Diagnosing harms?

All medicines are poisons. Everything that cures could kill if administered in the wrong doses, to the wrong people, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways.

How is growth in diagnostic testing affecting the hospital system?

Diagnostic services, such as medical imaging, endoscopy, and pathology, have grown substantially in recent years and at a faster rate than most other healthcare services. Increased diagnostic testing brings benefits to patients, but rapid growth of this service area within a complex, adaptive system such as the NHS is likely to have had unintended consequences. Midlands ICBs wanted to understand the impact of diagnostic growth on hospital services.

Could a peer review methodology help drive continual learning within and across local systems?

In this blog Karen describes how peer review methodologies are being used to support learning in Long COVID services.

Decision Making Blog #8: Infinity-shaped debate

I’m argumentative.

Decision Making Blog #7: Should we 'go with the gut'? Yes, but...

I’m not sure there’s a superlative strong enough to describe ‘T

Decision Making Blog #6: The most powerful question in decision making?

I’m a fan of Shane Parrish and his organisation Farnam Street (strapline: ‘Helping you master the best of

Decision Making Blog #5: Reaching disagreement

Two starting points:  

Decision Making Blog #4: Embrace uncertainty - it's a badge of honour

Imagine this: 

Decision Making Blog #3: The black hole of the status quo

Learning is one of the joys of teaching. And I’ve learnt a lot while helping people develop their decision making skills.

Decision Making Blog #2: Two under-appreciated sources of leadership power

Some forms of leaders’ power are obvious. Leaders hire and they fire.

Decision Making Blog #1: Better decision making: a neglected route to improvement?

There are two main routes for health and care services to improve the health of the populations they serve. The

Decision making - a series of blogs on decision quality

The NHS as an anchor institution: addressing fuel poverty

The number of households in fuel poverty in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (SSoT) is higher than the national average. As anchor institutions, NHS organisations can use their assets to influence the health and wellbeing of their local communities. The Strategy Unit was asked by the Midlands NHS Greening Board to evaluate a cross-sector initiative in SSoT to help alleviate fuel poverty using savings generated through solar panels on NHS buildings. The project is called Keep Warm, Keep Well.

ICS intelligence functions – a toolkit to support the implementation of NHSE guidance

In 2020, NHSE

Emergency department acuity measurement and process: quick scoping review​

​​This review was commissioned to inform NHS England’s Acuity Standardisation Project which aims to agree a standardised method of allocating acuity category (a triage method) for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs). ​

Population health implications of the Covid-19 pandemic

​​Our new report for The Midlands Decision Support Network (MDSN) presents findings of the effects of the care disruption, from the Covid-19 pandemic, on population health. The in-depth analysis identifies which patients and health conditions should be the focus of future efforts in reducing inequalities caused by the pandemic. ​

Analysts, we need to talk about…….

The future looks incredibly promising for ana

Socio-economic inequalities in coronary heart disease

There are substantial differences in mortality rates from cardiovascular disease between socio-economic groups.  Our new tool provides an overview, for ICBs, of the points on the care pathway where inequalities emerge and are amplified

Insight 2022 - Day 4 - The future of healthcare analytics

The future of healthcare analytics.