In November, OBH started a new programme of work with King’s College London, on understanding multiple Long-Term Conditions in Lambeth and Southwark, funded by Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity (GSTTc). The programme aims to explore and understand people who are at high risk of developing multiple long-term conditions, and delay their onset or prevent the development of multimorbidity.

OBH have been building models around defining, identifying and understanding people with long-term conditions as part of their work on the development of the Bridges to Health segmentation data model. They will be bringing this expertise to the programme, and expanding the evaluation and analysis to deep dive into multimorbidity. With both national and international approaches to defining a LTC and multiple-LTCs varying significantly, the initial stage of the project involves developing and collectively agreeing upon a definition. This is a crucial part of any work on multimorbidity as stated by the recent Academy of Medical Sciences report on multimorbidity. The long-term conditions that will be defined in scope of the programme will be included based on those conditions that impact people’s lives, that are highly prevalent, and that are most referenced by national and international sources.

We look forward to working with GSTT Charity and King’s College through the duration of this programme; with the ambitious vision of further understanding progression, and delaying or preventing the onset of multimorbidity.