News & Blog

CEO Rupert speaks at King’s Fund Annual Conference

CEO Rupert joined IBM’s Chief Health Officer Dr Kyu Rhee, IBM’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Mark Davies and IBM’s Senior Healthcare Consultant, Alan Campbell in a panel discussion on the first day of the King’s Fund Annual Conference.

With a specific focus on the way in which NHS England’s Health Systems Support Framework can support population health and integrated care, the panel discussed data and analytics readiness, data governance challenges, and the importance of including the entire population and their needs in that analysis. Following the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s Prevention Strategy, an important focus on primary prevention for people who are currently in good health was also discussed. Using data analysis techniques such as machine learning and AI, integrated care systems can have the insights that will enable them to understand those most at risk of developing long-term conditions, for example, and interventions that are most likely to delay their onset of chronic conditions.

The session was part of the two-day King’s Fund conference focusing on population and public health, finance and funding, integrated care systems and the relationship between the public and the NHS.

OBH’s official Clinical Associates Network launch event!

We are excited to announce that we our hosting our first ever Clinical Associates Network event! A great opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and learn more about value-based payments, outcomes measurement and HEALTHSPAN.

There will be a brief presentation on value-based healthcare and outcomes, as well as an overview of OBH’s current work (including HealthSpan) with the NHS. Guests will then hear from two current members of the network, Dr Toby Colgate-Stone (Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon at King’s College Hospital) and Ivan Beckley (UCL Medical student and former OBH intern) and hear their thoughts on current value and outcomes work in the UK and the future of the NHS.

If you’re already a member or a clinician/medical student interested in our work at OBH, register here and join us on Tuesday 4th December from 5-8pm at the King’s Fund!

The OBH Clinical Associates Network is formed of clinicians and medical students who are dedicated to growing the value-based community in the UK and globally.

Ellie selected for Value-Based Healthcare Delivery course at Harvard!

Our very own Senior Health Outcomes Analyst Ellie has been selected for the Value-Based Healthcare Delivery course at Harvard Business School in Boston!

The one-week intensive seminar will include a variety of faculty topic lectures, panel discussions and case studies highlighting real-life examples of how organisations and health systems can implement value-based delivery models. Ellie will join Rupert, Juliana and Nasrin, and a large number of our Clinical Associates in having completed this course.

We are all delighted for Ellie and hope she enjoys this fantastic opportunity!

Our new ‘Outcomes Library’ fresh and hot off the press!

In October we published our ‘Outcomes Library’; a longlist of outcome measures grouped by population segment.

With 122 outcomes, the extensive list allows health systems to select, vote and prioritise outcomes to develop locally configured Outcomes Frameworks. OBH’s Outcomes Platform provides the numbers for each outcome on the framework on a monthly, and near real-time basis.

Each outcome measure has been fully developed and validated either by OBH or from an existing national source, for use at local level. The library contains Clinical Social Outcome Measures, using existing linked, local data from administrative and clinical systems across multiple care settings, now including HEALTHSPAN too!

Download the Outcomes Library here.

Rupert speaks at the UK Health Show

An exciting few days for CEO Rupert at the UK Health Show on the ‘Commissioning for the Future’ stage!

Taking part in two panel discussions, he discussed the importance of collaboration with STPs to enable local health system transformation as well as the incentivising of prevention vs payment by results. Featuring a range of people from legal, clinical and more corporate backgrounds, both panels covered various themes including cancer, mental health and long-term conditions. There was also a specific focus on the challenges and opportunities of system integration and transformation.

With a notable emphasis on the role of technology in optimising healthcare delivery throughout the event, this year’s edition of the UK Health Show was the largest to date. This provided a fantastic opportunity for clinicians and healthcare professionals amongst others to help their organisations play a part in shaping the NHS into a sustainable healthcare system for years to come!

Rupert part of Matt Hancock’s HealthTech delegation at World Economic Forum, China

A productive, inspiring week for our CEO Rupert at the World Economic Forum in China, showcasing innovation and collaboration in Digital Health on an international scale!

With enlightening sessions on the Future of Healthcare and Machine Learning, as well as discussion with Secretary of State Matt Hancock, the event firmly reinforced the power of some of the UK’s leading HealthTech SMEs in the use of technology to improve prevention and empowerment.

A fantastic step in ensuring better health outcomes and sustainable costs of care, emphasising the importance of prevention and ensuring people never become ‘patients’ in the first place. Through systematic measurement, understanding and improvement of HEALTHY LIFESPAN and HEALTHSPAN, sustainable life costs of care can become a reality and allow health systems to reduce the lifetime burden of ill health.

