The UK is building new hospitals and upgrading its health and social care infrastructure, but the buildings, medical devices, and IT systems often have mismatched lifespans that undermine the investment. This matters because the health and social care system is one of the most complex and rapidly changing organisational environments in the economy. Outdated buildings, convoluted funding mechanisms, and shifting government policies all place new pressures on the underlying infrastructure. A new hospital built under a long-term contract may incorporate diagnostic technologies that become obsolete in a fraction of that time. HaCIRIC aims to embed innovation as normal business among those responsible for delivering infrastructure investment. If successful, the centre will develop tools and processes to help planners, builders, and care providers reconcile these mismatched life cycles. The research tackles procurement, design, construction, operations management, and knowledge management in complex systems. Improving how infrastructure is planned, delivered, and managed could make the entire care system more responsive and efficient—benefits that patients and staff would feel in better buildings, more reliable technology, and smoother care delivery.
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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. All this places new pressures on the underlying infrastructure. These are compounded by two problems. First, there is an historic legacy of out-dated buildings and cultures within the care system. Second, the life cycles of the various elements of the infrastructure / buildings, medical and information technology / are mismatched. Each involves complex supply chains, multiple users with their own needs and differing institutional and funding arrangements. All these 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. Modernising the health and social care infrastructure will therefore require innovative approaches. HaCIRIC will help develop the tools and processes which will embed 'innovation as normal business' amongst those responsible for delivering the investment in infrastructure. Its research programme has been developed in partnership with all the key stakeholders from the care system, including the Department of Health, the NHS, the Department of Trade and Industry and the supply industries. Seven research themes have been identified:- Managing innovation in a context of technological change- Procurement for innovation- Innovative design and construction- Care delivery practices- Delivering improved performance through operations management- Knowledge management in complex systems - Design and evaluation of integrated systems HaCIRIC 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 will be involved in specific research projects. Together this represents a resource valued at more than 11m, of which 7.0m consists of EPSRC support, 2.9m is from the four existing research centres, 500,000 is from the Department of Trade and Industry and 720,000 is from industrial partners. HaCIRIC will therefore represent a substantial resource and a unique capability in skills and knowledge to find solutions to the key healthcare infrastructure problems of the 21st century.
Andrew Price (Co-Investigator)Colin Gray (Co-Investigator)David Gann (Co-Investigator)David John Williams (Co-Investigator)Ghassan Aouad (Co-Investigator)James Barlow (Principal Investigator)Michail Kagioglou (Co-Investigator)Stuart Green (Co-Investigator)
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