here.

Toolkit for commissioners to reduce poor in-patient care

A new toolkit is published today by NHS England to help commissioners reduce poor experience of in-patient care.

Access the toolkit here.

Governance challenges for providers in light of the Dalton review

"Any change in organisational structure arises from a strong business case to develop models of care for patient benefit (to improve outcomes, safety or experience), and/or to deliver a more efficient service, providing best value for the taxpayer and potentially releasing funds to reinvest in patient care."

Form follows function: Governance challenges for providers in light of the Dalton review
NHS Confederation
April 2015

Read more here.

Read related QIPP @lert post here.

Adding value to tackle local health needs

"This compilation of case studies shows how local authorities are continuing to make progress on improving health and wellbeing and tackling health inequalities since public health was formally transferred in April 2013."

Public health transformation twenty months on: adding value to tackle local health needs
Local Government Association
February 2015

Read more here.

Enabling local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models

“Efforts should focus on building an effective community offer. This will require adequate investment to transform primary, community and social care – while ensuring that acute and emergency care remains sustainable.”

Rip off the sticking plaster now: Enabling the local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models in 2015/16
NHS Confederation
April 2015

Read more here.