Precision recovery following critical illness

9 September 2026

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Background

When people leave critical care, they often face problems that affect how they feel, their ability to work, and how they live day to day. Carers and families can also be affected. Some people have more problems than others, and we don’t know the best way to help survivors and their families recover. Although not everyone recovers in the same way after an admission to intensive care, there are patterns in how people recover, these can depend on things like where people live, their health history and why they needed intensive care in the first place.

If we understand these patterns, we can provide better care.

Our aim is to create a new way to help people recover after critical illness, called “precision recovery,” which could help people feel better, reduce NHS pressure, and help people get back to work and daily life. We plan to find the patterns and use them to co-design recovery care with survivors, their families and others.

The patients and families who helped us to plan this idea told us that to them, precision recovery means ‘care that fits each person’s individual life and needs.’

Approach

Identify recovery patterns

We will collect information from people who have been in intensive care and their families and use it to help us look for patterns in how they recover. This will help healthcare staff to know what care is best for each person.

Co-design personalised recovery care options

We will work with patients, families, and healthcare staff to create recovery care options that can be tailored to each person’s needs.

Develop a digital tool

We will build an online tool to support healthcare teams to identify recovery patterns and plan the right care.

Test the new approach

We will see whether the digital tool and recovery care options work well in NHS hospitals and whether this approach makes a difference for survivors and their families.

We will be working closely with patients and families to make sure the research is useful and fair. To help us understand patterns of recovery, we will use data from an existing study that collects health and social information from many patients who have been admitted to intensive care. This will help us include people from many different backgrounds – and we will also use information from a previous study which explored long-term outcomes.