A question. An answer - in response to recent media (HSJ Ack.)

Here are a couple of quotes from HSJ Roundtable meetings:

"What I hear around the country is that we have masses of information but we need to turn that into something that is intelligible and can be used for strategic decision making."...

"We need to look at how information links together to get a holistic picture of the situation." p. 20.

Dr Shahid Ali, (2012) Commissioning Information. Full Measures. HSJ, June 28, 20-23.

 "I don't think we should be integrating systems, we should be integrating around patients."  p. 20.

Dr Shahid Ali, (2012) Integrated Care. Let the Data Flow. HSJ, June 21, 20-25. 

"There's no integrated view of integrated care. The danger is that you have an integrated care system and everyone says, 'I will do one as well', and you end [up] with six of them." p. 22.

Owen Powell, (2012) Integrated Care. Let the Data Flow. HSJ, June 21, 20-25.


A question or two, or three ...

Is there a generic framework that can be shared and utilised across all health and social care?

A free resource that can be deployed in imagination, in solo on paper, in tandem and within a group potentially shaping collaboration, innovation, change and transformation. Applied in the clinical environment, the home, the lecture theater, the sports field...

A tool that can help support reflective practice not only at a strategic level, but the tactical and operational. What is happening on the ground floor? A framework that can help represent not only processes and policy, but practice, individual and group purposes.

Yes, policy maker and CEO meet with your information manager ... and discuss strategy.

But what is data, information, knowledge ....? What is 'health care' for it appears above we do not know?

Is there really no integrated view - even at a basic level that deserves further study?

Yes, health care practitioner meet your patient (client), their carer, your other partners (social enterprise...) and pursue what really counts: the best quality of care you can deliver given several constraints.

What is the outcome to be?

For the majority of the population (those not living with a long term medical condition) the transformation must be self-efficacy:
if 'shift happens' it must be from ill-health to health through education.

One answer:
The health care system cannot do this alone.