We need to focus on solving the right problems with technology, and facilitate better conditions, in order to improve smart healthcare adoption at scale in the NHS, writes Dr Paul Deffley, chief medical officer for Alcidion.
Where would you position the NHS in relation to other countries, when it comes to the adoption of innovative technologies to support patient care?
Recent research from Newsweek and Statista, which ranked the world’s top ‘smart hospitals’, placed its first NHS trust at position 72 on the list.
This finding caught the attention of delegates at March’s Digital Health Rewired 2024 conference, who were surprised by the extent of the seemingly faster pace of smart technology on the other side of the Atlantic.
Notably, led by the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and Massachusetts General Hospital, more than 100 US healthcare organisations hold a heavily dominant presence on the list of 330 hospitals.
So why have they been successful, and should this mean anything to the NHS?
An opportunity to reflect and learn? Moving beyond pockets of innovation
Newsweek’s global ranking is of course only one piece of research, unlikely to comprehensively represent technological deployments at every level of healthcare.
Although a further 21 UK sites receive mentions further into the ranking, I would suggest that there are great examples of smart healthcare in the UK, to which the league table doesn’t do justice.
Yet adoption of many innovative technologies that can positively impact patient care, still tends to happen in pockets in the NHS, often in the form of pilots that struggle to scale and deliver impact more broadly.
There has been much purported around the role of smart healthcare for decades – a promise that still holds much excitement. But progress at-scale often remains hindered.
As someone who has worked in clinical leadership and CCIO roles in NHS providers, commissioning and system transformation, before working directly in the health tech industry, I remain passionate that obstacles can be removed and sizeable benefits consistently realised.
With that in mind, Newsweek’s research offers a reflection point on ways to boost effective use of innovative technologies available today to the NHS, by understanding what has worked for peers around the world.
What are the barriers we need to overcome?
Heart failure is one clinical priority that could be better served by smart technology.
Evidence, that has now existed for many years, has shown that remotely monitored heart failure patients realise better outcomes.
In many cases patients on remote monitoring pathways are less likely to be admitted to hospital, more likely to comply with medication, and can be less likely to suffer complications or death as a consequence of heart failure.
Yet, many patients in the UK still have no access to remote patient monitoring, despite an urgent push for such approaches during the Covid-19 pandemic.
