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The link between data and innovation

RCOT
05 September 2022

By Suzy England, Professional Adviser in Health Informatics

We’re calling on occupational therapists to share their data stories with us. But why?

When RCOT launched the two-year RCOT Data and Innovation Strategy in December 2022. I was asked by a member

“How does the strategy define the link between data and innovation?"

This is my reflection…   

Who wants to collect data when the purpose isn’t clear?  

I think we’d all agree, no one wants to do this.  

The strategy vision specifically states that OTs should be confident in collecting and using data “for improving health outcomes”

Therefore, the data we should be interested in is the data that informs us how well our services are meeting the needs of those who need to access occupational therapy expertise. Things like

  • How long are people waiting to access occupational therapy?  
  • What is the persons experience of our service?
  • Are we improving occupational outcomes?
  • Do staff feel valued and want to stay working in our team?  
  • Is occupational therapy expertise being utilised in the right places?  

So, the link between data and innovation is quite simply, data should be used to make improvements at the individual, service, organisational or population level.  

It all sounds quite easy, doesn’t it?  

In January 2022, we conducted a survey on the data literacy needs of OTs. We gathered the findings and have since created an infographic detailing eight goals for the profession.  

There are four key areas where we need to improve if we want to capitalise on the benefits of data for the purposes of improvement.  

1. Electronic systems are not configured for occupational therapy practice and therefore do not automatically structure our data in a format that is easily extracted.  
2. We can have this problem, because occupational therapists do not consistently have a voice throughout the end-to-end process of embedding electronic systems in organisations.  
3. Our lack of voice is often about a lack of occupational therapy data leadership opportunities.  
4. Those who do have data leadership opportunities within their organisations cannot easily share their lessons learnt with other OTs in other organisations.  
 

We’re calling on occupational therapists to share their data stories with us so that we can better:

  • Scale up what’s working in other organisations.
  • Share user stories (that detail challenges within the system) as part of our national influencing activities.  
 

So, what stories and when?

2022

  • September-October – What impact has electronic systems had on your record keeping practice?  
  • November-December – What digital/data skills do you use to improve your practice and how have you developed those skills?

2023

  • January-February – What is the occupational therapy role in the end-to-end process of embedding electronic systems in practice?
  • March-April – How are you working with people who access services to advance their access to digital personal health and care information?  
  • May-June – Who are you working with to improve how the data you collect is turned into meaningful insight?

 

Share your stories and experience

You can also submit your examples and user stories to: Practice.Admin@rcot.co.uk