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Leadership and technology are needed to meet the health challenge

Britain needs more than localised innovation to meet the challenges facing the NHS.

An NHS Trust has signed a ‘game-changing’ artificial intelligence deal with Google’s DeepMind. Robert Adam says that Britain needs more than localised innovation to meet the challenges facing the NHS.

This week, the Royal Free London Foundation Trust signed a five-year deal with Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence unit, to continue the development of a real-time patient data tracking app. The app promises to drastically reduce the time it takes for doctors to respond to patient illnesses in hospital, saving thousands of lives.

While digital technology has the potential to transform healthcare for the better, there are significant organisational challenges to overcome first. Our recent roundtable event, sponsored by SAP, highlighted that local innovation (much like the Google and Royal Free deal) is an essential component of digital healthcare. But central bodies like NHS England must ensure the benefits are felt across the country.

The digital opportunity

As a recent IfG report shows, The NHS in England is facing a significant challenge. Real-terms budget cuts, an ageing population and increasing demand for services are straining capacity and will continue to do so.

Modern technology has the potential to help ease the pressure. For example, big data analytics can improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis, electronic patient records can reduce administrative burdens in hospitals, and monitoring systems can drive up standards and reduce medical negligence. Combining these tools could improve services and save large sums of money.

Local initiatives are important for innovating with digital technologies, but professionals at our roundtable argued that more central coordination is needed to ensure local success is replicated across the country.

NHS England and NHS Digital have critical roles to play

Driving change

Central government bodies can use their position to drive innovation and the adoption of new technologies. The emphasis placed on digital technology in NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) suggests that NHS England is beginning to do this. But our roundtable agreed that both of these organisations need to be clearer on their roles and on the support they will offer to local trusts beyond setting targets and outlining the broader healthcare agenda.

Coordination

The NHS needs innovation in certain, specific areas, for example online patient booking. Our roundtable agreed that the centre should direct local innovators towards these areas, which could be achieved through a clearer digital health strategy.

As part of this, Government should ensure common digital standards are used across the NHS, as the Government Digital Service did with GOV.UK. This could involve building them from scratch, but our research suggests that this should only be done where the market does not provide adequate alternatives. Instead, government should procure technologies which are compatible with IT systems across the 10,000 organisations of the NHS. It should aim to buy single technological solutions and use them everywhere.

It is equally important for the central NHS to facilitate cooperation between local areas. Pockets of local innovation will go to waste if they do not expand. In the case of the Royal Free London’s real-time patient data app, the NHS England and NHS Digital could look to deploy similar technologies across a wider area or encourage Royal Free London to share their tools with other hospital trusts.

Setting standards

In common with all central organisations, NHS England and NHS Digital must set the rules of the system and allow local operators autonomy within this. Our roundtable commended the NHS for developing clear standards on information governance and digital procurement.

In 2014, the Information Governance Alliance was launched, with the goal of cutting through the complicated legal and regulatory framework around information governance and offering a single advice hub for local providers. Forthcoming digital procurement standards look promising.

Leadership and innovation

The Royal Free London’s real-time data app should be met with praise. Digital initiatives such as this have the potential to transform the NHS into an organisation capable of addressing 21st century healthcare needs. But, as well as localised innovation, national leadership is needed – delivering these benefits to the entire country requires coordination, cooperation and compromise, none of which can be solved with a simple technological fix.

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