The Health Foundation is an independent charity that aims to improve health and the quality of healthcare for the people of the United Kingdom. Through its programmes, activities and investments, THF seeks to support leaders in health; promote innovation in the delivery of health services; enhance the capacity for new knowledge through research and disseminate evidence for changing health policy and practice.
Create a strategy for the effective management of its vital resource – knowledge
The Health Foundation is an independent charity that aims to improve health and the quality of healthcare for the people of the United Kingdom. Through its programmes, activities and investments, THF seeks to support leaders in health; promote innovation in the delivery of health services; enhance the capacity for new knowledge through research and disseminate evidence for changing health policy and practice.
Funding priorities
The Health Foundation distributes over £15 million annually through its programmes. Funding priorities include:
Supporting the development of leadership in all its forms amongst healthcare professionals.
Capacity building in the institutions concerned with the education, training, development and lifelong learning of healthcare professionals.
Improving quality and performance in healthcare delivery; encouraging the uptake and spread of best practice.
A sustainable KM strategy
The Foundation began life in 1998 when it was endowed following the sale of the PPP Healthcare Group. It was known until July 2003 as The PPP Foundation. During the last two years staff has become increasingly aware that the Foundation is trading not solely in money – grants, project support, etc – but also in knowledge.
In May 2004 DNV won a contract to help the Foundation to audit its existing knowledge management practices and to help to create a strategy for the effective management of its vital resource – knowledge. THF staff invested their time to map key knowledge areas against the organisation's performance areas and then agreed priorities for plans to improve the quality, codification and diffusion of knowledge throughout the organisation. Using the DNV KM Navigator™. The Health Foundation has made a major step towards the creation of a sustainable strategy for knowledge management that is relevant to its own organisation and working practices. In 2005 various additional activities have been executed by DNV based upon the drafted knowledge management strategy.