Digital Health: The Future?

Former Health Minister Aneurin Bevan who spearheaded the founding of the NHS in 1948

View this article on our brand new website: http://politicsbulletin.co.uk/digital-health-the-future/

Since its foundation in 1948, the NHS has been a key characteristic of the United Kingdom. It was created out of the ideal that good healthcare should be free to all, regardless of wealth and hitherto it has been a monumental success with many countries across the world striving to replicate the National Health Service for their own citizens. However, the past few years have seen the NHS hit turbulent times with politicians using it as a political football to kick around at will. The NHS has currently come to a stand still in terms of its future projection – it has fallen behind the health services of various Scandinavian countries and according to research by The Kings Fund,  by 2020, Britain’s spending on its health service will be £43 billion less a year than the average spent by its European counterparts such as France and Germany. Britain’s GDP investment into its health system is at an all time low and because of this critics have labeled Britain the “sick person of Europe.”

So why is the NHS in decline? Well firstly it costs the government and indeed the tax payer well over £100 billion to fund the NHS each year – compare this with the cost to run the NHS in 1948 which, after adjusting for inflation was roughly £9 billion at today’s value. As aforementioned, the British government is planning on spending less of its GDP per year on its National Health Service compared to previous years and there is no doubt that less money will mean a lesser service provided. According to some experts, when looking at the NHS in it’s current nature and comparing it with services in Scandinavia, the UK has probable lost 3-5 years already.

Last week the UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt initiated plans to fund the NHS with £4 billion in order to “create a paperless NHS”, Hunt wants the NHS to use technology to its advantage and that means investing in Digital Healthcare.

The Present

In basic terms, Digital Health is essentially the use of technology and communication networks to improve the service offered by heath providers for the care of patients and the population. Innovators in the field of digital health are focused on using new technology to improve the healthcare experience for both healthcare staff and patients.

According to one innovator in the field of digital health, Peter Ohnemus, the UK must ‘rectify its strategy on digital health,’ he said: “The UK has lost a lot of time and money as there is not a clear digital health strategy within the NHS. This has to change very rapidly or the NHS will have very serious financial and delivery problems – this cannot be in any UK politicians or citizens interest.”

Ohnemus, who’s company dacadoo recently won the 2016 BIG Innovation Award 2016 regards investment into digital health for all health care groups and governments across the world as paramount because of the advantages digital healthcare would permit to the tax payers, patients and health care staff: ” Digital healthcare is here today and can save up to 25% of our healthcare spending today. Digital sensors/mobile health at home can save up to 80% of the hospital visit cost.  The upfront investment in England is probably 10% of the overall healthcare cost and long term it will provide cost savings of 15-25%.

“Digital healthcare means that you can track, document and improve your health in real-time over your smart phone. It means that elderly people can live in their private homes a lot longer and have assisted living at very low cost. People from the ages of 30-65 can have their lives followed and improved on their smartphone. In the future you can track your blood pressure, blood values, health and weight in real-time wherever you are at a very low cost. That is digital health.”

Technological advancements in healthcare have meant that progress has been achieved in all fields of Digital Health thus far, from medical devices used directly by doctors to mobile health and computers that aid in health management and diagnosis. Aakash Ganju, the CEO of Mirai Health – a website and smart phone app dedicated to improving health care outcomes for both patients and doctors, believes that Digital Health has “put a lot more information into the hands of the consumer whilst it has also pushed doctors to becoming substantially more communicative with patients.”

Digital Healthcare activity within the average American household

According to statistics by the Deloitte Centre, UK smartphone use has risen by 8% within the last year alone whilst at least 80% of all health care consumers in the UK have a smart phone and internet access. It is to be expected that this trend will continue to rise and many experts believe that it is imperative health care providers make use of this information and act now.  New technology has allowed patients to be able to access their medical records online as well as book appointments with their GP using their mobile phone – and this is only the beginning.

The Future

It is an ever increasing trend that technology is improving industries throughout the world and Jose Miguel Cacho – a professional in Digital Health, finds it curious why governments wouldn’t invest heavily in new technology for healthcare: “By comparison few people doubt the benefits of digital banking or online travel services. Digital health is not only necessary, it’s just that, it’s necessary to bring to the population processes to improve their overall health, which are based on the technology we use today.”

But are the improvements in Digital Healthcare worth the extra costs? Only time will tell. Peter Ohnemus believes that like any new innovation you first have to invest and then you will receive the pay back: “It will provide a lot of jobs and growth going forward, if politicians do not act the jobs will go to other countries – Digital does not know borders.

