Collaborative Learning Event Makes a Difference

Researchers, practioners, patients, members of public and interested stakeholders made up the 95 attendees for our virtual autumn Collaborative Learning Event. Led by our Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building theme they heard first-hand updates from researchers on the work being carried out by NIHR ARC NWL and the impact it is having.


The overarching theme of the event was “making a difference” and presentations, discussions and workshops focussed on improving outcomes for patients and the public and improve the quality, delivery and efficiency of health and care services.


A diverse learning opportunity

The event was opened by Prof. Azeem Majeed, ARC NWL Director, who commented after the event:

“We were very pleased that our Autumn Collaborative Learning Event was able to go ahead. Many thanks to the organisers for rapidly changing the event to an online format in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We heard from Laura Lennox about how implementation research is addressing the long-standing health inequalities in NW London; and from Sandeepa Arora and Meryem Cicek about why high-quality data from health and care records is essential for our work.


"Our workshops explored key issues in the delivery of healthcare such as the use of remote consultations. We were also very pleased to hear from Dr Emma Vaux about how to fill the gap between evidence and practice. It was great to meet friends, colleagues, collaborators and partners. We look forward to taking the learning from the events forwards in our future ARC work.


Exploring our research themes

A diverse range of breakout sessions were held for each of the seven ARC NWL research themes and interactive discussions and workshops covered the following topics:

Recordings of the sessions will soon be available on our YouTube channel.


Bridging the gaps

The keynote presentation for the day titled ‘Making a difference: How do we bridge those gaps?’ was delivered by Dr Emma Vaux, Consultant Nephrologist and General Physician at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. She described the challenges and opportunities that present themselves when trying to implement evidence-based practice. She highlighted the equal importance of bridging together the worlds education, care and systems to create positive change.

Improvement Leader Fellowship graduation

The Improvement Leader Fellowship Programme is an important part of the Collaborative Learning and capacity Building theme, it aims to develop future leaders in innovation and improvement with the authority and ability to advance change in their organisations and beyond. The event gave Rowan Myron, Associate Professor for Healthcare Management/Education Lead, who leads the Fellowship, an opportunity to celebrate their work thank the Fellows as they graduated.

Find out more about our Improvement Leader Fellows

Catch up

The event was tweeted live using #makingadifference2021 and recordings will be available from our YouTube channel. To receive a notification of our next Collaborative Learning event sign up to receive email updates below: