KHP highlights from 2023

Looking back at some of the highlights from 2023 at King’s Health Partners.  

Centre for Translational Medicine   

Launched at the KHP Annual Conference 2023, the Centre for Translational Medicine brings together the organisations of King’s Health Partners and generous funding from the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity to work in partnership to improve the health of people locally, nationally, and globally, by accelerating research and innovation that improves the detection, prevention, and treatment of disease.   

The Centre launched its first funding call Essentials for Translational Medical Research in July and a second funding call, the Clinical Research Excellence Fellowships for postdoctoral clinical academics, closes in January 2024.  Find out more about the centre.   

Population Health & Equity Conference  

King’s Health Partners welcomed more than 180 colleagues for the second Population Health & Equity Conference One Year On – From Design to Delivery, which was hosted jointly with the South East London Integrated Care System (SEL ICS). The conference demonstrated how we are working to improve population health across three areas of work.  

Prevention and early detection are the most effective ways of improving outcomes for a population. Long-term conditions and diseases can often be linked to blood pressure, mental health, obesity, smoking, and alcohol - the metrics which make up the KHP Vital 5. By helping people to make changes in these areas we can have a major impact on the health of our population. Find out more.  

Click here for a taste of what we learnt at the conference. 

Academic Surgery graduation

Participants of the Executive Fellowship in Surgical Leadership programme became graduate fellows this year, at a ceremony held in the Robens Suite, at Guy’s Hospital. The fellows were taught innovation and leadership skills by an expert faculty, and they completed individual innovation projects that helped them identify ways of making positive changes for patients across the globe through surgical practice. Find out more about this unique programme.  

Clinical Academic Excellence  

Our clinical academic groups and partnerships are bringing together the best in education and training, research, and clinical services. This positions us as world leaders in driving improvements in patient and population health outcomes and addressing structural causes of burden of disease and health inequalities, locally, nationally, and internationally. 

Across the year we shared case studies and news stories showcasing the impact of our CAPs. In just a few examples: KHP Diabetes, Endocrinology & Obesity partnered with Diabetes Africa on a forum to overcome diabetes inequalities in UK Black, African and Caribbean communities. KHP Haematology continued their focus on sickle cell research and treatment, while KHP Cardiovascular & Respiratory Partnership highlighted cross-partner efforts to support patients living with COPD. 

Among the achievements of our CAGs, this year the palliative care clinical academic group produced a film 'Palliative Care-shifting the focus from equality to equity' as part of online training focusing on the needs and experiences of ethnically diverse patients and families at the end of life.  

Watch the film here.

Ask the Institute 

Ask the Institute is a responsive research advisory service for clinical and managerial staff, which started in KHP Women and Children’s Health Clinical Academic Partnership and has now expanded to a pilot in KHP Neurosciences. It offers hands-on advice and support in: developing research proposals, evidence informed service improvement and development, and robust evaluation of changes to service delivery.  

KHP Digital Health Hub  

King’s Health Partners secured a £2.5 million award to establish a Digital Health Hub for health partners across south east London to access specialised translational infrastructure. This is one of three hubs nationally, and unique to London. The hub will advance the development of digital technologies in healthcare and expedite the time it takes for these innovations to reach patients.   Find out more about the Digital Health Hub.   

KHP Annual Conference 2023 

Together for a healthy future - KHP Annual Conference 2023, brought more than 400 people across the partnership together to explore advancements in research, healthcare, education, and technology.   

More than 40 expert speakers took part in an exciting day of panel debates, presentations, and Q&As, centred around KHP’s priority areas – Personalised Health, Health Digital and Data Sciences, and Population Health with a focus on the mind and body as a golden thread throughout. 

Catch up on the sessions and presentations on YouTube.

KHP Education strategy – Beyond the Curriculum 2023-2028

The KHP Education Strategy 2023-2028, Beyond the Curriculum, formed with the views of 129 leaders across our partnership, focuses on two priorities - leadership and health data sciences. These are supported by our growing Learning Hub and our partnership with King’s Clinical Academic Training Office, which provides advice, best practice, and information on careers and support for funding. Read the KHP Education strategy here.   

Frontiers in Health – KHP Annual Lecture 

Prof Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and Chief Executive of the NIHR gave the keynote address on Science, Research and Policy at the Prof Sir Robert Lechler Frontiers in Health Annual Lecture at the Science Gallery on Tuesday 12 December.  

Prof Chappell spoke about the relationship between science, research and policy. She highlighted the importance of responding to inequalities in health and emphasized how partnership working can make a difference.

Building trust with our communities 

Marginalised communities are underrepresented in health and care research. The South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB), alongside the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Mabadiliko CIC, are hoping to change that through Research Network Development Programme (REND), which aims to build rapport with community-based organisations by establishing models for equitable partnership and collaborative prioritisation of NIHR research. Find out more.   

PEACS video and impact  

The PEACS project (Pain: Equality of care and support in the community) is a pilot project aimed at improving outcomes for people experiencing chronic pain, with a focus on supporting and working with people from Black communities. In a series of video interviews, patients who participated in the project spoke to King’s Health Partners about the impact that PEACS has had on their lives. This project comes under the KHP Mind & Body programme and brings patients together at a series of PEACS workshops. The workshops are delivered using a psychoeducational framework with the capacity to teach and to broaden the patients' understanding and improve their experiences.

 Watch the PEACS playlist to find out more.  

Marking two 75 year anniversaries  

July 2023 marked 75 years of the National Health Service (NHS). Since its establishment in 1948, the NHS has always evolved and adapted to meet the needs of each successive generation. Find out how our partners celebrated 75 years. We also marked the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush arriving in the UK.   

IMPARTS celebration  

This year saw the end of the Mind & Body Integrating Mental and Physical Health Care Systems (IMPARTS) project. At a special closing event, surgeons, professors, psychologists and colleagues were invited to reflect on the legacy of the project. Dr Daniel O’Toole said: “I think the ability to connect physical and mental health teams in an integrated way will remain an important endeavour and remain something that we need to rise to the challenge of”. Click here to read the IMPARTS digital book. 

European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) 

KHP hosted an international symposium as part of the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) in London on 15 June 2023.   

The focus of the symposium was Rethinking European Health Systems: Creating the Sustainable Health Workforce of the Future.  Representatives attended from all EUHA members, which brings together ten of Europe’s leading university hospitals and systems.  

New year's honours and birthday honours

The New Year’s Honours list of 2023 recognised staff and alumni from across the partnership.   

Dr Joel Meyer, intensive care consultant, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Prof Louise Rose, Professor of Critical Care Nursing, King’s College London, received MBEs for their work setting up the Life Lines project in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Life Lines created a secure virtual visiting platform for families whose loved ones were in intensive care units.   

Prof Prokar Dasgupta, the KHP Professor of Surgery, told us he was ‘humbled’ after being awarded an OBE in the first King’s Birthday Honours, one of many instances of recognition for KHP personnel.   

There was further recognition in the new years honours for colleagues from across the partnership which you read about here. 

Impact Report 2022/23 

Read the Impact Report 2022-23 to find out how we are accelerating progress in three ambitious, connected priorities: Personalised Health; Health Digital and Data Sciences; and Population Health, with a mind and body approach throughout everything we do.