Technology
would be happy to use technology to monitor their health and share information and data with their doctors.1
This willingness to use to
technology to take ownership of their own care can lead to fewer people potentially being called into hospitals with chronic conditions that have developed into crisis. Consequently, more care could be delivered within the community and in people’s homes. This will ease pressures on critical areas of the NHS and improve patient experience and outcomes.
A clinician’s eye view In recent years, we have seen many exciting innovations being driven by clinical teams in the pursuit of engaging patients. The use of virtual reality (VR) is a great example of this. We are seeing the technology being used to train surgeons and as a therapeutic aid to patients during surgical recovery. But the next step could be to use VR to give patients a pre-view of what their planned surgery will entail, effectively providing patients with a clinician’s eye view. This is only a couple of technological leaps from showing patients x-rays, CT and ultrasound sans. Admittedly, seeing your surgery virtually may not be every patient’s choice, but the benefits of bringing patients closer to their care will not only be felt by them but clinicians too.
Taking ownership of the future of healthcare It has been my long-held belief that technology holds promise for the future of healthcare. It’s a passionate belief that led me to leave the NHS and become a part of health technology
innovation. Technology has the power to enable earlier diagnosis, improve condition and care management and provide vital gains to population health. It can bring people closer to understanding their health and to feeling they have more control of it – and that’s incredibly powerful.
It is also necessary. We are all living longer, and our care needs are becoming more complex. The NHS needs to move towards a new care model that focuses on prevention and the use of technology to empower patients to take a more active role in their own care. Sixty-eight per cent of people believe that healthcare in the future will include more technology and less reliance on healthcare professionals.1 In my view, that doesn’t mean a replacement
of people with machines. Instead, it is freeing up people to be able to provide care rather than being bogged down in administration, using artificial intelligence to bolster human intelligence and diagnosis, helping patients understand their conditions and to take greater ownership of their health. Technology will only continue to empower
clinicians and enable patients to take greater ownership of their own health and wellbeing. CSJ
References 1. Patient Empowerment: What is the role of technology in transforming care, Google Health and the NHS Confederation (2023)
https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/ patient-empowerment-what-role-technology- transforming-care
2. Multiple long-term conditions affect more About the author
Fiona Kirk is a clinical consultant with health communications and technology specialist Ascom UK. She has dedicated 20 years of her career in healthcare to the NHS, having served as a ward sister in a high acuity neurosurgical ward in Liverpool and as a midwife in Durham. Passionate about how innovation could improve the lives of both patients and clinicians, Fiona left the NHS to pursue a second career in health technology working for transfusion diagnostics specialist, Quotient, and medical device brands Medela UK and Molnlycke Health Care.
than 14 per cent of English Population (2023)
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/249937/ multiple-long-term-conditions-affect-more- than/
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