DIGI TAL HEALTH
Connected healthcare: how data will save lives
Data saves lives and connected MedTech will be key to ensuring this data is easily accessible and actionable. Louise Frampton spoke to Mindray UK’s digital health experts to find out how patient safety, efficiency and clinical decision making could be enhanced though improved interoperability, artificial intelligence and mobile monitoring solutions.
Digital transformation of health and social care is a top priority for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE). The system’s long-term sustainability depends on it. The Government’s plans include £2 billion of funding to support electronic patient records to be in all NHS Trusts and help over 500,000 people to use digital tools to manage their long-term health conditions in their own homes.1
The key to advancing this digital healthcare vision will be the integration of medical devices and patient monitoring systems into the electronic patient record (EPR). Trusts are working to achieve a paperless vision, but for this to happen they need to eliminate the many manual data entries required. With a plethora of medical devices, monitors, and IT systems, from a variety of vendors, interoperability will be
the cornerstone of the digital vision for future healthcare delivery. As the NHS strives towards more integrated care, there will be new challenges to overcome to enable the sharing of data across locations, between the acute setting, primary and social care, as well as patients’ homes.
Data saves lives So, why is interoperability between MedTech and IT systems so important? Connected medical devices have the potential to reduce human errors, by eliminating manual transcription of data, such as vital signs, and can improve efficiency and quality of care as staff are not required to leave the bedside to input data into a PC. As the NHS faces increasing staffing pressures, freeing clinicians from unnecessary administrative tasks is now vital.
Connectivity also allows devices to
integrate with intelligent tools to enable rapid identification of patients at risk of deterioration to ensure quicker intervention and better outcomes, as well as enabling the use of artificial intelligence to assist with clinical decision-making. It also enables the possibility of more efficient models of care by enabling remote/centralised visibility of patients and their health status. According to analysts, such as Gartner and IDC, around 80% of patient information is not captured or stored in an EPR.2
We
know that ‘data saves lives’ and that there is an urgent need to drive connectivity across the health and care system. But one of the main challenges has been the need to combine multiple data sources and formats, with a variety of different standards, into one cohesive system.3
As cases of COVID-19 surged in hospitals, the UK saw an acceleration in the adoption of digital healthcare technologies. New ways of working were required, which necessitated patient monitoring to adapt to a new healthcare landscape – connectivity of medical technologies became an urgent requirement. Prior to the pandemic, Mindray had already been advancing this agenda, implementing solutions designed to enable easier integration of digital patient data from monitoring technologies into hospital networks. The company had already successfully implemented this level of connectivity, at scale, for Royal Papworth, at its new state-of-the-art hospital built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. As most patients have their own private, ensuite rooms, the hospital required a high degree of visibility of patients’ status through connected monitors. This not only enables the monitoring of patients from a central location, but Mindray’s N1 monitors are able to follow the patient throughout their care
JANUARY 2023
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