Integrating Healthcare Services, Technology and Infrastructure. Delivering Sustainable Innovation
Prof James Barlow and the HaCIRIC team
Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC)
Imperial College London, UK
(Click to download full paper)
Planning, delivering and operating infrastructure to meet future healthcare needs poses significant challenges. The healthcare infrastructure system is a prime example of a complex engineered system. It consists of many functional and operationally interconnected built and technical elements which interact with non-built systems, the organisational and financial structures that comprise health service. The healthcare infrastructure and service systems are subject to continuously evolving demand.
And the dynamics between innovation in the technologies, infrastructure and services are complex because their lifecycles are mismatched. Given this context, planning, designing and delivering innovative infrastructure to deliver high value healthcare is a major challenge for policy makers, health services and industry.
The presentation will report on work carried out by HaCIRIC (Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre) to address this issue. HaCIRIC is a collaborative venture between four UK universities – Imperial College London and the universities of Loughborough, Reading and Salford. The centre has received over £10m of funding for an initial five years from the UK’s Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.
HaCIRIC currently has a portfolio of over ten collaborative and multi-disciplinary research projects focusing on questions such as benefits realisation in planning healthcare infrastructure, evidence based decision making through the use of simulation and modelling, and delivery models for adaptable infrastructure. The presentation will discuss findings from these projects and the generic lessons for healthcare infrastructure across the world.
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