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Our work
Our work

Rethinking Medicine

Over the past two years, Kaleidoscope has been working with Martin Marshall (Royal College of GPs) and Alf Collins (NHS England) to develop and build the Rethinking Medicine initiative. This has involved bringing together a diverse group of senior leaders, stakeholders and others from across health and care to connect various initiatives seeking to rethink medicine.

The challenge

Clinicians want patients to have the best possible care, but it’s becoming more and more clear that the traditional medical model, although necessary, is not sufficient to manage 21st century health problems – and can often cause unnecessary burden or harm. A growing number of doctors and patients are questioning whether modern medicine has over-stretched itself. Recognising a growing dissatisfaction with the current system, Alf Collins and Martin Marshall have developed Rethinking Medicine into a movement capable of uniting those questioning traditional methods and enhancing their collective impact upon health and care.

Our approach

In the earlier stages of the project, Kaleidoscope worked collaboratively and closely with Alf Collins and Martin Marshall to bring together interested senior stakeholders in a series of face to face events. The aim of these events was to define the problems that Rethinking Medicine seeks to address and develop the associated ‘Problem Definition’ paper. Kaleidoscope ran a series of focus groups and stakeholder meetings to co-develop and test the nascent ideas and thinking.

Two years on, Rethinking Medicine has matured and developed into an initiative aiming to bring together different programmes across the UK that are rethinking the way medicine is practised. It doesn’t aim to duplicate what’s already going on, but instead to unify it and give it a much stronger voice.

Results

In the past year, Kaleidoscope brought together patients, senior stakeholders, researchers and frontline clinicians from across health and care to contribute to Rethinking Medicine in a number of ways. These have included:

  • Organising and facilitating the first ever Rethinking Medicine National Event, where people met to make connections with others Rethinking Medicine locally and nationally, learn about related initiatives and find out how to contribute to Rethinking Medicine.
  • Managing and recording an innovative digital event. During ‘Rethinking Medicine: Exploring a Clinical Case’, Alf Collins, Martin Marshall, Jocelyn Cornwell and Louisa Pettigrew used a Balint style method to dig deeper into a clinical case, the current medical culture in which we operate and how it influences practice.
  • Commissioning and publishing multiple blogs discussing the movement from various viewpoints.
  • Running a workshop with members of the Rethinking Medicine working group considering what’s next for the initiative and how we can be most useful going forward.
  • Enhancing Rethinking Medicine’s website and social media as platforms for engagement and awareness raising.

Although still in its early stages, Rethinking Medicine is already inspiring leaders to think about taking action locally. Channeling such passion will enable local impact on people’s lives, while also pushing for change at a national level.

We could not have delivered our programme without Kaleidoscope. They bring a combination of in-depth knowledge of health and care, forensic thinking, creativity and fun.

Professor Alf Collins, Clinical Director for Personalised Care, NHS England.


Our work