HSMC Research and Evaluation

Supporting the health and care workforce with leadership and management knowledge and skills

HSMC research and evaluation engage with a range of workforce perspectives. Central to its work has been to support leaders in navigating services changes and policy reform. Research engages with the leadership of strategic change as well as the changing nature of leadership and management across services and systems.

HSMC proactively support the development of leadership in the areas of care quality and safety. Research engages the role of board executive leadership, alongside interventions that promote employee ‘speaking up’ and professional behaviours.

HSMC research and evaluation explore the experience role redesign and supporting clinicians and managers with workforce reconfigurations. The development of medical leadership and better understanding professionalism are central its interests.

HSMC gain practical insights into the decision-making processes that practitioners face at the frontline of services.

To critically engage with innovation concepts, organisation, and technology to support improvement

HSMC research and evaluation seeks to better understand the adoption and spread of new ideas and technologies.

HSMC expertise engages with conceptual debates and discussion regarding concepts such as integrated care, patient safety, and culture. It provides ongoing contributions to understanding the health policy process. It has engaged with debates regarding the impact of covid-19 drawing on different perspectives to make sense of these developments

Understanding the implementation of service innovations within care settings is central to its work. Environmental sustainability is increasingly part of its research and evaluation profile.

HSMC undertakes research of service level innovations and improvement involving organisational changes and configurations. HSMC are a leading partner in the NIHR BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre with recent examples of BRACE work including:

• Women's Health Hubs
• New and emerging technology for adult social care: the example of home sensors with artificial intelligence technology
• Remote home monitoring (virtual wards) during the COVID-19 pandemic (Covid Oximetry @home)
• A rapid evaluation of the use of pulse oximeters in care homes across England to support the care of residents with COVID-19 and long-term health conditions.
• The impact of telephone triage in primary care on inequalities experienced by people with multiple morbidities: a quantitative evaluation.
• Digital First Primary Care for those with long-term multiple conditions

Promoting informed decision-making for planning, design, and implementation of change

HSMC research and evaluation aims to support approaches to better decision-making in the planning and delivery of care. A particular area of expertise is knowledge and understanding to support commissioning and decommissioning.

Central to decision making is also the promotion of effective market management and the promotion of diverse health and social care provision.

Priority setting methods and approaches continue to be analysed across a range of care settings.

To build collaboration across professional, organisational, and system boundaries

HSMC research and evaluation engage with the experience of working across boundaries.

Studies of how to support and promote Integrated care are central to its research activity. This includes better understanding the different types and scales of partnership working and the ingredients for successful collaboration. Studies of collaboration include those gaining a better understanding of vertical integration and primary care networks.

To nurture environments that care with patients, users, and communities

HSMC undertake research which helps to locate social care within the broader health and care landscape. This includes externally funded programmes of work such as the School for Social Care Research and the ESRC Centre for Care.

Standalone projects work closely with policymakers, practitioners, and people with lived experience to co-design research that makes a difference. Research includes supporting early intervention in mental health for children and young people as well as understanding and supporting healthy sexual behaviours and education within these groups.

HSMC research explores the experiences of vulnerable groups within care settings. This includes patient experience as well as the experience of caregivers. It also includes providing a greater voice, improved access for LGBTQ+ young people.

A thread running thought its offer is to also gain practitioner experiences at the frontline of service delivery.

To be global and local in our approach

HSMC research and evaluation provides a range of global health insights. This includes comparative studies of workforce experiences as well as in depth accounts of particular countries such as China and Ghana.

HSMC comparative studies also include regional experiences and those that engage with universal health coverage

Research includes conceptual analysis of healthcare systems drawing on different frameworks.