AWTTC held its first away day on 6 March 2020. The aims of the day were to provide opportunity for creativity, build cohesion and foster good working relationships in addition to establishing the direction for our strategic plan to work together towards a common goal.
The day started with a team-building exercise from Richard Boldero, Senior Pharmacist. The task encouraged forward planning, problem solving, design thinking and agility. There were various approaches, some methodical and others ambitious, but ultimately the moral was to reflect on the team's combined performance, as well as individual roles played. Richard Boldero also gave a workshop explaining some well-established resilience tools and encouraged individual reflection.
This was followed by a group task from Kath Haines, Head of Welsh Analytical Prescribing Support Unit (WAPSU), who asked staff for suggestions where they feel AWTTC can further enhance its value of service.
Professor Philip Routledge, former Clinical Director of AWTTC and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Cardiff University, gave a talk about the history and accomplishments of AWMSG and AWTTC, including: health technology appraisals, the New Treatment Fund and National Prescribing Indicators. Five key performance and productivity lessons from author Atul Gawande were also highlighted and a suggestion to apply these methods in the future to continue providing a valuable service.
Dr James Coulson, Interim Clinical Director of AWTTC, discussed the future of AWTTC. The recent announcement that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are increasing the number of technology appraisals undertaken allows AWTTC to become more focused on medicine optimisation projects and producing national guidelines.
Chrissie Collier, a former AWTTC scientist, presented useful techniques on environmental scanning to collect strategic information. This led to a group exercise and presentation allowing a valuable discussion about suggested improvements and upcoming challenges.