Two of the ACI‘s directorates have recently introduced changes to better respond to clinical needs as we support the co-design, development and implementation of innovations in healthcare.
Evidence directorate
The Evidence directorate has a firm commitment to leveraging evidence to support innovation, inform clinical practice, and shape organisational models of care. The directorate has recently expanded to include a team skilled in evaluation. The directorate draws on published peer-reviewed and grey literature, quantitative data repositories, and experiential evidence from clinicians and consumers.
It has two streams:
- Evidence Generation and Dissemination: focused on accessing, collating, analysing, synthesising and reporting available evidence. This stream produces evidence checks, analyses data and reports on unwarranted clinical variation. They lead the collation of evidence for new models of clinical care, and manages the ACI research function.
- Program Planning and Evaluation: focused on designing and assessing programs, projects and services. This stream produces evaluation reports, manages statewide clinical audits, and builds economic and dynamic models for scenario exploration.
Both streams look to answer ‘what works’? They provide responsive and ‘good enough’ information to inform decision making; and to build capability in the use of evidence in healthcare innovation and clinical care.
“We have been privileged to play a significant role in the COVID-19 Critical Intelligence Unit and we are now applying many of the learnings from that work to directorate-wide efforts moving forward,” says Kim Sutherland, Director of the Evidence directorate.
STEP (System Transformation Enablement and Patient Partnerships) directorate
Formerly the System Transformation Evaluation and Patient Experience directorate, STEP has undergone some changes following the introduction of a new Patient Partner role and a renewed emphasis on partnerships and collaboration.
Teams in the STEP directorate provide capability and capacity for health system transformation, which is why the word 'enablement' is included in the new directorate name.
STEP has set a goal to expand on capturing and using patient experience data and to consistently include patient partnerships to support the development of new models of work.
The STEP teams are:
- Clinical Information and Decision Support
- Clinical Implementation
- Clinical Innovation Redesign
- Consumer Engagement.
“Our vision is to create, enable and sustain system transformation through partnerships and collaboration,” says Lea Kirkwood, Director of STEP. "The directorate does this by:
- partnering with patients and clinicians
- building capability and capacity to lead reforms and innovation
- leading greenfield programs to test and refine innovative ways to deliver care
- reflecting on and adapting our improvement, change and implementation approaches to contribute to a learning healthcare system
- guiding the collection, understanding and use of information to drive service improvement and transformation."