Technology
monitoring their sleep patterns on their smart phones and watches being used to record their heart rate, to using apps to track specific medical symptoms. One way or another, we’re all getting closer to what is going on in our mind and in our bodies via technology and smart devices. A recent study in fact by the Organisation
for Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA) revealed that 47% of people use a health app. But I would argue that the number of digitally health engaged people is much higher, with many more using health tracking that are already built into smart phones – such as step counting, the number of hours sleep we manage to grab and daily calorie intake. Such is the powerful health insight being
collected on our personal smart devices that health secretary, Victoria Atkins, recently announced that the health service would be investing in its NHS app to turn it into an exercise tracker. That way doctors would be able to make use of the data collected by smartphones too, using the NHS app to monitor patients’ step counts or offer therapy – for example. It’s worth adding here that the details of how this would work have yet to be shared, and if patients would be comfortable sharing this data with their GP. Nevertheless, this interest in health metrics has given rise to something I’ve heard being referred to as the ‘informed’ or ‘expert’ patient. Going back to the research carried out by Google Health and the NHS Confederation1
it
showed that 97% of people consider themselves responsible for their own health. In comparison, a little under half believe that the NHS and doctors still hold ‘some responsibility’. That attitudinal shift in ownership is being
seen by clinicians. They increasingly talk about a rising number of patients coming armed to appointments with their own health data, who have done their homework about their symptoms and their conditions and can attend their appointment armed with the facts. This isn’t about using Google as a diagnosis
Freeing up time to embrace patient empowerment It’s not just patients who are tapping into technology, however. Clinical teams are also taking an innovative approach to encouraging patient education and empowerment. Take for example the use of technology which
already exists in most of our homes – ambient intelligence. In its simplest form, ambient intelligence is sensitive to the presence of people. Via sensors it can track movement and, with voice recognition capability, it can respond to human enquiries and record data. In our homes the technology is used to switch on our lights, remind us about an upcoming medical appointment and order our groceries online. But in a clinical environment, the benefit of this artificial intelligence can shift from being purely convenience to clinically transformative. For example, imagine the time that could
be saved if nurse or clinician didn’t have to manually record patient information – but, instead, they could vocally feed the data into smart speakers as observations were being taken in a single occupancy hospital. Alternatively, imagine a scenario in which
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tool or asking Chat GPT to tell them more about their symptoms – that would be dangerous. Instead, it is about a rise in people searching out credible sources of information to educate themselves about their health. Ultimately, more people than ever now want to understand and be educated about their health and their care. Another side-effect of the NHS’s
transformation is that clinical teams can spend less time on tasks such as paperwork and more time caring, supporting and indeed further educating and empowering patients. No nurse joins the health service for the paperwork. But prior to more technology being introduced, creating and chasing paperwork was a big part of the job.
a clinician speaks to a patient during a consultation and the discussion is documented electronically in near real time. The nurse or clinician would simply verify the
notes before they were automatically uploaded into a patient’s care record and into workflow management systems. Not only could this save clinician time, but the full recording of the interaction could also be used by the patient to refer to at a later date – for example, recalling the notes and advice from a physiotherapy appointment delivered in hospital following being discharged. Even those of us in the medical profession can find the information we received at an appointment overwhelming. This way, a patient can refer back to the exact advice they were given by their healthcare profession, without worrying about remembering it during the appointment. Patients can also use the technology in hospital to set themselves reminders of their care for them they return home – out-patient appointments, physiotherapy exercise prompts, medication reminders. They can even access credible sources of information about their condition to build up their own knowledge. The benefit of technology, such as this, is its potential is uncapped and, because it is familiar to most people, it is also accessible.
Lightening the clinical load Technology must help lighten some of the load of those delivering frontline patient care, so they feel they are capable of further empowering and educating patients. Although technology cannot remove all of the pressures health teams face, it can help create balance that relieves it – especially across frontline services. One example is remote health monitoring
devices. According to a survey of 1,000 patients (many of whom had more than one long-term condition), 7 out of 10 said they would be willing to use technology to avoid a hospital admission. Roughly the same number shared that they
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