Last year’s Insight festival was another huge success! It included a mixture of talks, workshops and panel discussions. The theme, ‘Insight to action‘, brought together inspirational regional and national speakers to explore how insights from high quality analysis can drive change in health and care systems.
Thank you for coming!
Thank you to everyone, our speakers, our event leads and especially everyone who came to the festival, for making INSIGHT 2021 so amazing! We had well over 2,000 of you attend the festival and we’ve had some wonderful feedback. Do take some time to see the recordings if you missed any of the events or if you want to revisit any of the sessions and look out for the feedback form we’ll be sending out soon.
In our first session, we discussd ‘how health and care systems should respond to the rise of patient facing Artificial Intelligence tools’ Join our diverse panel Andi Orlowski (Health Economics Unit), Farzana Hussain (GP and Clinical Director), Reena Sangar (Ipsos MORI) and Mike Emery (Hereford and Worcester CCG) debated this fascinating and important subject to start our festival on ‘Insight to Action’
- Farzana Hussain GP at The Project surgery, and Clinical Director of Newham central 1 PCN
- Reena Sangar Global Health of Digital and Connected Health, Ipsos MORI
- Mike Emery Director of Digital Health, Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCG
- Andi Orlowski Director of the Health Economics Unit
The session described one example of how a systems approach, that focuses on prevention rather than cures, is being applied in Bradford.
INSIGHT 2021: What can we learn from the pandemic to reduce health inequalities
This session began with Professor Jon Glasby describing IMPACT – a new £15 million UK centre that he leads for implementing evidence in adult social care, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Health Foundation. Jon was then joined by Pete Jackson (WM ADASS) and an individual with lived experience of care services for a panel discussion. Professor Jon Glasby: Professor of Health and Social Care, University of Birmingham
- Pete Jackson Improvement Director, West Midlands ADASS
- Karen Bradley Principal Consultant, Strategy Unit hosted the event
INSIGHT 2021: Insight into action for adult social care, how? IMPACT Centre
In this session we heard from a diverse panel of speakers who shared their experiences of research and practice across a range of sectors. Learn about what works (and what doesn’t!) in different contexts and what happens when well-conceived plans meet reality.
- Jonathan Breckon Director at Breckon Consulting Ltd and a Senior Policy Advisor, Open Innovation Team
- Jamie Hobday Partnership Teams Manager for Walsall at West Midlands Police
- Alison Turner Evidence and Knowledge Lead for the Midlands Decision Support Unit and Head of Evidence Analytics at the Strategy Unit, hosted the event
In this session, Andrew Jones presented a new classification system designed to enrich analyses of outpatient activity. The tool labels attendances according to their function, for example diagnostic procedure and pre-operative assessment, and has been created to support both service redesign initiatives and routine queries. Andrew gave a brief overview of the methods involved in the development of the tool and illustrated the types of questions one might use it to explore. Details of this can be found in the Related Archive section on this page.
- Andrew Jones Healthcare Analyst, Strategy Unit
- Steven Wyatt Chief Analyst for the Midlands Decision Support Network and Head of Strategic Analytics at the Strategy Unit, hosted the event
INSIGHT 2021: A new resource to support analysis of outpatient services
We heard discussions from experts from the NHS, NICE and academia (Andi Orlowski, Gwyn Bevan, Deborah O’Callaghan, Peter Spilsbury) on the challenge of finding value through efficiency and allocating resources appropriately.
- Andi Orlowski Health economist and the Director of the Health Economics Unit
- Gwyn Bevan Emeritus Professor of Policy Analysis, London School of Economics & Political Science @bevan_gwyn
- Deborah O’Callaghan Associate Director at National Institute of Health and Care Excellence
- Peter Spilsbury Director, Strategy Unit
INSIGHT 2021: The most valuable value – a health and care resourcing dilemma
The session looked at how we can put insight into action through remarkable stories, working with communication teams, spreading your ideas and standing out from the crowd. Join Tom Parnell and Matthew Grek on their mission to help you maximise action from your insights!
- Tom Parnell Communications expert and former journalist
- Matthew Grek Communications lead, the Health Economics Unit
This session debated the ethical challenges around addressing health inequalities. We heard from our expert panel as Insight 2021 looks at the ethical and practical challenges of reducing health inequalities.
- Professor Sir Michael Marmot Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association
- Dr. Julian Huppert Director of the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, Cambridge and NHS NED
- Professor Swaran P Singh Director, Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research, University of Warwick and ex equality and human rights commissioner
- Kelly Beaver Managing Director of Ipsos MORI’s Public Affairs Division
INSIGHT 2021: Reducing health inequalities – the practical & ethical challenges
Death is certain, yet our planning doesn’t reflect this. At the individual level, conversations and preparations are frequently missing or patchy. And at the population level we also don’t plan well for what is coming.
So how do we improve this? How can we make better use of data and analysis that shows what populations need? How can we make best use of individual stories and experiences to inspire change? And what are the best ways of combining data for the head with stories for the heart?
This session covered these questions, drawing on different perspectives:
- Kathryn Mannix is a clinician, writer and thinker.
- Justine Wiltshire is a senior analyst at the Strategy Unit with a specialism in end of life.
- Ollie Minton is a clinician, educator and academic.
So we’ve gathered all the data and evidence, we understand the problem and we know what we think the best solution is…so how do we actually make a change?
We all know that change is hard, things might improve for a while but then people just drift back into old habits, others just never seem to get on board!
- Dr Judith Dyson The Improvement Academy and Birmingham City University
Misinformation and conspiracy theories have become endemic and teams within health and care systems have seen the impact on local communities. So, how do we tackle misinformation? This session heard from a range of speakers sharing their experiences and reflections on the challenges of addressing misinformation and building health literacy.
- Professor Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist with an interest in computational modeling.
- Dr Ruth Carlyle is Head of NHS Knowledge and Library Services, working across the Midlands, East and North of England, Health Education England.
- Trish Lacey is a knowledge and evidence specialist at Public Health England
The Midlands Decision Support Network exists to support health and care leaders generate insights from high quality analysis and evaluation and move these into action – better, evidence-informed strategic decisions in Integrated Care Systems.
But moving insight to action is challenging – particularly for those without a direct hand on the levers of power, such as think tanks and researchers. How do we ensure that the insights we generate get converted to meaningful change? What needs to be in place in health and care systems in terms of capacity, capability and culture? What can we learn from the experience of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?
An expert panel explored these questions and more:
The leaders of the national analytical collaboration of think tanks that worked to support the health and care system in the fight against COVID-19…
- Dr Jennifer Dixon Chief Executive, the Health Foundation
- Richard Murray Chief Executive, The King’s Fund
- Nigel Edwards Chief Executive, the Nuffield Trust
- Peter Spilsbury Director, the Strategy Unit
- Professor Jon Glasby Professor of Health and Social Care, the University of Birmingham and Director of the IMPACT centre