Our Approach:

Given where we are now, issues around the strain on staff, health messaging, consent, digital trust and communication in healthcare are even more important and that there is an awareness of consent and an understanding of medical jargon, language and communication. The research approach adopted by Centric means new knowledge is generated and feeds into new theories and then into new interventions and initiatives. This has been significant for the medical scepticism remit of work as it also aligns with the NHS Long-Term strategy, particularly in the areas of prevention, health equality, care quality, improvements, technology and workforce pressures on staff.

These are the areas of focus for this medical scepticism strategy:

Technology and Medical Scepticism
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Centric has already been looking at conducting further research around digital technologies and how communities can engage with emerging technologies and the repercussions of this when it comes to eHealth adoption. Centric suggests, as supported by recent studies in the field, that many patients are informed and involved digital users who have the skills and knowledge to navigate themselves around platforms. Nevertheless, this does not apply to all communities and there is further work required. This indicates the importance of patient/user involvement to co-design eHealth platforms which are user-friendly. This is significant for the future of tech innovation within health services.

This is also where disaggregated data is relevant as a lack of it has maintained broad generalisations, stereotypes and confusion as sub-groups are not analysed against other demographic variables. Centric has discovered that this is relevant when working with communities such as the Somali community. Centric envisages merging data disaggregation with tech to improve the effectiveness of interventions, inform more equitable health initiatives, inform policy and promote a more holistic approach when engaging various ethnic groups.

Safe Spaces in Healthcare for both Patients and Staff
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Safe and welcoming spaces for people, particularly for health-related domains, are important and can facilitate therapeutic talking, active listening, community engagement, strategic dialogue, recommendations and a place to offload. Although there is little research on the psycho-emotional impact of pandemics on medical and clinical staff, the pandemic has indicated the impact can be significant. This has particularly been the case for black and minoritised female nurses who have faced a pandemic, the deaths of colleagues and friends, burnout and then the prospect of losing their jobs with vaccine mandates.

In recent research conducted by Centric at a well-known London hospital, it came to light it was important for there to be safe, neutral and non-judgmental spaces for NHS staff to air frustrations and concerns. A culture of valuing staff, and considering their wellbeing, results in better staff engagement and in turn, better patient outcomes and financial performance. The contrary is also the case therefore, that poor staff engagement has the knock-on effect on poor patient outcomes.

Strategic Academic Partnerships for Equitable Co-Production
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Contrary to the barriers and constraints experienced by external researchers from either the academy or institutions, we have found that unheard voices within the urban locale have been willing to participate in research. This has been without any anticipations or preconceived expectations their own views will merely be validated by the research. It is imperative to further build relationships between community and academia to ensure work is strategically aligned and that communities are learning from academia and the locale also feed into the knowledge production of academia, and to also embed community findings and knowledge.

Centric has built important academic relationships over the last two years and this has resulted in an equitable exchange of knowledge and learning which needs to be continued to help in processes of research, co-design and co-production of fresh initiatives and innovations. This has led us to collaborate on projects at King’s College London, the London School of Economics, Birkbeck, South Bank University and the University of Manchester.