TECHNOLOGY
acknowledged that overcoming a fear of data in the healthcare arena will be a key challenge, however. “Apple, Google and Facebook know where people are all the time. They know what people are eating, who their friends are, even their heart beats, in some instances – yet the idea of giving information away to the NHS scares people. Providing reassurance will be key, therefore.
“If used on a large scale, in an anonymous, safe and secure way, data could be used in amazing ways – to support clinical trials and to better understand the side effects of medicines. There is so much important data that isn’t being gathered at the moment, which could be used in a more powerful way,” he asserted.
Supporting integrated care Dean explained that there are also opportunities in terms of how we connect and integrate health and social care: “If a patient has arthritis in their 50s, for example, there will be points during a 20-40-year period when they are going to need more support in terms of their health and social care. If we use digital technology during that journey, you can look at the impact on their lifestyle. How much are they going out? What is the impact on their work? What is the impact on the quality of their life? “Through the use of devices and data
collection, you could transform someone’s life. You could identify ways to help them, find cures more easily, and discover ways that the devices could become more valuable to people – by having an insight into their real-life experiences. Digital health is not just a nice thing to have; when we look to the future, digital health has to be at the core of everything we do – to help mental health, physical health, health prevention, treatment and cure. This is why the Digital Health APPG is going to be so important,” he explained.
If used on a large scale, in an anonymous, safe and secure way, data could be used in amazing ways – to support clinical trials and to better understand the side effects of medicines. There is so much important data that isn’t being gathered at the moment, which could be used in a more powerful way.
Interoperability and open standards
Andrew Davies, the digital health lead at ABHI, pointed out that there are other key challenges ahead in delivering the Government’s vision for a digital future, which will need to be tackled as a matter of urgency. In January this year, the Government updated its ‘Guide to good practice for digital and data-driven health technologies’3
“It is not just about having standards – we already have standards; it is about the application of those standards,” commented Andrew. “This requires companies to open up their systems in line with Government policies. The NHS could use procurement as a lever, to help drive improvement in the sector,” he argued.
in which it stated that digital
technologies should make the “best possible use of open standards to ensure data quality and interoperability”.
The document emphasised that, to provide a seamless care journey, it is important that technologies in the health and social care system are interoperable, in terms of hardware, software and the data contained within. Data from a patient’s ambulatory blood glucose monitor, for example, must have the ability to be downloaded onto clinical systems without being restricted to one type.
The Government points out that where healthcare technologies cannot ‘talk’ to each other, the result is often that information gets stuck in silos that create barriers to appropriate data sharing. This has a direct negative impact on patient care and the ability of clinicians to do their job safely and effectively.
Data: trust, privacy and access Andrew added that there are other important questions around patient data and trust, along with the accessibility of data. Both Andrew and Dean agreed that it is important to reassure the public that their data will be used in a way that they agree with, for the betterment of society. “There needs to be a really open dialogue around this,” Andrew commented. “If this was a year ago – pre-COVID – the conversation would be different. Although people have become sensitised to the use of data, they can also see the benefit. It still staggers me that a list of the NHS’s most vulnerable patients was given to supermarkets.
“It was a fantastic initiative – it enabled vulnerable people to access food and shopping slots. A year ago, this would have been incredibly contentious. But there was a benefit. Selling the benefits of sharing data and making sure the individual – whose data is being shared – is aware of what is happening will be crucial. But we also need to have the right governance,” he asserted. During the pandemic, extraordinary research breakthroughs have been possible thanks to the sharing of NHS data – such as the identification of the impact of dexamethasone in COVID-19 treatment. It has also enabled decision- makers to understand how the virus has been spreading, identify risks to vulnerable populations and proactively increase health and care resources in emerging hot spots. Andrew pointed out that such efforts have been aided by regulation changes relating to the handling of patient data. “The ability to share information easily and quickly across NHS organisations, has been an important part of the pandemic response and has been a ‘revelation’ to those
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