The NHS is in ‘critical condition’, with technology key to bringing it back from the brink.
That’s according to the author of the Government’s independent review of the health service.
Digital Planning Director James Ferraby offers his assessment of Lord Ara Darzi’s diagnosis.
We all know what our NHS does – but many of us are unsure of how it does it.
That’s what independent peer and NHS surgeon Lord Ara Darzi was tasked with reviewing.
His diagnosis of the situation puts digital transformation at the forefront of what’s needed to get the health service back to full fitness.
And it seems the Prime Minister agrees, with Keir Starmer saying that at the heart of his 10 year NHS transformation plan, due out in the spring, will be the need to move ‘from an analogue to a digital NHS’.
Outdated IT, the underused and uninspiring NHS app, the lack of AI and reluctance to use automations all contributed to what Lord Darzi described as a ‘low digital maturity’ with our healthcare system.
He said some parts of the NHS are ‘yet to enter the digital era’ and called for a ‘major tilt towards technology to unlock productivity’.
It’s hard not to agree with his observation that “over the past 15 years, many sectors of the economy have been radically reshaped by digital technologies”.
At Digital Planning we radically reshape the way businesses do things every day.
There’s no reason why that with the right people in place to drive it, the NHS couldn’t do the same.
Of course it would be a mammoth task, but small changes can make big differences – automations equal efficiencies; AI streamlines processes and effective data management prompts learnings and improvements. Every small step is one towards the bigger goal.
The report might paint a bleak picture but it’s not all doom and gloom, the problems identified are all solvable. Three key focus areas are:
The benefit of automation
Lord Darzi has diagnosed a system where systems don’t talk to each other – and that’s what automation is all about.
It’s hard to imagine how many competing systems there are that need to communicate with each other in the case of just one patient, multiply that by the whole population and that’s the scale of the issue the NHS faces tackling.
Yet, with the right automations in place, a 10 step process could become a one click task. This saves time and resources, allowing staff to focus on core activities in clinical settings or complete more tasks in clerical roles.
Increasing use of Artificial Intelligence
The potential improvements that AI could facilitate are almost endless – and not only when it comes to clinical pathways.
In the realm of diagnosis – software exists and is already successfully being used to analyse and detect early stage cancers.
Workforce and planning wise, improvements of the same magnitude could be made.
Analysing real time data could enable real time resource allocation. Think a quiet clinic vs a patient packed Accident and Emergency department. Or patients on what seem like endless waiting lists.
We see daily headlines about both. Implemented correctly, AI could drastically reduce staff time spent allocating staff time.
Unlocking the value in Big Data
The NHS sits on a wealth of patient data and medical records. Lord Darzi recognises this and describes the ‘enormous potential for life sciences to create new treatments’. The trends that lay unanalysed in patient notes will be vast.
There is also the issue that GP systems often don’t link up with hospital datasets and community health teams have access to different records entirely, people working towards a common goal all have access to varying information – sometimes within the same physical setting.
Data is one of the most valuable resources to any organisation – its storage, management and analysis hold the key to decision making at every level. Getting this right could unlock so many of the NHS bottlenecks that exist.
In summary, It’s encouraging to see that Lord Darzi so starkly recognises the huge impact AI could have on health care.
As he puts it: “We are on the precipice of an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that could transform care for patients.”
It’s also encouraging to see that government appears to have taken on board Lord Darzi’s assessment and that digital transformation will be front and centre as it spends the next few months preparing its 10 year plan.
Transforming the NHS is an epic task – but one we all have an interest in.
