Primary care Lecturer and GP awarded Fellowship to improve the quality of care in the UK

As part of the Fellowship, Robbie will spend a year in the United States conducting research into quality improvement efforts in US and UK healthcare systems. He will receive a paid sabbatical from his existing role and will have the opportunity to mix with leading US health professionals, policy makers and analysts whilst in the US.

There is good evidence to suggest that efforts to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of both the UK and US healthcare systems are accelerating. However, improvements may be hindered by the lack of coordination across all levels of the healthcare systems. Robbie’s research will map out the various levels (such as national, organisational, team and individual) at which quality improvement efforts take place using in-depth interviews, literature reviews and document analysis. He will compare the nature and intensity of efforts in the UK and US and will identify gaps and weaknesses that need to be addressed in order to improve patient care.

Robbie said; “There is a strong case for coordinating quality improvement across healthcare systems so as to ensure the most appropriate and efficient use of resources. As well as highlighting weaknesses, I hope to explore why important gaps in the quality and safety of care are not or cannot be sufficiently addressed within current arrangements and resources. Thanks to the Fellowship, I am in a unique place to learn from the US context and to use the results of my research to influence strategies for achieving NHS targets, implementing NICE guidelines and NSFs and developing managed clinical networks.”

Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of The Health Foundation, said; “We’re delighted to award Robbie one of our two Harkness/Health Foundation Fellowships. We were particularly impressed by his proposed research project and his plans to disseminate his findings to UK policy makers. As one of our Fellows, he will receive our continued support to ensure that his year in the US is fruitful for his personal and professional development and that his important research findings help to influence policy and improve patient care.”

Recruitment for the Harkness/Health Foundation Fellowships in Healthcare Policy for 2007-2008 is currently underway. Applicants must demonstrate a strong interest in health policy development and implementation and propose a research study that falls within the scope of The Commonwealth Fund's national programme areas, examples of which can be found at www.cmwf.org Projects must focus on analysing a feature of the US healthcare system that has direct relevance to the policy agenda in the UK. The Health Foundation is particularly keen to support studies that focus on improving the quality, safety and efficiency of UK healthcare services.