Exploring the role of Health Innovation Networks in facilitating the implementation, scale and spread of a digitally enabled integrated kidney care model in primary care

Supervisors:

• Professor Gregory Maniatopoulos gregory.maniatopoulos@leicester.ac.uk
• Dr Gemma Hughes

Project:

Despite the growing evidence base surrounding the implementation of innovation in practice, understanding the conditions that facilitate the scale and spread of innovation within healthcare organisations remains unclear. This is particularly evident in primary care, where constraints in organisational capacity, infrastructure and differences in local conditions can impact implementation processes. In response to these challenges, the Health Innovation Networks were launched by NHS England in 2013 to facilitate the adoption and spread of evidence-based innovation at pace and scale, with the aim of improving health outcomes and driving economic growth. Across England, 15 Health Innovation Networks form an infrastructure designed to facilitate the national adoption of innovation alongside the implementation of local programmes that respond to specific needs and challenges. As such, these networks play a key role in delivering the government’s 10-Year Health Plan to transform the NHS through three major shifts: moving care from hospital to community, shifting from analogue to digital, and moving from sickness to prevention.

Against this background this PhD project aims to explore the role of Health Innovation Networks in facilitating the scale and spread of innovation in primary care. Drawing on a national programme (LUCID - the Leicester, Leicestershire and RUtland Chronic Kidney Disease Integrated Care Delivery programme) for the scale-up and spread of an evidence-based, digitally enabled integrated kidney care model in primary care, this research aims to explore how inter-organisational collaboration and inter-professional engagement, facilitated through Health Innovation Networks, support the effective and sustainable implementation of LUCID across primary care settings in England. By exploring the role of a national agency in England charged with facilitating pathways for the scale and spread of innovation, this research aims to generate evidence relevant to policymakers, commissioners, and practitioners seeking to improve healthcare delivery and innovation adoption.

References:

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Ferlie, E., Nicolini, D., Ledger, J., D'Andreta, D., Kravcenko, D., & de Pury, J. (2017). NHS top managers, knowledge exchange and leadership: the early development of Academic Health Science Networks–a mixed-methods study. https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/HSDR05170
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Major, R. W., Lakhani, N., Sanganee, N., Stead, G., Patel, D., Graham-Brown, M., & Burton, J. O. (2025). The “Leicester, Leicestershire, and RUtland Chronic Kidney Disease Integrated Care Delivery Project”(LUCID) programme update: the impact on novel kidney therapies. Clinical Kidney Journal, 18(12), sfaf312.
Scarbrough, H., D’Andreta, D., Evans, S., Marabelli, M., Newell, S., Powell, J., & Swan, J. (2015). Networked innovation in the health sector: comparative qualitative study of the role of Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care in translating research into practice. https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hsdr/HSDR02130
UK Government. Fit for the future: 10 year health plan for England. 2025. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6866387fe6557c544c74db7a/fit-for-the-future-10-year-health-plan-for-england.pdf

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