Lessons from the KHP Annual Conference

Last week, 635 people from around the globe joined KHP’s hybrid 2024 Annual Conference, making it our biggest and best year yet. We rounded up some of the key themes and take aways from the day. 

Leadership style matters 

During the conference’s opening keynote, our new Exec Director Prof Graham Lord was joined by former Australian Prime Minister, The Hon Julia Gillard AC, bringing an international perspective from the opposite side of the world to our venue in south-east London. 

Graham reflected on the fact that despite NHS challenges, he sees the commitment and desire of staff to make a difference on a daily basis. The two leaders spoke about the role of hope in motivation and retention, and the importance of guiding people through a journey of change. 

For Julia, change can go wrong if only explained once and leaders don’t modify the change journey to understand the human dimension, words which may resonated with many as the NHS looks to rebuild.  

“You’ve got to be painting the picture [for staff] about why change will ultimately be better for them as well as for everyone who uses and replies on the NHS and hopefully better for their working lives" 

Impact on a global scale 

“The work we do locally can be globally relevant”, said Prof Phil Newsome, Director, KHP Centre for Translational Medicine. This theme re-emerged when colleagues and an expert by experience, Ronke Dosumu, shared insights into sickle cell disease – a condition that is in fact the 12th most common cause of death in children under the age of five years worldwide. Despite supporting individuals with sickle cell disease in south east London and beyond, the work of our partners can be scaled for global impact. Scale can also be enabled by the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine – by helping to remove barriers in research, fast-track results, and create new paths for more people to pursue clinical -academic careers.  

Prof Graham Lord, Exec Director at KHP, said:

“Ideation in research is not a problem. Pace and scale is. We must accelerate translation of research into patient care. This will be transformational for the delivery of impact.” 

Communities are our guiding light 

Julia Gillard observed that communities want to see the NHS succeed and want to be involved in conversations about reform to make it a success.  

We heard multiple speakers reflecting on the importance of patient and public involvement (PPIE) - many of our clinical-academics working on complex research told us they benefitted from working with experts by experience. It helped them refine their research and practice, and make sure their language is accessible. 

Listening to patients was at the forefront of patient Angela Price-Rowe's story. In front of our audience, she shared that she was at a five on the pain scale, although no one would necessarily spot this. It was only through the PEACS project that she was able to connect with others and form a ‘pain family’ with people who listened.  

“We’ve all experienced a toothache, imagine your toothache ten out of ten and it’s the whole of your body. Nobody can see it, nobody can understand it, so I've had to figure out a way to medical teams, to family, to workplace, what I deal with on a daily basis.” 

Reflecting on the wider debates around the future priorities for the NHS - Dan Barrett told us how pivoting the health system towards prevention can only be achieved by engaging and listening to communities and experts by experience. 

Diversity in design and delivery 

Serving a variety of communities in one of the most diverse cities in the world, and ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion runs through every aspect of our work, is vital. 

“Diversity must be considered from the earliest stages of research design”, said Prof Emily Williams of King’s College London. Dr Daniel Hadfield, a Critical Care Nurse Researcher, added that the “equal importance of having a diverse base of researchers to help bring in a wider range of perspectives.” 

As presented by Naomi Limbachiya , researchers at King’s College London have developed a new approach to research study recruitment, called the ‘King’s Model’, to attract people from diverse backgrounds to participate in research. Following the introduction of the King’s Model, recruitment of people from diverse backgrounds in commercial interventional studies increased from 6.4% to 16.1%, and for non-commercial studies, from 30.2% to 41.0% and 59.2% in the selected studies.   

Dr Sabrina Bajwah reflected how a focus on equality in general terms leaves an inability to respond to individual cultural needs. She shared “this equal response will lead to unequal outcomes”. The equal care response causes distress for ethnically diverse patients and is an example of structural racism. We must adjust the models of care and everything that we do to meet the needs of patients, shifting the focus from equality to equity.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is not a tick box 

Inspired by the experts by experience who bravely shared their stories, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Chair, Ms Rantimi Ayodele, reflected on her lived experience. She shared how she efforts to advance EDI have failed in the past. She explained how it is often considered once everything else is done, but at the point, it’s often too late. Evidence presented throughout the conference showed that when EDI is part of our everyday decision-making, it leads to benefits for patients.  

Healthcare should take place everywhere 

A lot of our thinking has centred on primary and secondary care being delivery vehicles for healthcare. However, we are now seeing healthcare innovations being taken outside of typical healthcare environments – making care more accessible for people in the community at a time and place that works for them. 

Coolzen - a wearable technology that alleviates discomfort caused by hot flushes in menopausal women - was one such innovation showcased at the conference. Despite affecting over one billion people, Prof Prashant Jha had to develop a jacket to replicate hot flushes for those who do not experience them, just to prove the innovation was needed and that hot flushes are a real, life-debilitating problem. Informed by the perspectives of 3000 women, Prof Jha’s team created wearable tech that uses machine learning algorithms to detect menopause symptoms and personalise a non-pharmalogical treatment. The technology has already helped women to sleep better and regain lost confidence.  

Dr Saima Ajaz shared how she has been advocating for the creation of ‘lifestyle hubs’ in both community and hospital settings. Drawing inspiration from the Multi-disciplinary Clinic (MDC) model, these hubs could transform the healthcare experience, making it more holistic, efficient, and tailored to individual needs – covering topics from sleep to exercise.  

Data may reveal surprises 

Prof Mark Ashworth delved deep into patient data in south east London and found chronic pain was the second highest cause of GP appointments in his area. Having that knowledge at his fingertips helped him and his practice adapt to his patients’ needs. In an increasingly digital NHS, healthcare professionals could benefit from being able to access and interpret available data.  

Dr Jayati Das-Munshi said stepping back and looking at data across different fields will reveal areas of overlap. For patient care to be a holistic success, we must consider this.

Poster winners 

As well as hearing from experts across the partnership, this year staff and students across KHP were invited to enter a digital poster competition to showcase work that aligns with these priorities: 

• education and training to address health inequalities; 

• interprofessional education and collaboration; 

• leadership and professional development; 

• health data sciences and AI in education; 

• widening participation and diversity. 

A huge congratulations to our winners, who are listed below. You can see the submitted posters here. 

What’s next 

“Our job in the partnership is to make it easier for you to do your amazing work” - with less than a month in post Prof Graham Lord outlined his vision for King’s Health Partners. We’ve got to speed up the time it takes from research breakthroughs to become everyday patient care.

Watch the KHP Annual Conference on YouTube.