DIAGNOS TICS
environment, further easing the burden on the NHS.
However, Philips UK believes that CDH’s cannot be developed in isolation. Helping communities to address their health will require a collaborative effort from industry, Government and healthcare practitioners in order to encourage genuine interaction and engagement with the centres.
Strain on GP practices intensifies in most deprived regions of the UK Primary care – the day-to-day healthcare available in local areas and the first place people go when they need health advice or treatment, such as GPs – is where investigations and interventions to address health issues often coordinated. The report findings show that the rate of GP consultations per patient living in the most deprived areas is 18% higher than those living in the least deprived, while an individual aged 50 in the most deprived group consults their GP, on average, at the same rate as someone aged 70 in the least deprived. Patients living in deprived areas are more likely to have GP appointments and these appointments are likely to be more complicated. This is due to an increase in the number of patients in these communities with longer-term health conditions, placing a greater strain on primary care networks. The COVID-19 pandemic has further intensified the challenges faced by GPs in the most deprived regions. Prior to the pandemic, patients living in these areas had less access to vital digital health services needed, such as telemedicine, which may further exacerbate healthcare inequalities.
Digital technology will be vital to level the playing field The report further highlights how the NHS has recognised the need to make rapid changes to service delivery and care pathways as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these changes have required the enhanced use of digital technologies, hastening the digital transformation of healthcare – one of the key pillars of the NHS Long Term Plan. In many instances, the pandemic has demonstrated that a large part of care – from electronic health records, telemedicine, diagnostics, remote monitoring and care devices, to pathology, AI and predictive analytics – can and should be provided digitally.
However, the pandemic has also exposed an urgent requirement to optimise data infrastructure in the UK and highlighted room for improvement in data sharing processes between healthcare providers and settings.
Although almost all GP clinics in the UK are using electronic health records, Imperial
College’s researchers have found that some hospital Trusts are still using paper records, which is a barrier to the efficient sharing of health data. This use of paper records in hospital Trusts represents an additional burden for patients that move between these hospitals and their GP.
Philips UK believes that introducing advances in medical technologies – both through the delivery of diagnostic services and targeted therapies – presents an essential opportunity to support the 66 million people in the UK to live longer, healthier lives. As such, in tandem with these latest findings, Philips UK has unveiled its report, Reducing Healthcare Inequality and Enhancing the NHS, with recommended actions that could improve the health of the nation, reduce inequalities and enhance the NHS. The report highlights the role of transformative healthcare technologies, stating: l Digital technologies provide new opportunities to tackle many of the challenges currently facing the NHS, including an ageing population and health inequalities.
l Novel digital innovations are already helping the NHS to be safer, more efficient, personalised, and preventative.
l The COVID-19 pandemic has hastened the adoption of digital technologies in the NHS, including the use of telehealth, online services and remote monitoring. Many of these changes to the way that healthcare is delivered in the UK are likely to persist in the post-COVID era.
l Digital online services, such as booking appointments, ordering prescriptions and accessing health records online are less likely to be used by people living in more deprived communities.
l Technologies such as telemedicine, remote care and the Internet of Things represent opportunities to better manage chronic health and social care needs and reduce health inequalities in the UK.
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l Automation and artificial intelligence can help to reduce the workload of healthcare providers, allowing them to focus on what they do best – caring for patients.
One example of transformative technology, highlighted in the report, is the use of wearable sensors to detect deterioration. An estimated 150,000 people are affected by sepsis in the UK every year and as many as 1 in 4 people with sepsis will die. Evidence suggests that for every hour delay in diagnosis of sepsis, the mortality rate goes up by 8%. Early detection of sepsis and other causes of patient deterioration can alert clinicians to start or change treatments earlier and significantly improve outcomes for patients. Wearable sensors that monitor vital signs
like heart rate and respiratory rate provide a much-needed option for continuous patient monitoring outside the environment of an Intensive Care Unit without restricting a patient’s ability to ambulate. For example, the Philips Biosensor BX100, which received FDA and CE mark clearance in May 2020, is approved for use in a hospital setting, after surgery or following ICU discharge to a general ward. This is a wireless, single- use patch that is worn on the left side of a patient’s chest for up to five days and can connect to a hospital’s information system using Bluetooth connectivity. Remote monitoring using wearable sensors could also open opportunities to expand more care into the home setting in the future and reduce demand on much- needed NHS hospital beds. These sensors also have a potentially valuable role to play monitoring patients with COVID-19, many of whom will require care outside of hospital Intensive Care Units. The report further highlights the use of
artificial intelligence in diagnostics. In the UK, over 7.4 million people are currently living with heart and circulatory diseases.
FEBRUARY 2021
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