“In terms of the future for healthcare I personally believe that the brightest minds in digital are today working on digital outcome and digital bio-sensors that will be able to track our life in a ‘passive non-invasive way.’ Meaning that we can calculate your health in real-time and hopefully get the right ‘wrong’ signals early and help people have a healthier and happier life at the end of the day.”

A growing trend in Digital Health funding in the USA

Global companies such as Apple and Google are also investing heavily in Digital Health. Google have created Verily.com a website which researches how ‘technology can be implemented to create a true picture of human health’ whilst Apple are investing heavily in Digital Health mobile apps – apps such as docadoo enables users to track, manage and benchmark their health in an easy and fun way on their smartphones using a variety of techniques from online games to social features – healthcare truly is changing.

However, with huge amounts of capital being poured into Digital Health, innovators should not take their fingers off the button, Aakash Ganju said: “There have been many false starts (IT deployment in the NHS, for example) and missed expectations. We have to keep the bar high and make sure that the stakeholders in driving Digital Healthcare adoption are multidisciplinary and appreciate the unique dynamics of healthcare ecosystems. We can’t afford to celebrate ‘inputs’ and must really focus on measuring the ‘outputs’ of digital interventions. Only then will we know if the improvements are worth the extra costs.”

It seems set that if money is invested into new technology wisely then the world should see a digital healthcare revolution with improved healthcare systems all over the world for patients and staff. Unsurprisingly, innovators and entrepreneurs working within Digital Health are excited to sell the products they have created and patented to health organisations across the globe but it is imperative that patient happiness and healthcare comes before profits; only when we see an improved healthcare system that is backed up by doctor and patient happiness statistics as well as an improved level of health and well – being for patients will we know that government investments into Digital Health have succeeded. The future of healthcare is almost certainly in Digital Health but it needs to be implemented in the correct way – that there is no doubting.

Digital Technology and its Vision for the NHS

View this article on our brand new website: http://politicsbulletin.co.uk/digital-technology-and-its-vision-for-the-nhs/

The world is in the middle of a digital revolution – new technology is shaping and evolving business’ and industries all over the planet. From travel and retail to the music industry and newspapers, technology is forcing industries across the planet to either embrace technology and thrive or ignore technology and die.

In 2014, the Secretary of State for Health – Jeremy Hunt – declared that he wanted the NHS to be a “world class showcase of what innovation can achieve” promising patients “personalised, 21st century healthcare” and slowly but surely Jeremy Hunts dream is coming into fruition.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last Friday (22nd January), NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens is set to launch the first wave of NHS innovation ‘Test Beds’.

NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens

These collaborations between the NHS and various other innovators aim to harness and use technology in order to drastically improve patient health care and the health service.

Other plans announced by Simon Stevens included:

• Patients with diabetes in the West of England being equipped with remote monitoring and coaching technology to allow them to better self-manage their condition;

• Older patients in Rochdale who are most at risk of critical health events being identified using data analysis, and supported to use tele-care and remote devices in their homes so that their doctors can provide timely and tailored help as soon as they need it, and;

• People in Birmingham at risk of serious mental illness will be able to make use of technology and apps to manage their condition, linked to a hub which can dispatch the right specialist staff at the right time to help if a crisis looks likely.

According to Simon Stevens the plans outlined are just the beginning of the future for the NHS.

Innovators in the field of digital healthcare such as the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) are collaborating with one another in order to change and improve healthcare quality; cost effectiveness and access through the use of information technology. HIMSS Europe hold a number of key events throughout the year across different corners of the globe where they invite entrepreneurs and businesses to showcase their initiatives and offer help and advice. The main aim many of these healthcare innovators have is to support the healthcare industry and improve the services the industry offers.

The future of affordable and quality healthcare – specifically in relation to the NHS – depends on how well dental services, hospitals and GP surgeries are able to adapt and use technology to best support patient needs as well as ensuring suitable cost effectiveness.

Modern digital technology is already changing the playing field throughout British GP surgeries and hospitals. In 2014 the NHS introduced ways in which patients could communicate with their GPs online. Patients are now able to book appointments with their GP online as well as being able to order repeat prescriptions and find their medical records online – a paperless health care system is what many countries, including Britain and its NHS is striving for. The advancement of technology togeather with the ideas of innovators are making the NHS paperless dream a reality one day at a time.

Digital Healthcare Technology is being used to both increase patient well-being as well as creating a better environment for the future.