Great news for OBH and the sustainability of our healthcare system for generations to come!

Juliana speaks at Bevan Brittan Digital Health Forum

Speaking at the Bevan Brittan Digital Health Forum, cofounder and COO Juliana discussed the latest on protecting innovations, specifically the importance of safeguarding intellectual property within a start-up.

She shared OBH’s experience and learnings from the last 5 years, showcasing our evolution from “reactive” to “strategic” when it comes to managing intellectual property.

Bevan Brittan’s Digital Health Forum in September formed part of a series of conferences whereby industry regulators, consumers and providers discuss the emergence of ideas and themes within the health tech space amongst industry leaders.

Off to China with Matt Hancock!

Our CEO Rupert is joining the Secretary of Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, with his HealthTech delegation to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of New Champions in China this week!

The World Economic Forum is an international organisation for public-private cooperation, engaging the leading political and business leaders.

Rupert is looking forward to joining Matt Hancock and the other leaders in the delegation, and seeing what the week has to hold!

Nasrin and Rupert speak at NHS Expo 2018

The NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo is a celebration of innovation and collaboration in the NHS and industry, made even more special this year with the commemoration of the NHS’s 70th birthday.

Featuring exhibitors and talks from all aspects and areas of health and care, including a talk from current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, who highlighted the fortified health tech ecosystems we could create by including SMEs and health tech innovations in our care systems.

Day 1 of the expo saw our CTO Nasrin sitting in a techUK panel on how we can make the most of the data in the NHS, and spoke more in depth on data for outcomes based approaches and population health management, and HealthSpan!

On day 2, CEO Rupert shared his experiences of being a part of the NHS Innovation Accelerator and sat on a panel with IBM on integrated care and population health management.

HEALTHSPAN featured in The Times!

If you’ve been following us lately you’ll know that we recently launched our novel suite of outcome measures: HEALTHSPAN!

We’re very excited about the potential HEALTHSPAN holds to help keep people healthy longer and make health systems more sustainable. We believe HEALTHSPAN is arguably one of the most important population outcomes that health and care systems should be measuring, so we’re delighted that its importance has been picked up by The Times. To read our full feature, see here.

“As we progress our plans to more integrated health and care services across England, I would encourage anyone involved in planning, paying for or delivering health services to start measuring HEALTHSPAN,” said Jonty Heaversedge, medical director for primary care and digital transformation at NHS England(London).

In case you missed what HEALTHSPAN is about, it is a novel suite of metrics that provide a unique way of measuring the health of a population that we’ve worked hard on refining. Discover more at humanhealthspan.com

HEALTHSPAN: OBH’s latest development and ultimate outcome

On the day of the 70th birthday of the NHS, we were delighted to announce our latest and most exciting development (and the most important outcome) yet … HEALTHSPAN!

HEALTHSPAN is a suite of measures, focussing on the currently healthy population, that helps health and care systems measure how long they can support and help us stay healthy, for longer!

We know health systems largely focus on looking after people who are already experiencing ill health. But if health systems put a focus on increasing people’s HEALTHSPAN, people will be spending more of their lives in good health. Not only does giving people more years of good health improve their quality of life, it will also save the NHS money at the same time.

Read more about HEALTHSPAN and check out its brand new website here: www.humanhealthspan.com and follow us on twitter @humanhealthspan.

OBH on G-Cloud 10!

We are happy to announce that the Crown Commercial Service has awarded Outcomes Based Healthcare supplier status on the latest Digital Marketplace platform, G-Cloud 10!

The OBH Outcomes Platform is available as a Cloud Software Service and provides users with true health outcome measures at a population and cohort/condition level. The Outcomes Platform offers insights that can help drive clinical decisions, as well as support commissioning decisions for outcomes-based contracts.

In addition, OBH offers a range of support services via the Cloud Support Service framework – enabling clients to navigate the landscape of health and care outcomes and prepare them for seamless use of the OBH Outcomes Platform.

Population segment specific. Person-centred. Meaningful insights. Keeping people healthy longer. It’s all we do and love!
Find us on G-Cloud 10 for the OBH Outcomes Platform and Support Services.

OBH hat-trick in OHT 70healthtech!

Our awesome friends over at One HealthTech have been celebrating 70 years of the NHS by featuring one profile a day of 70 people spearheading innovation in the NHS leading up to the NHS birthday!

