The challenge

The highest-quality healthcare that benefits people’s lives relies on patients and clinicians having and using the best possible knowledge and information. The Better Care programme aims to equip people with large-scale data and advanced analytics so that they can identify and make informed decisions about the best care for them. A wealth of clinical and good-practice knowledge is available, with new learning being created all the time, both within the Better Care community and beyond. But despite a plethora of information, libraries, communities of practice and tools, clinicians, researchers and patients often face numerous challenges –from the technical to the personal –in accessing and applying the knowledgeto take a Better Care approach. Valuable knowledge is being lost and fragmented–or, if it is communicated, it is not being put into practice rapidly to drive improvements in care. This slows insight and means that skills and resources are not connected to patient needs and work is often duplicated.

The solution

This project takes a collaborative and practical approach to improving the sharing and use of knowledge needed to implement the Better Care model of data-driven continuous healthcare learning. It works across the Better Care community and more widely to understand people’s information and learning needs, key enablers and barriers to knowledge sharing, and the advantages (and disadvantages) of different knowledge-sharing channels. We are advancing knowledge sharing in practice by supporting the use of existing tools (such as the HDR UK Innovation Gateway), establishing a ‘Learning Collaborative’ and holding a Computable Knowledge Hack Day using both Better Care outputs and NICE guidelines.

The impact and outcomes

By being able to better access, appraise and put into use large-scale data, advanced analytics and the actionable knowledge this generates, clinicians can drive continual improvements in the care they provide. This project is improving clinicians’, researchers’, patients’ and the public’s understanding of the different platforms and channels available for knowledge sharing so that insights and learnings are shared across the Better Care community and beyond.

Project Team

Project Leads: Philip Scott, University of Portsmouth; Jeremy Wyatt, University of Southampton

Team members: Lindsay Turner, Faculty of Clinical Informatics; James Mitchell, Keele University; Jan Hoogewerf, Faculty of Clinical Informatics

Advisers: Sue Lacey-Bryant, National Lead for NHS Library & Knowledge Services, Health Education England; Tom Foley, University of Newcastle and NHSX; John Williams, Faculty of Clinical Informatics; Andy Mitchell, Associate Director Information Architecture, Search and Business Analysis, NICE