The key to achieving our goals lies in better design and management of services at all NHS levels, supported by the appropriate tools, methods and approaches, backed in turn by a sustainable research community.
Studies by our team indicate that the disciplines such as design, engineering, management science, modelling, operational research, problem structuring and simulation have contributed significantly to cost-cutting and sustained quality improvement in other industries. They have also supported the development of processes, risk management and the integration of technology in the military.
Our research community will develop and refine computer models and simulations of healthcare processes and systems so that health service staff can operate and deploy resources in the most effective ways. Such modelling, based on a fundamental knowledge of healthcare and its delivery, will embrace the technical, organisational, clinical, social and experiential, from individuals to the systemic.
We are committed to finding ways to fund and sustain an effective research vehicle that impacts strategically and operationally on the care delivery system.
We plan an integrated programme of research, development and implementation in 2011. We aim to work with clinicians and industry to introduce significant change and benefit to the delivery of care in the UK and, eventually, around the world.
Communications with the industrial community are being used to build an alliance with key vendors and service providers in the IT, consultancy and simulation sectors for healthcare improvement.
The team is also building bridges to critical elements of the healthcare system including the new College of Medicine (www.collegeofmedicine.org.uk/), the Royal Colleges, and clinicians and managers at various levels.
National Institute for (Health) System and Service Excellence (NISSE)
The Cumberland Initiative advocates a sustained level of massively cross-disciplinary research and transformational activity to define the evidence, develop the methods, deliver the tools and dig in with service providers, including the NHS. In meeting these challenges, it seeks a solution ultimately embedded and overseen though a new National Institute for (Health) System and Service Excellence (NISSE). This requires:
- A new alliance between healthcare service providers, such as the NHS, industry and academia
- An academic research network of critical mass with a strong delivery arm
- A 5-10 year horizon to crack the intellectual problems, with a longer legacy through NISSE.
