Our strategy
2022-2027
Our vision
Our vision is that THIS Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute) will be at the forefront of a movement to mainstream the understanding that improvement activity in healthcare should be based on evidence and should generate evidence.
Our mission
Our mission is to enable better healthcare through better evidence about how to improve. We will co-create a highly credible and actionable evidence base for improving quality and safety in healthcare, working collaboratively with patients, staff and wider stakeholders.
Our plans
Our strategic aims for the next five years.
To learn more about each of our strategic aims, read our strategy in full here.
Build a rigorous and highly valued evidence base for improving quality and safety in healthcare
Our engaged and highly participatory approach to developing evidence is
defined by working throughout the research lifecycle with those whose expertise is rooted in lived
experience – especially NHS staff and patients. Our findings are valued both in specific clinical areas
and for extending and deepening the evidence base for improvement more generally.
We will
continue to draw on novel combinations of theories, methods and approaches to generate vital assets that
can be used many times across diverse areas and for multiple purposes.
Over the next five years, we will organise our research around three thematic priorities:
- Characterisation of improvement challenges
- Development of possible solutions and interventions using co-design
- Evaluation
Co-create evidence with patients, carers, the public, NHS staff and wider stakeholders
We will continue to deliver our research mission in close partnership with
all of those who have a stake in the effective functioning of the NHS. Working in this way not only
reflects our values, it also contributes to impact by encouraging ownership and engagement from the very
outset of every project.
Thiscovery, our highly participatory online platform, will facilitate
much of this work. It will be will be a key asset in a novel infrastructure we’re building to co-create
the evidence – THIS improvement research communities. These online communities will mobilise the
contributions of patients and healthcare staff at scale, helping to build evidence faster and more
rigorously.
Strengthen collaborations and build new ones
Relationships across multiple sectors are at the heart of what we do. Our
extensive and diverse collaborations, ranging from specialist charities and patient advocacy groups
through to national bodies, enable valuable access to existing networks, infrastructures, expertise and
lived experience.
We will maintain and nurture existing collaborations and develop new
collaborations, building on the trust and mutual benefit already achieved to provide the basis for
future research.
Build capacity in improvement research in multiple ways
Through our fellowship programme, we have helped to expand of the portfolio
of healthcare improvement studies, widened access to the discipline and extended our reach and
influence. We will continue to recruit themed fellows relevant to practice and policy needs and
priorities until 2025.
We will continue to invest in attracting high-quality candidates. We will
seek to increase diversity in terms of applicants’ sociodemographic characteristics and disciplinary
background. And we will actively cultivate the vibrant community we have created.
To augment and
sustain our capability-building, we will scope the development of a new education and training
programme.
Change the thinking around the need for evidence in healthcare improvement
In order to increase the visibility of healthcare improvement research, we
will strengthen our public affairs and NHS partnership activities over the next five years through a
campaign targeting policy, practice, and public audiences.
Achieving our mission requires
sustained engagement with NHS patients, staff and other stakeholders not only to co-design and
participate in our research, but also to disseminate, amplify and act on our findings. So we will
continue to use high-quality communications and engagement to increase awareness, participation,
diversity and inclusion throughout the research lifecycle.
Values
All our work is underpinned by our values.
Scientific excellence
We draw on established scientific traditions and develop systematic studies using high quality methods and theories.
Collaboration
We work in partnership in good faith, with trust sustained by genuinely cooperative behaviour.
Responsibility
We work for the public good, including the effective and efficient use of the public funds allocated to healthcare.
Inclusivity
We are committed to studying what’s important to NHS patients and staff.
Independence
Based at the University of Cambridge and funded by the Health Foundation, we enjoy full scientific independence.
Respect
We are respectful in all our interactions with everyone we come into contact with.
Achieving and curating impact
From the outset, we have sought to ensure that the evidence,
methods, theories and concepts we produce are seen as trustworthy and actionable assets that can be
relied upon to form the basis of decisions and actions that can make a real difference in improving the
quality and safety of healthcare.
Already we can point to considerable progress towards that aim
– evidenced for example by the influence of studies we conducted during the pandemic. Drawing attention
to the experiences of patients, carers and staff, this research generated new evidence about the role of
remote care, and made vivid the neglected problem of moral injury for staff working in mental health
services. This work has already been widely cited, including in policy documents.