Over the summer, we revealed the focus of the much anticipated third Q Lab UK project, in partnership with NHSX. We’re delighted to announce that we are now accepting applications to be involved in this new project as either a test team or a contributor.
What is Q Lab UK?
For those who are new to Q, or who haven’t been involved with our work before, Q Lab UK supports people to make progress on complex health and care challenges, to improve care for people in the UK and Ireland.
Taking advantage of the wide membership of Q, we provide opportunities for people to work across organisational, professional and geographic boundaries to work in-depth on priority topics.
We do this by convening a wide group of participants and a small cohort of frontline teams. Using approaches from design, systems thinking and social innovation we support people to uncover insights on the topic and develop and test ideas to improve care. You can read more about our previous projects, that focussed on peer support and mental health and persistent back and neck pain.
Health and care enabled by technology
Our next project is in partnership with NHSX. Together, we will be exploring how to build staff and patient trust and confidence in technology-enabled remote monitoring so that it can be scaled across the health and care system.
The pressures of the pandemic have accelerated the scale and pace of adoption of digital care in health and care. But more needs to be done to ensure this momentum leads to a health and care service designed around the individual, enabled by technology. That is why we believe the Lab’s participatory approach, which values diversity of experience and expertise, is the perfect way to explore this challenge – giving people the space to experiment, learn and reflect with others.
In this project, we want to understand more about and gather examples for how to improve staff and patient trust and confidence, so that technology-enabled remote monitoring can be embedded effectively. We are delighted to be partnering with NHSX, drawing on their experience and success of scaling remote care models. We are looking to capitalise on the opportunity for people working across the improvement and digital divide to tackle this challenge collaboratively, drawing on our complementary expertise.
We are really excited to be part of this Q Lab UK project. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together people who are passionate about improving care, and make a real difference to support people at home through the use of digital technologies.
The learning and insights from this discovery work will be shared and utilised at local and national level, supporting the development of models of care, and confidence in the use of digital home care, so that people are partners in their own health and care.
Donna Clements, Head of Delivery, Digital Health, NHSX
How can I get involved in this project?
Between November 2021 and May 2022, we’ll be running an energising and interactive six-month Lab process that will support people to lead local discovery work, identify opportunities for improvement, generate and prototype ideas, and continually share learning. This process will be structured around workshops that take place each month. We’ll be sharing updates on the Q website, and anyone with expertise and interest can get involved.
Find out more about these opportunities in the information pack and join our webinar for prospective test teams on Thursday 30 September at 11am.
It’s been brilliant, we’ve really enjoyed working with [Q Lab UK] … It’s very novel and new to work in this way … the Lab is more dynamic, the whole experience has been great
Why get involved?
Being a Q Lab UK participant means you are part of a passionate group of people with the complementary skills and experience to support your improvement work.
You will expand your professional network and develop your skills and capabilities in collaborative change by joining as either a:
- Contributor: You’ll be supported to connect, collaborate, and learn with others. You’ll attend workshops, have access to a dedicated online space and contribute to collective insight on the topic. There’ll be opportunities for you to develop skills for collaborative change alongside other participants.
- Test team: Applying with others in your local area, this role will support you to do exploratory work to increase patient and staff trust and confidence in tech-enabled remote monitoring. Test teams undertake improvement work in their local areas, committing time and resources to the Lab project while receiving support and funding from Q to follow a six-month design process. You’ll learn from other test teams and contributors throughout the process.