Contact Help Advice Information Network

1
Contact ? Help ? Advice ? Information ? Network
CHAIN
Linking researchers, practitioners, educators,
managers and policymakers
David Evans, Wendy Zhou, Irina Johnston
Introduction
Results

• Feedback from CHAIN members
• What a diverse group we are professionals
  (from) trusts and educational institutions all
  accessing information provided by CHAIN this is
  probably unique an excellent example of
  remote/IT-friendly, multi-professional team
  working and sharing of best practice.
• Wendy White, Assistant Director of Learning and
  Development, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust
• CHAIN has been helpful to us both in finding
  examples of how other units operate e.g. people
  contacted with their examples of
  multi-disciplinary documentation and in seeing
  other people queries and thus their areas of
  interest and concern
• Charlotte Painter, Stroke co-ordinator, Homerton
  University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• I greatly value the contribution CHAIN makes to
  my personal and organizational practice. It
  keeps me in touch and is a forum to share good
  practice and innovative thinking.
• Jean Foster, Chair, Counsellors and
  Psychotherapists in Primary Care
• The huge advantage of CHAIN is that it works!
  When my email tells me I have a message from
  CHAIN, I know it will be relevant to me.Joan
  Fletcher, Clinical Effectiveness Facilitator,
  Edenhall Hospital
• In my brief time as a member, it has brought to
  my attention numerous opportunities for research,
  employment, funding and personal development. I
  think it is an important and developing resource
  in the NHS and academic community.Martyn Barnes,
  Research Fellow, Dundee University

CHAIN is a multi-professional mutual support
network of more than 4,500 members, mostly
working in the NHS. It began in England 10 years
ago as part of the NHS Research and Development
programme aiming to connect research with
practice. It is now international and has wider
focus, however sharing knowledge to benefit the
NHS remains a core objective.

• CHAIN has twice been externally evaluated
• Firstly by researchers from University College
  London, (published BMJ 20043281174-8). This
  focused on CHAIN 1 (RD and EBP) and concluded
  that CHAIN was helping to bridge the gap between
  research and practice, enabling spontaneous
  coalescence of diverse communities of interest.
• Secondly by researchers from Tribal Consulting
  (published in the report to the NHS Institute for
  Innovation Improvement). This focused on CHAIN
  3 (Innovation and Improvement) and concluded that
  despite being new, CHAIN 3 was already
  contributing to the knowledge and linkage of
  those engaged in promoting innovation and
  improvement in the NHS.
• Both evaluation reports are available online
  http//chain.ulcc.ac.uk/chain/index.html
• CHAIN has expanded both in terms of the number of
  members and the breadth of focus, and now has
  members across the UK, Canada, Australia, and the
  Republic of Ireland.

Primary Functions of CHAIN

• 1. To provide searchable online directories of
  contacts
• Locate and contact people for
• Help
• Advice
• Information
• Collaboration
• To target and disseminate information and
  members questions via e-mail
• Members can ask the facilitator to send out a
  request
• for information
• Facilitator can disseminate (information is
  targeted)

Increase in CHAIN membership over the past 6 years
Methods
Conclusion
Two snapshots of CHAIN 1 (RD and EBP)
illustrating the diverse interests and
multiprofessional nature of the CHAIN membership
CHAIN 1 membership - by profession
There are 4 main components of CHAIN. All
members have access to all components, not only
the one(s) they have personally joined. This
enables networking to occur across as well as
within the main component of CHAIN.
CHAIN is a successful non-hierarchical network of
volunteer collaborators. It is funded by a
consortium of 10 supporters including the
National Institute for Health Research, NHS
Institute for Innovation Improvement, The
Health Foundation, and the Department of Health.
In Scotland, CHAIN is sponsored by Robert Gordon
University, and in Ireland CHAIN is sponsored by
the Institute of Public Health in Ireland and the
Health Service Executive (Republic of Ireland).
Sister networks exist in Canada and Australia,
forming an international pool of tacit knowledge
and mutual support for health care professionals.
The breadth of insight and experience among CHAIN
members is considerable. The flexibility and
precision of CHAINs targeting tool enables
effective mining of this tacit knowledge.
Usually individuals support networks include
other colleagues in the red circle, perhaps
extending to other professionals in the orange
zone. CHAIN makes people in the red and orange
zone even more accessible and, critically enables
members to tap into the wealth of knowledge and
experience which lies in the yellow area
CHAIN 1 membership - by main specialty/areas of
interest
Contact information
For more information contact CHAIN on
enquiries_at_chain-network.org.uk
http//chain.ulcc.ac.uk/chain/index.html
Joining CHAIN is free. The only criteria for
joining are an interest in the subject being
willing to share information experience To
join, please complete the online registration
form at http//chain.ulcc.ac.uk/chain/index.html
Supported by