TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE Becoming aGlobal Leader
Angus Honeysett, Head of Market Access at Tunstall Healthcare, looks at how technology can enable the UK’s social care sector to become a world-renowned specialist in population health management and service provision.
In recent years, the role and value of social care services in supporting the health and wellbeing of our population has been in the spotlight.
We have also seen how quickly new working practices can be adopted when it is imperative to do so; initiatives such as remote health monitoring have become operational at a
pace never seen before.
With an extra six million over 65s expected between now and 2040, our aging population means we have no choice but to look at the ways we can deliver care differently in order to cope with increasing demand.
Technology has a key role to play in services being delivered in innovative ways, placing citizens at the heart of decision making. This enables us to lead population health management and service provision by example.
A DIGITAL FUTURE
Innovative and technology led new ways of working has been a focus for Commissioners for a number of years and the move to digital/IP solutions has accelerated this.
Using technology to support people is low cost, and helps citizens to stay at home for longer with an increased quality of life. Likewise, relatively low-cost telecare systems can help to avoid hospital admission, delay and prevent the need for residential care, and reduce carer burnout.
Various systems mean users are able to easily connect to a specialist monitoring centre at the touch of a button. In addition, devices such as smoke, gas, flood and fall detectors can automatically raise the alarm to ensure a response if the individual is unable or unwilling to communicate this themselves. A rapid response to events can mitigate their effects; for example, the fire service attending sooner than may otherwise be the case, or avoiding a ‘long lie’ aſter a fall. It also provides 24-hour reassurance to the user and family members that emergencies will be responded to.
As technology advances, we have the capability to not just react to events, but to predict and even prevent them. For example, sensors in the home can detect usage of the bathroom or kitchen appliances. This in turn can indicate a possible deterioration in self-care, nutrition or health, and enable an early intervention.
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Understanding solutions that are required and adapting as things change - not to be driven by contracts but in providing solutions - will ensure innovation continues to flourish. We need to go back to a stage before solution building so that if we understand the problems faced on a daily basis, we are better placed to co-design straight-forward and effective solutions.
THE BENEFITS OF MOVING TO DIGITAL
As the UK’s communications network is set to complete its transition from analogue to digital by 2025, technology has an even greater role to play in enhancing care service provision. Although this will require significant investment from the public sector at a time when budgets are already under extreme pressure, it brings a once in a generation opportunity to modernise, improve and shiſt thinking from a reactive, to a proactive delivery model which can empower user and enable care to be delivered when and where it is needed most.
“As technology advances, we have the capability to not just
react to events, but to predict and even prevent them.”
Benefits according to the Scottish Local Government Digital Office in their Guidance for Suppliers – transitioning from analogue to digital, published in 2021 include citizen experience, improved device management, increased resilience, more efficient delivery models and improved integration and prevention.
THE BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
Technology has historically been seen as an addition to existing service delivery, rather than a means of transforming models of care, leading to difficulties in integrating technology effectively.
Cultural change is required which in turn needs early engagement. We must lead from the top to ensure stakeholders have input at an early stage into how technology can help them and the citizens they support. There is still misapprehension that needs to be addressed; stakeholders need to understand that technology is an enabler for better services, not a replacement for human contact.
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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