The funding, provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, supports three research partnerships under the Systems Engineering Innovation Partnerships for Multiple Long Term Conditions programme, known as SEISMIC.
With this latest commitment, the total combined investment reaches £19.6 million, marking a significant effort to develop more integrated and sustainable models of care.
Focus on Multiple Long Term Conditions
The programme targets people living with multiple long term conditions, often referred to as MLTCs or multimorbidity. This describes individuals who have two or more chronic physical or mental health conditions.
Older people are more likely to live with these conditions, but the overall impact spans all age groups. Younger people with MLTCs may also require complex and ongoing treatment and coordinated support.
The five year partnerships will bring together expertise from systems engineering and health care evaluation. By combining these disciplines, researchers aim to redesign services so they better reflect the needs of patients with complex conditions.
Applying Systems Engineering to Health Care
Through the SEISMIC programme, researchers will use systems engineering principles to analyse and improve health and care services.
This approach considers the full structure of service delivery, including processes, resources, communication pathways and patient flow. The goal is to identify how systems can be configured more effectively to improve outcomes and sustainability.
The partnerships will focus on understanding how services can be organised around people with MLTC, ensuring that care models are both efficient and adaptable in the long term.
Supporting National Health Priorities
The investment aligns with the Government’s long term health ambitions, including shifting care from hospitals into community settings and increasing the use of digital tools in service delivery.
It also supports the wider Life Sciences sector strategy by strengthening world class research and development, promoting the United Kingdom as a leading environment for innovation, and driving reform across health services.
By integrating engineering methods with health research, the programme seeks to generate practical solutions that can improve patient experience while supporting more efficient use of resources.
Leadership Perspective
Professor Kathy Rowan, Director of the SEISMIC Programme, said millions of people are now living with chronic conditions that require increasingly complex care.
She explained that combining the expertise of systems engineers with health care researchers offers a fresh perspective on addressing the challenges faced by people with multiple long term conditions.
According to Professor Rowan, the partnerships will apply innovative methods to improve long term care, enhance efficiency and support the shift towards delivering more services closer to people’s homes and within community settings.
