A successful Partnership event

…Looking at how we can be fit for the future, our Health Innovation Partnership with University colleagues is well-established, and further strengthened at the end of last year when five of our Consultants were also awarded joint Professorships with the University of Reading.

Cutting-edge research has a huge role to play in easing the pressure on all care settings, and helping support our communities into a health prevention mindset, and each of our Professors presented on research they are leading. Toni Chan in Rheumatology talked through how AI can be used to triage patients, shrinking the gap from diagnosis to treatment. For example, how the team have cut the average time it takes to diagnose someone with Axial spondyloarthritis from 8 years to just 1, and the huge benefits to quality of life, and reduction in the cost of providing treatment that has brought about.

Liza Keating in ED talked about the great work the team have been doing with their service users to understand their experience of care, and use that to inform how they shape services into the future. Mark Little in Interventional Radiology presented on the ground-breaking Genesis II trial the team are running, a Europe-first, looking at how we use targeted tech to address chronic and disabling knee pain, changing lives in the process.

Matt Frise, from our ICU has been leading a research piece centred on patients who experience a drop in oxygen levels in ICU, and why this is happening, including looking at how it compares to the effects of being at altitude. And he is now using those findings to look at why different people respond to oxygen therapy in different ways. And Neil Ruparelia in Cardiology carried on the theme of personalised care, talking through how they are looking at tailoring the treatment patients receive, improving the patient experience, and also making efficiency savings.

It was a really inspiring event, and especially timely with the launch of the NHS 10 Year Plan last Thursday. 

Something Prof Toni Chan said really struck a cord with me – illness takes time away from people, science gives time back. The work our teams are doing today to create the clinical service opportunities for tomorrow is all about giving the community we serve healthy time back. I know many colleagues have contributed to the refresh of the Trust strategy and that is why I know we are on the right path as we continue to make the shift to prevention, making the most of the digital capability we have invested in, and having more of the care we provide based in the communities we serve. It’s definitely a challenge, but I have faith we have the drive, ambition, and ingenuity to rise to it.  

Steve McManus, CEO, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust