East Midlands pioneered health innovation shortlisted for national award

A ground-breaking intervention to improve junior doctors’ performance – designed in Leicester and developed in Lincolnshire – is attracting global interest and has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.

'EPIFFANY' (Effective Performance Insight for the Future) is shortlisted in the Education Team of the Year category at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) awards, to be announced this Thursday (5 May).

The innovation was developed by the EPIFFANY team, led by Drs Rakesh Patel and Dr William Green. It was piloted at Leicester General Hospital and subsequently pioneered at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire.

EPIFFANY was developed in response to a General Medical Council (GMC) study confirming newly qualified junior doctors struggle with complex clinical decision-making, and make prescribing errors at up to twice the rate of other health professionals. It uses the principle of small gains to improve junior doctor performance around key patient safety tasks such as note-taking, handover, acting on results and timely escalation to senior doctors.

In 2014 the pilot initiative won the Frontline Staff award at EMAHSN’s Innovation in Healthcare Awards.

 Watch a video about the EPIFFANY project below:

Rakesh Patel and Ashley Wilkinson talk about EPIFFANY which is helping junior doctors with confidence and competence from EMAHSN on Vimeo.