Improvement approaches have the potential to help both current and new digital technologies become more sustainable.
Through conversations with Q’s members and partners, we understand that introducing more digital innovation and working in a more integrated way is a top priority for improvement. And the people working in improvement can and need to play a pivotal role in digital change as services recover from the pandemic. Collaborating on digital change is an important part of the future of improvement.
The theme for Q Exchange 4 is:
Bringing together the worlds and methods of improvement and digital, to enable better outcomes and faster, more sustainable change.
Within that, bidders are encouraged to consider bids:
- supporting service change, in particular the opportunity and need to enable care at home or in the community
- focusing on the role digital technology can play in staff wellbeing. Staff-facing technology is within this scope, as well as work looking at enhancing the experience of technology in the workforce.
- focusing on the digital and improvement communities, for example looking at sharing skills and perspectives between these groups.
This summary brings together Q’s existing insight on these three sub-topics. It aims to inform, engage and inspire members on the theme, and help members access insight and learning relevant to their areas of interest.
It is not a comprehensive summary of the evidence. In the collaborative spirit of Q Exchange, we encourage others to share their own learning and reflections as members are developing improvement ideas for Q Exchange.
It draws on learning predominantly from the Health Foundation and the NHS including:
- Health Foundation-funded research by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care at Oxford University: Video consulting during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for scale up and sustainability.
- IPSOS Mori evaluation for the NHS of the Regional Scale Programme and National Innovation Collaborative.
- Case studies and resources shared on the Innovation Collaborative Digital Health workspace on FutureNHS.
- Examples and learning from projects funded from previous rounds of Q Exchange are used to illustrate and contextualise this evidence for the Q Exchange programme.
Download the full summary to learn more about some of the challenges and opportunities we’ve identified for Q Exchange this year.
At the beginning of February, Penny Pereira spoke at the Innovation Collaborative National Event on this subject. You can catch up on her talk below.