L-earning a Living with McLuhan

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan predicted that the future of work would involve -

"learning a living"... .	production
communities of practice	earning a living

Source:
Parchoma, G. (2006). A proposed e-learning policy field for the Academy. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(3), 230-40. (p.232).
Reading for module 2.

CAPITAL [ take ] II or III ...

Thomas Piketty's economic data 'came out of thin air'

(The Guardian)

French economist's bestselling book on growing inequality in west undermined by 'inexplicable' data, says Financial Times

While they debate the data

the evidence

and how this looks 

from the left:                               :from the right

let's not forget the center and ask

where is the neutral, objective space where values must reside?

global health, development, nursing, health information, education

My original source:

FT Weekend, 24-25 May, 2014.

Update 17 June 2014 c/o Channel 4 News UK:

CAPITAL

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

Phil
anthropy

Thomas Piketty's book: Capital in the 21st Century

New Republic: Thomas Piketty Is Pulling Your Leg
The Guardian: Thomas Piketty's proposals are not nearly radical enough

Image source:
http://frenchculture.org/books/events/thomas-piketty-will-discuss-his-book-capital-21st-century

Alex through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life

Alex through the Looking-Glass: How...

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

	...Numbers Reflect Life
Life Reflects Numbers...

Image source:
http://pages.bloomsbury.com/favouritenumber/2

NW England: Pathways to Health and Wealth 31st March 2014 (4-7pm)

Dear all

As discussed in our meeting, here is the website for the LU Cross Faculty KE event Pathways to Health and Wealth taking place on 31^st March 2014 (4-7pm):

http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/healthandwealth/

Please let me or Becky Gordon b.gordon AT lancaster.ac.uk know if you have any queries and please pass on to any of your industry connections who you think might be interested to find out what we do, how we do it and how we can help them do it too!

Thanks, Karen

Dr Karen L Wright
Peel Trust Lecturer in Biomedicine
Faculty of Health and Medicine
Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Furness College
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YG
Email: karen.wright AT lancaster.ac.uk

[ Just to note I have not attended these meetings, the post is copied here to help in a small way with local publicity. PJ ]

Budgeting for Public Involvement in Research

Dear Colleagues,

INVOLVE and the Mental Health Research Network teamed up to produce a new resource to help with budgeting for the costs of public involvement in research. It can be used for everything from putting together an involvement budget for an entire study to working out how much it will cost to run a one-off consultation event.

The first part of the resource is a guide which:

• provides practical advice on what costs are associated with involvement in research
• includes a step-by-step process for identifying the associated costs and planning the budget
• presents examples of research projects with well-developed budgets for involvement work
• contains tips, links to useful websites, and references.

The second part of the resource is an online ‘involvement cost calculator' to work out the costs for your research study.

Please forward this information to your colleagues and networks.

If you have any questions or queries about Budgeting for involvement please contact:

Thomas Kabir
MHRN Service Users in Research Coordinator
Email: thomas.kabir AT kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 0207 848 0609
To find out about INVOLVE visit www.invo.org.uk

To find out more about the Mental Health Research Network visit
www.mhrn.info

My source: Laura Gardner: Research Design Service North West’s e-mail list.

A New Dynamic of Ageing: The NDA Programme & Age UK research showcase of the decade

London, The Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Greater London N1 0QH

You’ll know that the UK population is ageing. You’ll know that there is significant work to be done to be better prepared for ageing in our society. So it’s crucial that all of us who work in and for later life use latest evidence on ageing to support those preparations. The New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) Programme and Age UK are proud to provide a unique opportunity to present that evidence at our joint event, held on Monday 21 October, at the stylish Business Design Centre, Islington, London.

This is the ageing research showcase of the decade, presenting the most comprehensive selection of state-of-the-art ageing research ever seen in the UK. This includes active ageing, quality of life, independence, dignity, money, work, environments, participation and connectivity to name a few. Throughout the day, you can hear from high profile speakers, pick up latest knowledge through our themed sessions, interact with exhibits in our innovative marketplace and meet the researchers. It will also be your chance to network with a wide range of colleagues from the public, private and charity sectors.

http://www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk/showcase.html

Hope to see you there! PJ

Smoking health harm campaign launched UK

A Hodges' model matrix on this theme will follow in the new year.

Bill Nighy Visits Malawi To See the Difference a Robin Hood Tax Could Make

Watch the video of Bill Nighy visiting Malawi to see how the decisions made by bankers are affecting the lives of ordinary people.

Additional link:
Health Protection Agency: HIV in the United Kingdom: 2012 Report

The Information Centre: October bulletin

Welcome to the October edition of IC Knowledge

Welcome back to IC Knowledge, the online bulletin that keeps you up-to-date with new data releases, service news and forthcoming events.

In our first edition we look at:

• New data linkage service now available
• GPES to provide data for QOF payments from April 2013
• Data workshop set to inspire innovation in use of information
• National Diabetes Audit set for busy autumn of activity
• First ever Social Care Outcomes Framework published
• Updated commissioning data sets due next month
• Improved mental health report among new statistics due out soon

Read the latest edition now

My source: IC subscription

Copyright © 2012, Re-used with the permission of the Health and Social Care Information Centre. All rights reserved.

Musings on Integrated Care: A Visible and Invisible Matter

If measures for clinical outcomes, health literacy, patient satisfaction, benefits and many more present a challenge then a measure for integrated care falls into the category of a very steep peak.

It's a nebulous concept, we know what we mean, we recognize the principles and we even allow for variation in what integration and integrated care means for different people.

