• Date and time: October 31, 14:00 - 16:00.
• IAS Seminar Room, Zeeman Building. Light refreshments will be provided.

Proposal

We want to bring colleagues together from a range of departments from FSEM and FSS to explore the scope for a collaborative research effort in support of this interdisciplinary area of medicine.

To meet the acute medical healthcare needs of our population within our existing infrastructure, we need to deliver as much care as we can outside of traditional hospital environments. We still need to use the skills and resources of hospital clinicians to do this, but working in different ways, often alongside clinicians from primary care, and carers in the home. The experience of patients and carers, and attitudes of clinicians and hospital leaders, is critical in determining how we can change the delivery of care and increase the value of the money that we spend on health and social care. We also need the right medical technologies.

For example, many patients are admitted to Emergency Departments with opportunistic illnesses e.g. a chest infection, urinary tract infection, cellulitis of the skin, that have a created an acute issue with their single or multiple long term conditions. This results in an ‘acute frailty syndrome’ with sudden reduction in function. Such an acute change often results in a transfer to an acute setting for assessment, investigations and treatment. As the population of patients living with frailty increases, the pressure in acute services grows during these crisis presentations. Our emergency departments are permanently congested which in itself causes patient and clinician harm. Deconditioning (decline in physical function) occurs with each admission to hospital. If this can all be detected, diagnosed and treated at home, people will have a greater chance of longer and better lives and the costs to the NHS and social care will be lower.

We want to understand how we can maximise the use of “Hospital at Home” and related ideas to support the NHS in meeting the demand for acute assessment and treatment. This is a truly interdisciplinary problem, involving diagnostic and monitoring technology, treatment delivery platforms, understanding the economics, risk assessment, optimising patient and carer experience along the journey through acute care, and navigating the politics of NHS leadership.

What are the blockers to progress of this approach, and how is Warwick best placed to help?

Dan Lasserson (Professor of Acute Ambulatory Care, Warwick)

Peter Scott (Professor of Chemistry, Academic Director, Health Innovation, Warwick)