CRN South London’s Co-CI Leads want to help research thrive

CRN South London’s Continuous Improvement (CI) Co-Leads, Elisabeth Sullivan and Jessica Smith, want to embed a CI culture across the region to help research thrive.

Continuous Improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. Elisabeth says:

“Continuous Improvement is essential to everything we do because if we are not constantly looking at ways to improve our research, we are not doing our best for the people of south London.

“Jessica and I want to encourage people working in research delivery to share best practices with us regularly. We can then use this knowledge to help improve a study's delivery and support local teams. For example, changes made to a process could save the NHS money, which can be reinvested into patient care.

“People should have the confidence to question their ways of working and think about if there are ways of improving things, and CI can give staff the tools to do this.”

One of the key priorities for CRN South London this year is to recruit Improvement and Innovation Advocates (I&I), who will help to embed a culture of CI within local research study teams. Jessica continued:

“Elisabeth and I are on the same page regarding CI, and our combination of skills makes this an exciting collaboration.

“Embedding changes to culture is challenging, and what I have found over many years of learning is that you have to take baby steps. We both welcome any ideas and are happy to support people with their CI work.

“Our priorities for the year ahead are: promoting the many benefits of CI, working with our I&I Advocates, updating our local materials and working together to look at how we can help improve things at a local level.”

Anyone who has a CI idea or feedback is encouraged to contact the team using the details on the South East Cluster Continuous Improvement Hub.