21ST-CENTURY TECHNOLOGY
Aligning technology and estates strategies
Effective use of technology can significantly and positively impact the design and day-to-day running of NHS estates, with the power to make buildings more efficient and less wasteful, create income generation opportunities, and help ‘future-proof’ the estate long-term. To do this, however, technology and estates strategy need to be better aligned, argues Tas Hind, director of Technology at Essentia Trading. Here, with input from her, and a number of technology providers, HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, focuses on some of the more transformative technologies currently being deployed.
Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), GDEs (Global Digital Exemplars), and Fast Followers, are ‘well- positioned to lead on the technology agenda’, believes Tas Hind of Essentia Trading, a subsidiary business wholly owned by London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust launched in 2013 to provide consultancy services, working with clients – many of them in the NHS – on strategy and estate development. So far, however, she explained, their focus has principally been on ‘digitising frontline services’. She elaborated: “While the ETTF (Estates and Technology Transformation Fund) is also a great avenue for driving forward these types of changes, Trusts should be looking at how technology can transform estates as a norm.” What, I wondered, though, does Essentia consider the most valuable such technologies available to healthcare estates teams today?
Virtual reality
Tas Hind replied: “Virtual reality (VR) is being applied to the development of both existing and new facilities. Some estates
are using it to visualise how facilities will look in the future, and to help engage end-users, enabling collaboration between teams around design and build. VR can also help to explore challenges posed by existing facilities, and to validate improvements that can be achieved from planned changes. For instance, it can help inform how buildings will cope with emerging technologies such as new Electronic Patient Record systems and robots, and how the estate can be adapted or re-purposed for the future. For many design-led NHS projects, the biggest challenge can be convincing clinicians that the finished article will look just like – or better than – the 2D or 3D representation. No matter how talented the designer, it can take a leap of faith from stakeholders to get them on board with, and excited by, a design idea. That is why VR for the architecture and the design of hospitals is invaluable.
“The bigger the project,” she continued, “the more stakeholders it will involve. There is unlikely to be one single decision-maker; rather, multiple people
Tas Hind, director of Technology at Essentia Trading.
will provide input on various aspects of a building’s design. Getting busy NHS staff together to discuss these design decisions can be incredibly difficult, time- consuming, and inefficient. Floor plans, 3D renderings, and models, can convey an idea for a space, but even these approaches can fail to communicate ideas effectively.
An immersive technology “Conversely, as an immersive technology, VR can transport stakeholders into a fully interactive 3D environment, enabling them to explore a virtual representation of a particular room, floor, or building design.
Virtual reality (VR) is being applied to the development of both existing and new facilities. June 2018 Health Estate Journal 31
©Arch Virtual
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