Covid has given us the data blueprint for ‘programming’ population health

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ID2020 and the Great Reset really come to mind while reading this report

Progressive health and care systems will evolve around sharing trustworthy data. For Integrated Care Systems, shared information and combined intelligence will be central to understanding where to target resources and interventions to maximise value for patients and populations. Data and analytics will provide the timely insights ICSs need if they are to take action and meet the new triple aim – improve outcomes, tackle inequalities and enhance productivity.

” shared information and combined intelligence will be central to understanding where to target resources and interventions to maximise value for patients and populations “

The theory is increasingly well understood, but in practice, it is still early days. It has been clear for some time that different lenses (clinical; commissioning; quality management; public health; research) on shared data are best combined to improve care. For patients, those systems furthest along the intelligence-led integration path are shifting focus from optimising the episodes or “pitstops” of care to building smarter pathways for better “journeys” of care. For populations, the ICS focus also needs to shift from describing inequalities to programming equity.

“Smarter pathways for better “journeys” of care”- what does this actually mean- for us as individuals?

Cheshire & Merseyside is taking this intelligence-led approach. The UK’s largest mental and community health trust, Mersey Care and the University of Liverpool’s Institute for Population Health partnered with Graphnet to produce CIPHA: Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action. The programme was initiated and then fast-tracked in the pandemic when emergency response teams reported a lack of timely, standardised linked health data to support system-wide actions.

Urgent priorities for responding to covid have determined its development so far. For example, to run a national pilot of rapid antigen “mass” testing for people without covid-19 symptoms, CIPHA took a flow of NHS Test & Trace Pillar 2 data every 30 minutes, supplementing a daily download of Public Health England’s Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) records on local residents.

The CIPHA architects are very clear that it’s not just the technology and infrastructure that’s brought positive results within Cheshire & Merseyside. Being data driven is not a challenge of technology, it’s a challenge of culture, direction and organisational leadership and the willingness and ambition of partners to innovate.

The challenge of culture, direction and organisational leadership..??

Operationally, Cheshire & Merseyside partners were quick to recognise and respond to the need to share information at all levels for health and care system planning, while strategically and in a governance context partners understood that the real value of the data is the policy implications that could be gleaned from it.

I’m not getting a healthcare vibe from this.. It reads like resource distribution for those deemed worthy vs those not worthy.. for the community.