This report shows how healthcare can combine the best scientific and clinical knowledge with the expertise and commitment of patients themselves.

Key findings

• This report advocates changing three vital components of the current health system: firstly, changing consultations to create conversations that combine clinical expertise with patient-driven goals of well-being, and which connect to interventions that change behaviour and build networks of support.
• Secondly, commissioning new services that provide 'more than medicine' and support long term behaviour change, improving well-being and building social networks of support. 
• Thirdly, co-designing pathways between patients and professionals to focus on long-term outcomes, recovery and prevention.
• The challenges facing the health and care system mean incremental improvements will be insufficient; instead the NHS must transform itself through system change.

The biggest challenge for the health system is that it needs to be effective in addressing underlying causes of poor health, as well as more familiar medical ones. This report, and the People Powered Health Project of which is it part, outline the changes needed to help the health system make the most of the skills and commitment of employees, patients and communities, in order to meet this challenge.

The approaches outlined in this report are not only designed to enable patients to become more confident and better able to manage their conditions. They also aim to address the root causes of health problems, shift long–term behaviours and support social networks that improve health. The prize is the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for the health system.

Authors 
Matthew Horne, Halima Khan and Paul Corrigan