The proven digital health leader will support the NHS shift from analogue to digital by developing and rolling out the SPARK Fusion platform, which delivers productivity-enhancing apps alongside communication, entertainment, and information
Jane Stephenson has joined SPARK TSL as chief executive as the company looks to establish the benefits of SPARK Fusion with trusts looking for deployable solutions to improve productivity.
Stephenson joins the company from System C Healthcare, where she was chief revenue officer, having previously led Clevermed, the provider of the BadgerNet neonatal and maternity system.
She said the attraction of moving to SPARK TSL is that it has a similar ambition to transform working lives for clinicians and service delivery for patients.
“When I look at my career it has been about revolutionising care,” she said, “and I believe SPARK TSL has the same priorities: to support clinicians and to improve care and experience for people in hospital.
“SPARK Fusion has the potential to make tasks, such as communicating with clinicians or making sure that patients have information to support their recovery, much more intuitive and efficient. Just as importantly, it is backed by really great people who are totally committed to supporting their customers.
“When you look at products, and our processes, and our people, it is clear SPARK TSL is well placed to be a transformation partner for the NHS. So, I look forward to working with health and care to drive positive change in the years to come.”
SPARK TSL is a leading provider of wi-fi to retail outlets, transport and conference venues. However, in 2005 it started working with a large, London trust, and over the past 20 years it has developed a specialisation in healthcare.
In 2020, the company became part of the Volaris Group, which acquired legacy bedside unit provider Hospedia the following year. Since the acquisition, SPARK TSL has been encouraging trusts and health boards to move away from the unpopular and outdated patient-pays model for communications and entertainment.
To support this, SPARK TSL has been exploring ways that trusts can use their wi-fi and communications assets to address the significant demand and productivity challenges facing them.
In April, it acquired Sentean Group, a Dutch company with a unique digital platform that enables apps to be integrated with electronic patient records and deployed at the bedside or managed on ‘bring your own’ devices.
SPARK Fusion integrates with many different kinds of apps thanks to its adoption of international standards, and there is already a host of functionality available. This includes translation to make sure patients can communicate effectively with their clinicians, modern nurse call that enables patients to indicate their needs and the right person to acknowledge and attend, and a food ordering app to reduce waste by enabling patients to choose meals that meet their dietary requirements.
Trusts and health boards can also use the platform to enable patients to complete the Friends and Family Test and other feedback forms, and to ensure patients have proactive information about their condition to promote recovery and reduce readmission rates.
In the Netherlands, patients already use the platform to control aspects of their environment, such as room temperature and lighting, and staff can set door signs electronically; features that align with NHS England’s vision for the ‘digital hospital’ of the future.
“SPARK Fusion is a relatively new product for the UK market, but we are already seeing that it can deliver quantifiable improvements in efficiency,” Stephenson said. “Because it can be integrated with the EPR, it can also deliver a more personalised experience for patients, by making sure they have the right menu or can control their room.
“Ambitious trusts that want to be at the top of the HIMSS EMRAM maturity model need this kind of functionality, but no EPR system can deliver every aspect of it. That is where SPARK Fusion comes in. It is a modular product, so as trusts develop their digital maturity, the platform can develop with them.”
Stephenson is a microbiologist by training. She started her career in research, but soon realised she wanted to develop products and get them used to improve care. She supported start-ups before moving to Clevermed and spearheading its move from neonatal to neonatal and maternity systems.
Matt O’Donovan, group chief executive at SPARK TSL, said: “We are delighted to welcome Jane to SPARK TSL. She has a remarkable commitment to using technology to deliver benefits for services, staff and patients – which has also been our commitment since we started working in healthcare almost 20-years ago.
“Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting is urging the NHS to shift from analogue to digital, and we know trusts are anxious to make that shift by adopting innovation that works for them. SPARK Fusion absolutely fits that bill, so we look forward to working with Jane as she aims to make sure that as many trusts and health boards can benefit as possible.
“By coupling SPARK Fusion with their existing infrastructure and core systems, trusts and health boards can improve their digital maturity, improve efficiency, and deliver a better experience for staff and patients which, at the end of the day, is what they are all about.”
