{"id":45504,"date":"2019-09-05T10:15:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T09:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=45504"},"modified":"2019-09-05T10:15:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T09:15:21","slug":"paul-burstow-in-a-sector-which-hails-good-evidence-why-do-we-rarely-use-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/09\/05\/paul-burstow-in-a-sector-which-hails-good-evidence-why-do-we-rarely-use-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Burstow: In a sector which hails good evidence, why do we rarely use it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><i>Evidence must guide systemic reform at every level in healthcare as much as it guides medical practice and research, says Paul Burstow<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"standfirst\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/Paul_Burstow.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-41129\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/Paul_Burstow.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/Paul_Burstow.jpg 160w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/Paul_Burstow-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a>For 20 years or more there has been a strong theme in health and social care reforms about the importance of evidence based decision making. NHS managers, clinical leaders, and social workers all claim to make decisions based on evidence. From the way we commission specialist services, through to how we prescribe medicines, we are supposedly driven by evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the level of individual patients<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in terms of treatments and medicines<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014I<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> am sure that most people benefit from evidence-based medicine most of the time. I am less sure, however, that evidence is consistently used by those planning and commissioning at the system level. Yet with the advent of Integrated Care Systems, the decisions that system leaders make will have profound effects on the lives of millions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Variations and inconsistencies<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take integrated care as an example. Even though we know much more than we used to about what works<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">whether it\u2019s discharge to assess, virtual wards, or reablement<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014t<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here are huge variations and inconsistencies in how these models are implemented. Sometimes the similarities end with their nomenclature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">No doubt the evidence base on integrated care could be better. We also need to recognise that commissioning and management decisions are often messy and complex, carried out in a pressured environment where there is rising demand, constrained resources, and competing priorities. Clinicians are more used to the world of randomised control trials, than the messy world of evidence informed policy and system working.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what else is new? What is stopping us?\u00a0In part the answer can be found in how we currently produce and embed evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evidence has sometimes been produced by academics at a distance from those doing the actual work. Moreover, very little focus has been put on dissemination and translation; or implementation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are emerging examples of good practice. In Torbay, for instance, researchers from the local university are being embedded in the NHS and being asked to evaluate the impact of a new health and well-being coordinators initiative. The coordinators talk to the person about what matters to them, set goals and work with the person to find support and connections in the community. The researchers then collect real-time data on what\u2019s working well<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and less well<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and the impact on patients; and then feed that back to commissioners and managers. The successful initiative is now being scaled up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Accessible evidence<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would help? We need evidence which is accessible and user friendly. Evidence needs to be in a range of formats which work for time pressurised managers, such as podcasts, one page briefings and infographics. This isn\u2019t to imply that evidence should be over simplified or even dumbed down, just easier to digest. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scie.org.uk\/nccsc\/quick-guides.asp\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NICE Quick Guides<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offer a useful template, as do The King\u2019s Fund\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingsfund.org.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-03\/payments-and-contracting-for-integrated-care-summary.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">evidence summaries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We also need to support commissioners to understand and act on evidence. In any complex health system, you are confronted with a vast range of data<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">population health data, local evaluations, patient feedback along with a plethora of national studies. How do you know what is good, indifferent, or downright misleading evidence? Innovation foundation Nesta <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alliance4usefulevidence.org\/the-evidence-masterclass\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">use evidence masterclasses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to help civil servants navigate messy evidence. Do we need the same for commissioners and leaders in health?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Evidence minded commissioners\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The NHS faces huge financial challenges and massive health inequalities; decisions based on evidence will be more critical than ever. But too few decisions<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2060\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">about how we allocate resources, about who we commission or how we organise services, are evidence based. This needs to change, or we will continue to miss opportunities to improve health and care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scie.org.uk\/integrated-care\/research-practice\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SCIE: Integrated care research and practice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are bringing together the evidence base and practice guidance on what good integrated care looks like.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Paul Burstow<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:\u00a0<\/strong>None declared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evidence must guide systemic reform at every level in healthcare as much as it guides medical practice and research, says Paul Burstow [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/09\/05\/paul-burstow-in-a-sector-which-hails-good-evidence-why-do-we-rarely-use-it\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","category-nhs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Paul Burstow: In a sector which hails good evidence, why do we rarely use it? 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