Transforming care through technology

Healthcare and technology have gone hand in hand throughout history. From the earliest surgical tools of the Ancient Egyptians, through the development of pacemakers, to today’s state-of-the-art prosthetics, technological innovation has been at the heart of excellence in medical care. Nowadays, IT and digital technology continue to transform the way medicine is developed and, until recently, were the subject of significant investment from central government. Since the Coalition Government’s announcement at the end of September 2011 that the National Programme for IT would be scrapped, the future of information technology in the healthcare sector has seemed uncertain. The project, which has already cost the NHS £12 billion, was the biggest civilian IT project of its kind in the world, but was considered to not be fully fit-for-purpose to provide the services required by the NHS. As a result, the programme is reportedly to be ‘dismembered and reconstituted’, with ‘a one-size-fits-all approach’ set to be replaced by one that can be delivered more cost-effectively at a regional level. The abandoning of the programme means that a number of schemes intended to modernise the National Health Service are unlikely to be delivered. These would have included a national e-mail system, and the ability to transfer X-rays and prescriptions electronically, as well as a care record that would have allowed hospitals and surgeries to share patients’ medical information electronically.

Regional opportunities

However, transferring the responsibility for technology investment to a regional level means healthcare organisations can be more innovative, choosing solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of their communities and their service users. They can also work collaboratively to develop shared services to help deliver greater efficiencies and care benefits. The projected benefits of faster, and more efficient, network communications, are there to be realised, and there is little doubt that new developments in technology represent huge opportunities for the healthcare sector, and, interestingly, this is particularly true in these times of austerity. At a time when providers across the country are under pressure to cut costs without compromising on patient care, the right solution can offer greater efficiency at the same time as improved service delivery – the holy grail of the modern public sector. Already, we have seen real-time access to patient information have a hugely positive impact, with general practice, in particular, seeing significant improvements. Much of this has been enabled by the NHS national broadband network, N3, which has had a significant influence on the way healthcare services are able to be delivered. Since it was implemented to replace NHSnet in 2004, it has gone on to become voice-enabled, offering free on-net calls, access to PSTN (the public service telephony network), and affordable tariffs for calling mobiles, and now runs on ADSL broadband technology for optimum performance and cost efficiency.