What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?​

The latest census from the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in the UK found that 55% of consultant physicians had seen more patients with ill health over the last three months due to social and economic factors, such as living in mouldy or damp homes, employment, poor air quality or education.

In addition, a recent Royal College of Physicians London survey revealed:

• 31% of physicians felt confident in their ability to discuss with patients the impact of health inequalities on their health
• 26% feeling confident in their ability to reduce the impact of health inequalities
• 67% had not received training in health inequalities.

Several existing toolkits aim to tackle health inequalities however, many lack patient and public involvement and clinicians in hospital, general practice and communities struggle to utilise these within limited appointment time frames.

Addressing health inequity is a shared responsibility, collective action is imperative to enhance capabilities in this area.

What does your project aim to achieve?

In response to the limitations of the episodic biomedical focussed care model and the educational gap in Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) amid healthcare professionals, educators, and improvement teams, we propose a collaborative effort with lived experience partners to develop an educational program. Our aim is to co-create an interactive, web-based toolkit that clinicians from diverse disciplines within the multidisciplinary team (MDT) can easily integrate into various clinical settings, acknowledging different time constraints.

By enhancing capabilities throughout the MDT and across the patient journey, we envision a pragmatic and inclusive approach to mitigating health disparities. Through real-time sharing of our co-production journey and active engagement in the process, we aim to provide insights to our audience, including the Q community, regarding the opportunities and challenges inherent in interdisciplinary collaboration.

Watch our videos introducing the project and keep up to date with our progress here.

How will the project be delivered?

Our vision will be developed and delivered through a variety of collaborative activities including surveys, podcasts, webinars and in person summit led by a team of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals, supported by Core 20plus5 ambassadors and including community partners.

We will work with a digital agency and illustrator to design, develop and test a useable toolkit ensuring all the relevant disciplines including administration and operations, patient and carers, and community organisations have an input.

We will share our journey and gather audience/participant feedback to reflect as we work through the process of co-production. To measure the efficacy of our approach, we will conduct pilot tests of the toolkits in community and hospital settings, measuring their impact on the quality of care provided. We will aim to track the percentage increase in healthcare professionals’ confidence in their ability to reduce health inequalities in their medical practice following toolkit implementation.

How is your project going to share learning?

To foster widespread learning and engagement content from the toolkit will be freely accessible to all including Q members, who will be actively encouraged to contribute their insights and participate in enhancing the quality of our materials over time.

We will share our journey and provide opportunities to contribute and learn via Medical Care – driving change, the open access improvement hub from the Royal College of Physicians London. The website hosts a wide range of multi-media resources and a  robust user base with 40% of users comprising of multidisciplinary teams and the general public.

In addition to amplify our reach we will disseminate information to RCP members and fellows, share with our extensive social media following and utilise CORE20 plus 5 ambassadors.

Our in person summit will bring together multi-disciplinary teams across national organisations enabling learning and sharing across the wider system.