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Background
Modernising the UK's health and social care system is a priority for government and for the country as a whole. To do this, wide ranging organisational and funding reforms are being put in place. An unprecedented investment to renew the built and technical infrastructure for delivering care is also underway: new hospitals and primary care centres are being built, information and communication technology is being upgraded and new technologies for diagnosing and treating disease are being introduced.
Planning and delivering infrastructure to meet future healthcare needs poses significant challenges...
HaCIRICThe Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre is a collaboration between existing research centres at Imperial College London and the Universities of Loughborough, Reading and Salford. Additional partners from other universities, industry and the care system are involved in specific research projects. Together this represents a resource valued at more than £10m, of which £7.2m consists of EPSRC support and £2.9m is from the four existing research centres.
HaCIRIC's focus is on the underlying built and technical infrastructure for health and social care, and the interaction between this infrastructure and change and innovation in care services.
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The centre’s purpose is to deliver research findings which will be instrumental in ensuring this investment achieves its full potential by improving the way infrastructure is planned, delivered and managed.
People
The collaborative and multi-disciplinary nature of our research team is a critical success factor for generating new knowledge in a way that is marked by creativity, robust analysis and theoretical underpinning.
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HaCIRIC, the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre
Modernising the UK's health and social care system is a priority for government and for the country as a whole. To do this, wide ranging organisational and funding reforms are being put in place. An unprecedented investment to renew the built and technical infrastructure for delivering care is also underway: new hospitals and primary care centres are being built, information and communication technology is being upgraded and new technologies for diagnosing and treating disease are being introduced.
If world-class infrastructure is to be delivered, this investment must achieve its full potential. The aim of HaCIRIC is to establish a new research centre to help accomplish this. HaCIRIC's focus is on the built and technical infrastructure for health and social care, and the interaction between infrastructure specification and the way patients are treated. Improving the way this is planned, delivered and managed is at the core of HaCIRIC's activity.
What are the challenges? The health and social care system is one of the most complex and rapidly changing organisational and technical environments in any sector of the economy. Many stakeholders are involved in delivering care, funding mechanisms are convoluted, and patterns of demand and use are changing, as are government health policies.
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Challenges
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The health and social care system is one of the most complex and rapidly changing organisational and technical environments in any sector of the economy.
Many stakeholders are involved, funding mechanisms are complicated, patterns of demand and use are evolving, and there is a dynamic policy environment.
All this places great pressure on the underlying infrastructure which is compounded by two problems. First, there is an historic legacy of out-dated buildings and cultures within the care system.
Second, the lifecycles of the various elements of the system – the built and technical environment, service delivery practices and policies – a re mismatched. Some involve complex supply chains, multiple users with their own needs, and differing institutional and funding arrangements which have to be reconciled.
For example, the current PFI programme for new hospitals involves supply contracts for thirty years or more, but incorporates technologies which have five year life cycles to help deliver diagnostics and therapies which are undergoing rapid evolutionary change.
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Member institutions and staff
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• Mr Niluka Domingo, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Ms Erica Ricks, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Krusha Patel, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Mr Omid Titidezh, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Pawel Wolyenic, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Masoumeh Nazarian, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Zulfikar Adamu, Research Student, Loughborough University
• Prof. Stuart Green, Lecturer, University of Reading• Dr. Abbas Elmualim, University of Reading
• Prof. Keiichi Nakata, PhD Supervisor, University of Reading
• Dr. Sep Arkani, Senior Research Fellow, University of Reading• Dr. Richard Davies, Research Fellow, University of Reading • Ms. Hedieh Wojgani, Research Fellow, University of Reading
• Mr. Jaw-kai Wang, Research Fellow, University of Reading • Dr. Chris Harty, Research Fellow, University of Reading • Mr. Stuart Moran, Research Student, University of Reading • Mrs. Amna Shibeika, Research Assistant, University of Reading
• Dr. John Rooke, Research Fellow, University of Salford• Mr. Stelios Sapountzis, Research Fellow, University of Salford
• Mr. Ricardo Codinhoto, Research Fellow, University of Salford• Ms. Kathryn Harris, Research Assistant, University of Salford
• Mr. Naveed Raja, Research Student, University of Salford • Mr. Steven Ruddock, Research Student, University of Salford
• Ms. Bora Trimcev, Programme Administrator, HaCIRIC - Imperial College
• Ms. Shelagh McKay, Administrator, Reading
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