Digital healthcare technology: summary

Published 9 April 2019

Digital healthcare technology:
Enabling clinicians, empowering patients

As this report highlights, the implementation of technology is improving patient care. The insights from our contributors, along with our own experiences advising clients in the sector, lead to a number of conclusions:

• Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Regulation will often play catch up to transformative technology. It is important to ensure that proper risk assessment takes place with regard to the technology being implemented, to ensure patient safety. This should be coupled with open dialogue with regulators to shape any new regulation required.
• Clarity around the regulatory and reimbursement framework is critical. A clear reimbursement mechanism, regulatory framework and minimum standards for new healthcare technologies will be critical for external investment. The picture is becoming clearer on standards, with the Department of Health and Social Care publishing a Code of Conduct for data driven health and care technology along with the recent publication of NICE’s Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies.
• We are not starting with a blank sheet of paper. Technology systems across the health and social care sector are fragmented, and we cannot start with a blank piece of paper. Interoperability solutions can help in some circumstances and are being implemented in the NHS.
• Local is important, but fragmentation may hinder adoption. A coherent strategy is required, transcending organisational boundaries, to implement technology. STPs and ICSs require both the funding and expertise to implement the strategy and commission the tech. The fragmented health and social care landscape might slow down adoption.
• Clinicians, not technology, will drive change. It will be the clinicians implementing the technology, rather than the technology on its own, that will cause transformative change.

If you discuss any of the issues in this report, please contact Hamza Drabu.

Click here to download the report in full.