Experience-based Co-design: Sustaining and Expanding the Impact of Humanising Healthcare

Health

Experience-based Co-design: Sustaining and Expanding the Impact of Humanising Healthcare

This study – a collaboration between NMPC researchers and The Picker Institute - will build a comprehensive, contemporary understanding of Experience-based Co-design’s (EBCD) global reach and learning since 2014, identifying what enables humanised care to thrive and where barriers remain.

Workstream 1 – Global Research and Inclusion

This workstream will update and extend the global evidence base for EBCD, generating new insights to shape its future evolution. We will replicate and expand our 2014 international survey of EBCD projects, collecting quantitative and qualitative data on implementation, adaptations, and outcomes. Follow-up interviews will explore innovation, equity, and inclusion within co-design practice to inform workstream 2.

Workstream 2 – EBCD Toolkit and Resources Reimagined

Building on the research insights, Picker will lead a full redesign of the online EBCD Toolkit. The Toolkit has supported thousands of practitioners and researchers worldwide. This work will transform it into an accessible, inclusive, and visually engaging platform that reflects modern practice.

Workstream 3 – Education, Dissemination, and Legacy

We will embed new findings and case studies into our Postgraduate module on Co-production and Co-design, integrating outputs into formal academic learning. Research findings will be shared through international conferences and peer-reviewed publications. Picker will integrate the reimagined Toolkit and films into its accredited Learning and Development programmes, reaching healthcare professionals, leaders, and systems worldwide.

Aims

To create an updated international EBCD dataset, inclusion framework, peer-reviewed publication, and case studies.

To develop an open-access EBCD Toolkit with new evidence, inclusion and ethics resources, a multimedia library, and creative assets that demonstrate humanising care in action.

To design and deliver integrated teaching materials, dissemination events, community learning forums, and sustained engagement through the global EBCD network.

Impact

Researchers at King’s have developed, tested, adapted, and evaluated a pioneering approach that enables patients and staff to work together in ways which enrich the delivery of health care services, gives patients agency in their care, and improves lives. The approach is called experience-based co-design (EBCD) and it has led to tangible changes around the globe.

It is widely recognised that patient and staff experience is key to quality healthcare provision, but all too often the constraints of budgets, usual ways of working, and performance targets mean that the patient perspective and views of frontline staff are sidelined. EBCD brings patients, caregivers, staff, and researchers together to share their experiences and then work as a team to improve how it feels to provide or use a healthcare service.

Work on EBCD has been led by Glenn Robert, Professor of Healthcare Quality & Innovation in King’s Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care. EBCD has been developed and refined for over a decade through ongoing collaborations with colleagues at King’s (Dr Sara Donetto and Dr Vicki Tsianakas), researchers in other universities, healthcare organisations and the third sector. Independent researchers around the world have described the impact it has had, both on patients' lives and staff perspectives.