Promoting joint analytical problem solving: building on the Welsh Modelling Collaborative A funding programme that is bringing together analysts and academia

Modelling in health care involves analysts testing a range of scenarios to enable them to better understand the problems faced by people when accessing services, and by clinicians, planners, decision-makers and managers when designing services.

Although modelling in health care is not new, it is not currently fundamental to decision making and planning. Analytical teams within health care organisations are often small and not able to access the level of expertise needed to help them apply new modelling methods.

About the programme

This programme is bringing together analysts from NHS Wales and academics to work on projects that address common problems for clinicians, managers, planners and decision-makers; developing solutions that can be tested across NHS Wales organisations.

The Welsh Modelling Collaborative (WMC) has existed since 2016 as an informal network. Funding from the Health Foundation through this programme is enabling it to provide further support and improve the exchange of knowledge and expertise in health care modelling, so that the work can have a greater operational impact.

Projects and outputs

Over three years, six projects will be chosen by the WMC programme board. The first project is looking at the barriers and enablers to using modelling in health care, to set a baseline for the programme. The second project is focusing on mental health. Further projects will be prioritised as the programme progresses.

The outputs of the individual projects will vary depending on their scope, but will include frameworks and good practice examples, and tools to use with both analysts and the end users (clinicians, decision-makers, planners and managers) to build analytical capability. The projects will all support the transfer of knowledge and expertise between academic and service settings, and translate data into knowledge to improve patient care.

Sharing the learning

Key to the programme is sharing the research and findings as openly and as often as possible. This will increase the pace and scale of modelling initiatives that have been shown to be beneficial. National collaborative events and hackathons will also be held as part of the programme, with participants interested in health and care modelling welcome (follow the WMC on Eventbrite to stay updated).

Outputs of the programme as a whole will include examples of joint solutions, observations on the modes of successful collaboration and lessons learned, and recommendations for other collaborative models and ideas for future strategies.