Professional Engagement Report
Connected Health Cities (CHC) was a project that explored the idea of a Learning Health System (LHS) and the role of connecting local health data and technology to improve care, planning and research for people in Northern England. Better use of data and informatics technology has been described a key enabler to supporting citizens’ health and wellbeing (Wachter 2016), and supporting the transformation of services delivering care.
Achieving the vision of making the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) the best learning health system in the world requires game-changing engagement. Connecting and collaborating with professionals – frontline practitioners and leaders, all experts in their own domains – was a core element, contributing to the overall CHC NENC and Great North Care Record (GNCR) programmes aims in the North East and North Cumbria.
The aim of the professional engagement work-package was to lead the design and implementation of a learning community strategy for the Connected Health Cities programme, including the Great North Care Record, in the North East and North Cumbria. This included liaising with key stakeholders in the co-design of an initial 2.5 year programme, to produce interactive learning resources for the programme, develop and promote innovative learning community and practice development methods (where necessary adopting appropriate technologies).