2023 and beyond: Predicting the innovations that will drive NHS transformation

Ascom’s team of clinical consultants share their predictions about the innovations they believe will make the biggest impact on our future health.

The technology that’s had the biggest impact on transforming health and social care

Phil Stuart-Douek: It’s not a piece of technology that has, and is, continuing to transform healthcare, but a technological concept. Data. The gathering, use, storage, and transmission of data is what has, and will, continue to transform the NHS and healthcare.

Fiona Kirk: Robotic surgery. Although its development still has some way to go, robotic surgery is having a significant impact in terms of improving patient outcomes. It offers enhanced recovery allowing a quicker return to normality, there’s comparatively less pain, less blood loss, and it can help to release more high demand clinical resource. From a surgeon’s perspective precision surgery enables greater visualisation and enhanced dexterity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also revolutionising diagnostics. We’re seeing some incredible breakthroughs already, especially within the early diagnosis of certain types of cancers - it will, without question, help to save many more lives.

Janine Thomas: I think E-OBS without a doubt has made the biggest impact. The digitalisation of physiological parameters and the ability to automate early warning scores has made the decline of patients more visible, allowing earlier intervention. This facilitates early diagnosis and management of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock.

The Electronic prescription service has also been hugely successful for many patients – automating the sending of prescriptions to pharmacies, which dispense and deliver them to the patient’s door.

Another notable mention must be the emergence of the electronic insulin pump and remotely controlled CPAP machines, both of which help the patient to receive optimal treatment.

Sophie Evans: Technology has allowed the NHS to move away from paper. That sounds like a small thing, but the impact is considerable.

As a nurse, I spent countless hours bogged down in paperwork – either completing laborious forms or chasing misplaced documents. The benefit an electronic-based system can be felt not only by those on the frontline, but also by patients – their records and insights about their care can now be shared more freely and effectively across clinicians, which ultimately means better outcomes.

The biggest hurdle technology could help overcome

Fiona Kirk: A huge challenge across the whole health ecosystem is trying to break down the silos, so data and insight can flow freely through primary, secondary, community and social care with ease. Technology can allow services to work in more integrated ways, but systems need to talk to each other – and suppliers of health tech need to open to that happening. Collaboration and interoperability really are key.

Sophie Evans: Digitisation of health and social care needs to be consistent. There are many examples of university hospitals being fully digitised but then just 5 miles away a smaller community-based hospital is still working from paper-based systems.

The whole system from primary care through to long-term care needs to be joined up – regardless of Trust or location. We can’t have a care system where people in rural locations don’t receive the same standards as those living in the cities.

Janine Thomas: Getting patients into hospital beds can only happen if those beds are empty. Being able to share quality data with social care means they can anticipate what service users will need, fewer patients will fall through the cracks in the system and in the long run, this will enable primary care providers to plan more strategically.

Monitoring the elderly at home is currently a high-profile priority for Government, but it’s not possible unless proper provision and assessment of need is in place. Digitally enabled teams around cohorts of elderly patients, who can perform proactive reviews based on wearable data, might ease the burden of hospital admissions. Using wearables to monitor the risk of falls in the home or patient movement to prevent pressure damage will be crucially important in this.

I also think that there should be more emphasis on digital communication with social workers in this arena, for example, monitoring the temperature of a person’s home and any changes in circumstance that need social worker input. Essentially anything that improves the timely provision of care improves the chances of keeping people – especially those with long-term conditions – out of hospital.

Phil Stuart-Douek: The biggest challenge facing health and social care is resource. The NHS’s remit is widening almost daily, while recruitment and retention of almost every role within health and social care is falling. Technology can’t replace people, but it can make their lives easier.

Having technology that streamlines the workflow and provides patient insight and data to the clinicians at the point of care is vital. This improved accessibility of data can encourage greater collaboration across multidisciplinary teams.

The next big transformation in health tech

Phil Stuart-Douek: Big Data. The sheer volume of data that is collected across healthcare environments now is staggering - but currently the majority goes on to sit on a dusty shelf, left unused.

Having that data available in a format that is easily accessible will mean that research projects that would have required weeks, or months, of data collection can be completed in moments. Having all their data available at the point of care will not only benefit the patients, but may also reveal trends and patterns, previously unseen and give everyone involved in planning healthcare provision a huge advantage. Having this data available will also pave the way for AI to be used to assist in research, predict trends and model care for the future.

Janine Thomas: We will need more digital eyes and ears – and wearable and integrated technologies can help here. Automated real time digital monitoring of patients from integrated medical devices such as pumps and ventilators is being introduced in ICUs across NHS Wales. This will provide rich contextual data sets to inform patient care. Imagine the benefits of a ward where nurses are presented with real-time early warning scores for all patients - without needing to be at the bedside to take the readings - releasing nurses from labour intensive routines and giving early sight of the deteriorating patient

Sophie Evans: There will be a complete transformation of care environments thanks to innovation. It’s something we’re already seeing as the number of virtual wards increase and more remote monitoring is offered to patients in long-term care and for those people living with chronic health conditions. There will no longer be the physical barriers of a GP surgery or a hospital, care will be delivered in a wider variety of places.

Digital innovation will enable preventative care to become a reality. Not just to prevent those living with chronic conditions from needing acute care, but also to monitor closely those who are most vulnerable in our communities, such the elderly, so we can prevent rapid decline, falls, and spot the early signs of diseases such as dementia.

Technology can make our population healthier and enable more people to live longer, independent lives.

Fiona Kirk: The role of AI in precision medicine will dramatically transform healthcare, especially within immunotherapy for cancer. Of course, the goal will always be to find a cure for cancer but imagine if technology could help make the fight that much more successful and manageable to live with.

Interviewee biographies:

Phil Stuart-Douek has more than 30 years’ experience as a registered nurse working within A&E departments, intensive care, neurosurgical and vascular surgical wards. For the past 12 years Phil has used his experience working on the frontline of healthcare, including volunteering as a community first responder for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, and as a clinical consultant for health technology businesses.

Fiona Kirk’s career started with 20 years in the NHS as a ward sister in a high acuity Neurosurgical ward in Liverpool and a midwife in Durham, before joining transfusion diagnostics specialist, Quotient, and medical device brands Medela UK and Molnlycke Health Care.

Sophie Evans is a registered nurse. She worked within the NHS for more than seven years as a surgical staff nurse and then a critical care nurse at Wales’ largest critical care unit at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

Janine Thomas is a registered nurse. She’s a clinical informatics nurse specialist, having previously worked with Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust and AGFA Healthcare UK.