OBH’s very own co-founder/CTO Nasrin , senior analyst Ellie , and advisory board member Pam Garside , were all featured! With such great backgrounds and pioneering work, we can’t help but be inspired by them and motivated to improve healthcare.

To see other profiles featured in 70healthtech, see here.

Paying for what matters most: the future of outcomes-based payments in healthcare

CEO Rupert recently wrote an article featured in the Future Healthcare Journal, “Paying for what matters most: the future of outcomes-based payments in healthcare.” With debates on how to implement outcomes-based approaches increasing, Rupert addresses many of the surrounding questions, problems with the status quo, and how we can get outcomes-based payments off the ground.

It is already clear that outcomes tend to be more stable over time than quality process measures. Nobody with diabetes wants a stroke now, or in ten years time. But new population metrics are required for us to create healthy and financially sustainable health systems. As Rupert puts it, “Unless improvements in life expectancy are more than matched by improvements in people’s ‘healthspans’, then lifetime costs of care will only continue to escalate unsustainably. However, it is extremely hard to improve what is not measured. In this context, the need to develop and agree on a definitive, population-level measure of ‘healthspan’ has never been more pressing.”

Measures that reflect the proportion of a person’s life span which is spent predominantly healthy would make excellent markers of the success of primary prevention, and are essential to the achieving sustainability of health and care systems. Read more of what Rupert has to say on it here.

Juliana speaks at UK e-Health Week 2018

Presenting at this year’s UK e-Health week was our COO Juliana, speaking to the subject of “Owning it: by the people for the people, are value based care systems possible?”

Discussing crucial matters surrounding value based systems, Juliana highlighted how the current national frameworks were not designed for outcomes based commissioning, often using only single care setting datasets, with annual aggregate figures, that often have a long timelag to publication. To succeed in outcomes based models, we need to use local linked datasets across all care settings, and provide an independent view of that information to all providers. Outcomes based commissioning is possible, but only if a single definition of value is agreed upon.

Still skeptical about outcomes? Read our Outcomes Myths to debunk some other outcome misconceptions and understand our take on them.

OBH top 10 finalist for Pfizer Healthcare Hub!

We are delighted to have been chosen by Pfizer as a top 10 finalist in their second year of the ‘Healthcare Hub’. The Healthcare Hub is dedicated to supporting digital healthcare and achieving better health outcomes in the UK – just like us! We are very excited about this opportunity and what it could hold for the future of OBH, stay tuned!

Rupert at the Westminister Health Forum on the future of payment systems in healthcare

This latest Westminster Health Forum Keynote Seminar was tackling ‘Priorities for improving payment systems and reimbursement in healthcare’.

Talking about payment for outcomes, Rupert spoke to the topic of ‘Priorities for tariff system reform: appropriate incentives, data use and developing independent oversight’. Rupert described how we need a future currency which expands across the care cycle, with mandatory outcomes monitoring and preferably an element of payment for outcomes. Only focusing on outcome measurement for single conditions ignores the ‘healthy’ segment of our population and misses the opportunity to focus on keeping them healthy! Outcomes are a stable currency and a payment mechanism that actually fosters innovation.

With the day being centred on improving payment systems, it was an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our work. At OBH we are changing the way healthcare is paid for. We are committed to supporting sustainable healthcare, and transforming the way healthcare measures and funds success, to those things that matter to people, and our Outcomes Platform lets us do just that. OBH’s Digital Outcomes Platform enables powerful insights into outcomes data through intuitive visualisations of outcomes data for dynamic populations. To read more about it, see here.

Rupert speaks at LaingBuisson Social Care Conference

LaingBuisson, health and social care market intelligence providers, recently hosted their annual Social Care Conference. Rupert was a panellist on the topic “Outcomes-based commissioning – is this the future for publicly funded, outsourced services?” With many attendees consisting of senior policy makers, providers, regulators, and investors, we were happy to be in good company, engaging in conversations important to us.

We are in The Times!

Our CEO Rupert was recently interviewed for an article in the The Times. Talking about value based healthcare and it’s need in the UK, Rupert says “We are very good at spending money on doing things, at operating on people and prescribing tablets. But we are quite weak at knowing whether it has made any difference whatsoever. Has it really impacted some-one’s life? Is their quality of life better? Is their mobility better? Their pain?”

We can put the focus back on the patient with value-based healthcare and can make progress towards a more sustainable system where we measure and pay for success based on those outcomes that matter to people.

We are delighted with the attention value based approaches are getting and are always ready to talk about it! Click here to read the article, or download the full Future of Healthcare supplement here.