20 YEARS IN HEALTH TECH
do. However, in the short term, we have a backlog that needs to be addressed – it is going to take some time. We need to think about how we can do this. At the moment, we are making scant headway.” He points out that we need to be more ambitious than simply returning to ‘pre- COVID levels’ – even before COVID we had a large backlog. “Technology is going to have a huge role
to play, whether it is digital technologies or genomics, or precision medicines. COVID saw people’s attitudes towards prevention change and all of this builds on a wider societal shift towards being fit and well. COVID has made people more aware of the need to take care of themselves,” he continues.
Connectivity
The NHS’s ambition to provide more efficient and more integrated care will largely depend on improved connectivity and interconnected healthcare technologies – driving data into the electronic health record will be key. “We are not gold standard, by any means, in terms of our use of electronic patient records and interoperability with HealthTech. However, progress is being made,” Davies comments. “It is not too bad in primary care, but secondary care is more fragmented and the interface between primary and secondary care needs more work.
“Nevertheless, it is now a well-recognised issue, and the Digital Health and Care Plan recently highlighted this. Two billion pounds have been allocated to tackle the problem and a large amount of this is likely to be spent on sorting out the electronic health record. It is the fundamental building block for the digital ecosystem. If we don’t tackle this, it is never going to work. We still have a long way to go – other countries are better integrated and further ahead than we are. We have the potential with our data and our structures; we just need to get the technicalities right.”
Sustainability The HeathTech sector has also seen significant changes in attitudes to sustainability. Brown points out that, in the past 20 years, the public’s perception of what sustainability is has changed completely – people are far more informed, and this is shaping the HealthTech landscape. In fact, it has become such an important issue, that the ABHI has appointed a fulltime sustainability lead to support this agenda. “The NHS in England has set out its Net Zero ambition for 2045. Suppliers of MedTech must respond for the NHS to deal with this,” Trickett explains. “The NHS has made it clear that it will be building this into
its procurement strategy. If a supplier is not compliant with what is set out in the Road Map, the NHS will not be buying from them. “Therefore, the industry must make some significant changes. ABHI’s board members have funded a collaboration with ARUP consultancy to develop a sustainability guidance framework to help members to be ready for this. Large companies may have had corporate sustainability programmes in place, for a number of years, because it has been important to their investors, while some SMEs will need help navigating this. We are taking this very seriously. But it isn’t easy.”
She points out that there is a lot of single use plastic in the health system but, in many instances, there may be good reasons for this. In addition, sometimes the carbon footprint of a single use product is not worse than the reusable alternative. “We need to carefully assess this, but we also need to ensure that people are doing what they say they are – as no one is policing them. It is easy for suppliers in some other regions to tick all the boxes for the NHS tender, and say they are doing all the right things, but who is going to check? The cost price may be very attractive, and the NHS may choose their product over one which has been manufactured responsibly – where the materials have been sourced responsibly, and the supply chain has considered the carbon footprint. “It is a big topic, but I see this as our next ‘Brexit’. It is as significant and reaches into the supply chain globally; it will require global change for us to deliver on this. But everyone is taking this very seriously,” she continues. “There has been a lot of waste generated from our COVID testing requirements. Even during this short time, you could see how
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the plastic kits got smaller and smaller and the plastic swabs became shorter. Everyone was trying to find ways to reduce the plastic. Industry is responding to the concern. “But technology also has an important contribution to reducing our carbon footprint in healthcare in other ways – we have remote management technologies; pacemakers can be managed remotely for example, so that the patient doesn’t have to come into hospital for unnecessary checks. This is also true of other technologies. Clinicians can make changes to the patients’ devices remotely. “There are also technologies available
to support self-care – eliminating the need for healthcare staff to come to the patient’s home. At any time, 4% of people in hospital are having IV antibiotics. They may be sat in a hospital bed for two weeks. There are technologies that allow this to be delivered via a device in the home. These technologies have a role to play in sustainability and the way in which we treat patients.” Other key issues include human rights and security within global supply chains. These are extremely complex areas for discussion and ABHI is working to address these areas, in relation to the HealthTech sector. During the pandemic, supply chain issues came under particular scrutiny. “There were localisation behaviours during the COVID pandemic affecting the supply of some products. What we need is recognition from countries that healthcare is a human right and there needs to be fair allocation – not protectionism,” says Trickett. “Some countries, including the UK, were better than others at not being protectionist. There was a lot of talk, following the pandemic, of ‘onshoring of manufacturing’. But it isn’t possible to onshore everything. Even if you can onshore
NOVEMBER 2022
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