The January 2012 integrated care report by The King's Fund and Nuffield Trust (my post on this) had me thinking about some of the ingredients that might contribute to measures of integrated care and our efforts to record it. What instruments and formats do we need - what mix of microscope (individual), telescope (population), strobe (snapshot), time lapse (series), objective - subjective? Some elements  then (in no particular order):

Breadth of the 'episode' (primary-secondary-tertiary-palliative)
The number of systems
  information - e-records
  commissioners
  datasets: total, number of gatherers, submissions
The number of people - individuals involved
The number of 'responsible' organisations
 Primary organisational efficiency - Lean Standing?
The number of teams
The number of policies (policy touches)
 The number of interviews, assessments (paper, electronic, formal), care plans, reviews
Opportunities for communications
  potential
  actual
  media forms
  delivery forms (inc. technologies)
Number of handovers
  weighted according to type
Patient experience - measure
 (that is holistic across physical, mental health, social care?)
 staff attitude
 therapeutic relationship engagement (quality)
 therapeutic modalities (quantity)
 educational content, materials provided / information gains
 number of patient (carer) choice points (potential - exercised)
Incidents of positive risk taking
Increase in health literacy
Co-ordination effectiveness
Self-care - autonomy, decision making
Patient (carer) as budget holder
Patient as record holder and direct data source (telecare - data entrant)
Carer involvement
Health : Social care (main dependency, ratio, index)
The number of disparate care philosophies encountered
Diagnoses
Diagnostic investigations complex (location, time)
Declarative success: agreed plan - success?
The geographic encounter footprint
Duration of engagement
Follow-up - care continuity care
Care Disintegration - safety
 care interrupts^# (falls, errors)
 relapse, readmission
 dependency (deferred discharge)
Influence of public engagement - involvement in local health services^*


While many of the above might qualify as candidates for a measure of integrated care, you have to wonder whether in order to measure integration you must measure everything else. It appears here at least that integration and complexity are closely related. Several of the items above might individually represent - and no doubt do - indices of various kinds that also beg definition (e.g., co-ordination, success, philosophies, episode ...).

Although I've referred to 'numbers' you could no doubt refine the list by consulting the literature and considering the quantitative : qualitative mix.

Perhaps the key indicator of integrated care isolates the primary concepts for the person concerned and then fuses those within the INTERPERSONAL and POLITICAL care domains (policy touches would be one example)?

^*How does a measure of integration incorporate those socially excluded?
^#For want of a better word.

Report - Integrated care for patients and populations: Improving outcomes by working together

I've posted on integrated care previously on W2tQ. The core recommendations of this New Year  report on integrated care are:

• government policy should be founded on a clear, ambitious and measurable goal to improve the experience of patients and service users and to be delivered by a defined date
• patients with complex needs should be guaranteed an entitlement to an agreed care plan, a named case manager responsible for co-ordinating care, and access to telehealth and telecare and a personal health budget where appropriate
• change must be implemented at scale and pace; this will require work across large populations, significant reform and flexibility to take forward different approaches.

Publication prompted Time to integrate words with action by Chris Ham and Jennifer Dixon (HSJ 5 January pp. 16-17 - and my source for this news). The report and mention of measures of integrated care that include patient experience provoked further reflection.

Integration in health and social care should be considered critically over the past 25 years and more (but that's a thesis). Evolution in policy matters, but there is a deep archaeology that illustrates the policy aspiration - practice gap the reports priorities seek to address. A comment in response on the King's Fund's site notes the need for (strategies, methods and) a framework. While no magic wand there is a framework that can at least unify disciplines, public and policy makers. And act as a bridge between words and actions.

Integration needs a shared and agreed origin.

(A point* around which disintegration turns)

Although brief (20 pages) the report is an excellent source for references (3 pages) that includes:

Kodner D, Spreeuwenberg C (2002). ‘Integrated Care: Meaning, logic, applications, and implications – a discussion paper’. International Journal of Integrated Care, vol 2,
Available at: www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/article/view/67 (accessed 13 December 2011).

Kodner D (2009). ‘All together now: a conceptual exploration of integrated care’. Healthcare Quarterly, vol 13(Sp), pp 6–15.

Leutz W (2005). ‘Reflections on integrating medical and social care: five laws revisited. Journal of Integrated Care, vol 14, no 5, pp 3–12.

As we try to integrate words and actions we need to remember:

how we dice and slice influences the scope of integration.

We'll explore this more soon.
*Points?

Nick Goodwin, Judith Smith, Alisha Davies, Claire Perry, Rebecca Rosen, Anna Dixon, Jennifer Dixon, Chris Ham Integrated care for patients and populations: Improving outcomes by working together. Report to the Department of Health and NHS Future Forum from The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) in Health

The following text is from the report:

Social Impact Bonds
A new way to invest in better healthcare

PURPOSE

This report is about the potential applicability of Social Impact Bonds
(SIBs) in the health field. The SIB is a financial mechanism where 
investor returns are aligned with social outcomes. The SIB is based on a
contract with government in which the government commits to pay for
an improvement in social outcomes for a defined population. Investors
fund a range of preventative interventions with the goal of improving
the contracted outcomes. If and as the outcomes improve, investors
receive payments from government.

To widespread interest, the first SIB was launched in September 2010. 
Its aim is to reduce reoffending among short sentence male prisoners
leaving Peterborough prison.

Social Finance believes that the reach of the Social Impact Bond 
model is wider than Criminal Justice. We asked Professor Paul Corrigan, 
a leading health adviser, to assess the suitability of the SIB model for 
the NHS. This report presents his thoughts. We hope that his report 
provokes a thoughtful debate on how, or alternatively if, financial
mechanisms such as Social Impact Bonds, might fund new 
interventions, improve people’s well-being and ultimately lead to 
a real change in the health system.

http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/resources/guide/new-way-invest-better-healthcare

Additional link:
Paul Corrigan - blog

My original source: HSJ