CLAHRC Learning Event and Debate with Paul Plsek at the BMA
Paul Plsek Learning Event
The NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London hosted two events featuring leading international innovator - Paul Plsek, who is Director of the Academy for Large Scale Change at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and is well known for his pioneering efforts in bringing modern quality management techniques to healthcare organizations.
The learning event, began with Paul Plsek describing his experiences of innovation as an engineer at Bell Laboratories, a research and development institution, in the United States, where he was also Director of corporate quality planning at AT&T, and continues to work as a consultant to healthcare organisations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Kaiser Permanante.
The focus for the learning event was how healthcare organisational change can be achieved. Paul Plsek described how an innovative approach of directed creativity, an approach which recognises a distinction between complicated and complex challenges. For example a complicated challenge would be the challenge of sending a rocket to the moon, which requires various design, technical, and testing stages to achieve the final stage through a structured process. Raising a child was explained as being a complex process, hence the major differences between children raised in the same family. Paul explained the similarities with healthcare, which due to the multitude of professions, organisations and processes could often.
Paul Plsek went on to lead a range of interactive excercises and focused discussions on how creative approaches could be applied to long-term issues, which could benefit from adopting an innovative approach.
The learning event was also an opportunity for project teams, comprised of multi-professional members, who are spread across multi-site locations in healthcare organisations in northwest London, to share some of their most difficult challenges with Paul Plsek, who then spent time with CLAHRC project teams advising them on the key issues to achieve their innovative goals to deliver better patient care.
For further information on future CLAHRC learning events please contact Rowan Myron, CLAHRC Programme lead for collaborative learning
and delivery on r.myron@imperial.ac.uk or 0208 746 8848
CLAHRC Discussion Event: How can directed creativity support the NHS to innovate in a financially challenging environment?
Professor Derek Bell, Director of NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London, faciliatated an international panel discussion, which began with a presentation by Paul Plsek, which gave some background on the work of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and gave an international perspective by sharing examples such as a flu vaccination programme, using innovative approaches such as drive-through access to medical care, and the potential for learning from other sectors such as retail and manufacturing. The international panel included the following speakers:
Nigel Edwards, Director of Policy, NHS Confederation
Prof Azeem Majeed, general practitioner, Professor of Primary Care and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health Imperial College London and co-director of NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London
Andrew MacCallum, Director of Nursing and Patient Services, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust, and member of Core Group for CLAHRC for Northwest London
Paul Plsek, Director of the Academy of Large Scale Change, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, External Advisory Group member for NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London, Chair for Innovation at the Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle); advisor to Kaiser Permanente; researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, Vermont-Oxford Network, and the Institute of Medicine
Dr Kurt Stange, family physician, epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and External Advisory Group member for NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London,
The event was also webcast on Second Life, for further information on the learning event and international panel discussion please contact the CLAHRC office on 0208 746 5966.
Useful websites
http://www.institute.nhs.uk/academy_for_large_scale_change/academy_public/the_academy.html
https://www.kaiserpermanente.org
https://www.virginiamason.org/home/