NHSX officially launched on 1 July 2019. Their core ambition is to reduce the pressure on clinicians and staff so that they can focus more on patients. Patient safety across the NHS will be of utmost importance and productivity within the NHS will be improved with digital technology.
Chief Executive, Mathew Gould said: “The first thing that we are going to do is focus on standards and platforms. This is vital if we are going to deliver common technology language across the NHS as a whole”.
However, it’s very important that we don’t make these standards only fit for the technology of today but also consider what is on the horizon and what is in the pipeline of development across the wider health and care system”.
The current state of the development of technologies needs to be understood using AI. These developments come from the Accelerated Access Collaborative which identifies the best and latest innovations, and ensures that the NHS is ready to utilise them.
A survey called the “data-driven ecosystem” was launched back in May of this year, in order to ask questions like the “why” and “how” of the technologies that are currently being developed.
The survey is now closed and the NHSX and are busy analysing the data collected. The results will be published in a report that will not only explain the ins and outs of the information collected, but will also map out the next year’s work plans.
Although not completed, the NHSX shared some of the conclusions made from the data already acquired regarding the implementation of technology within the NHS.
Out of the 162 respondents, it was found that data-driven developers are on the same page as the NHSX: 67% of respondents are aiming to develop a solution that will be used by clinicians and 47% will be used for the people who live with a long-term ailment. The primary aim is to improve system efficiency (69%) and to deliver a better experience of care (53%).
It is very positive to see that the standards that have already been put in place are being acknowledged by developers, with 7% of those developing their solution being in agreement with the behaviours set out in the Code of Conduct.
However innovation will need to be stimulated, as 48% of solutions were focused on diagnostics and 59% on secondary care. In these cases, the data is already structured in a standardized format than that of primary or community care settings.
The results have revealed that there is still a lot of work ahead, and the data-driven evolution will not happen overnight. Only one third of the developers are confident their solution will be ready within a year, and one quarter think it will only be ready in more than 5 years’ time.
It will take time to validate and train AI models, and there are still unclear aspects of the legal, ethical and regulatory requirements that the developers will need to meet before their solutions are considered safe for use.
Article link: https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/08/nhsx-building-solid-foundations-for-the-future/
