King's College London

A world-leading cross-university initiative is spearheading research into solving the global problems of health and care.

Led by the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, and involving faculties from across King’s, Better Health & Care Futures sets a new vision for health and care with better quality and value for money.

The rising demand from increasing multimorbidity at all ages, demographic changes with aging populations, workforce shortages, barriers to patient access and post–Covid-19 pandemic illnesses are putting unprecedented pressures on global health and care systems.

Better Health and Care Futures aims to tackle these challenges with a new way of thinking focused on three clusters of activities:

1. Careforce – Empowering individuals, their carers and volunteers with training, tools, support and technologies (such as remote monitoring and home diagnostic tests) to extend the reach of the health and care system.
2. Frugal Innovation – Doing the basics well, efficiently and at low cost (through frugal innovations such as technology and repurposed medicines) and using data, technology and new models of care to improve home-based support and reduce time in hospital.
3. Communities - Engaging communities in the design and delivery of health and care services, ensuring that solutions are culturally appropriate and meet the specific needs of different populations.

As part of a consultation launch on 24 September, academic, clinical, health, social and voluntary care, and national and regional political and governmental policy leaders met in London to discuss and shape the launch of the Better Health and Care Futures initiative. Follow-up events across the United Kingdom are also planned.

Read more about Better Health and Care Futures in the paper ‘Reimagining Health and Care to Tackle the Rising Tide of Inequity, Multimorbidity, and Complex Conditions’, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.