However, modernising does take time – according to a recent survey of GP patients undetaken by NHS England, only 29.3% of patients are aware that they can book GP appointments online whilst as little as 6.5% of them actually partake in booking their appointments over the internet. Although, these figures are on the increase from last year. The NHS is used by a variety of different people from young to old so it is vital that technology innovations such as online bookings are communicated publicly for a sustained amount of time in order for these innovations to be effective.

One of the utmost important aspects of a persons life is their health and well-being – it is imperative that the brilliance of technology helps the fields of business and industry to become brilliant too -mainly for patients and customers – the people; but also for themselves. Health services for patients should be free at the point of use, hitherto the right to health is a human right. The people at the forefront of creating and modernising a new healthcare system must put patient needs at the top of the order whilst maintaining that healthcare workers are fully up to date with the changes that are taking place. Less waiting lines, a paperless healthcare system and a record level of patient happiness are just a few of the objectives that digital healthcare entrepreneurs across the world are hoping to achieve. A renaissance in healthcare is taking place and it’s all thanks to digital technology which, togeather with the innovators are behind the front window of a space shuttle flying into a new age of healthcare technology.

 

 

 

The patients view on the NHS

Earlier this month the NHS released its annual GP patient survey. The survey provides information on patients’ overall experience of primary care services and their overall experience of accessing these services.  [The full findings of the survey can be found here.]

According to the survey, almost 30% of patients across England say that it is ‘not easy’ to get through to their GP survey on the phone. It is estimated that 340 million consultations are taken every year therefore, according to these statistics, around 102 million people across England will have at least a small scale of difficulty in arranging a doctors appointment with their GP. A more worrying statistic, however, is that 15% of patients were unable to get an appointment with their GP altogether [at their last time of asking] – It can be estimated that somewhere in the region of 51 million people failed to get a desired appointment to either see or speak with a GP at some point over the year.

Health

The standout statistic in the ‘health’ category is that 37% of people who have long standing health conditions, (the most common long standing health condition [LSHC] being high blood pressure) feel that they don’t have enough support to manage their health condition. According to the Kings Fund, people with LTCHs account for 50% of all GP appointments, this means that 62.9 million people who have long standing health conditions are, in other words, unhappy with the support they receive from their GPs.

Waiting Times

In terms of patient waiting times the survey showed that 35.4% of patients wait over 15 minutes after their appointment time to be seen. Unfortunately the survey does not indicate how long patients have to wait after the first 15 minutes, however, it does indicate that more than half of all patients (57.7%) say ‘they don’t normally have to wait too long’ to be seen. Although this could indicate that 42.3% of patients aren’t entirely happy with the length of waiting times in their GPs surgeries.

Online

The survey states that only 29.3% of patients are aware that they can book an appointment with their GP online and as little as 6.5% of them actually go ahead in booking an appointment online. A similar number of 29.6% of patients are aware that they can order repeat prescriptions online but 326.4 million out of the 340 million people that visit a GPs surgery annually do not realise that they can access their medical records online. In addition to this, almost 10% (9.8%) of people believe that none of these online services exist.

 

 

 

 

Government funding into the NHS is hitting rock bottom levels says new independent research report

 

By 2020, Britain’s spending on its health service will be £43 billion less a year than the average spent by its European neighbours such as France and Germany according to research by the King’s Fund.

The think tank the King’s Fund has concluded that Britain now ranks in a lowly 13th position out of the original 15 EU members in terms of investment into their health services and critics have called Britain the “sick person of Europe.”

Although ministers have recently highlighted how they are funding the NHS in England an increasing share of overall government spending, figures courtesy of the King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby have doubted ministers claims. According to John Appleby in his report for the King’s Fund, the Government’s decision to increase the NHS’s budget by far less than the anticipated growth in GDP meant the NHS would miss out on what would be an extra £16 billion by 2020.

Appleby has warned that if Britain continues it’s trend of “low spending” then it might mean that the NHS cannot deliver improvements in quality care and patients will undoubtedly suffer.

The latest data shows that Britain spent 8.5% of its total GDP on healthcare in 2013, 1.6% less than the EU average which currently stands at 10.1% and according to Appleby it would take a lot of money and effort for the UK to catch up to it’s European counterparts.

“If we were to close this gap solely by increasing NHS spending, and assuming that health spending in other UK countries was in line with the 2015 spending review plans for England, by 2020-21 it would take an increase of 30% – £43bn – in real terms to match the EU-14’s level of spend in 2013, taking total NHS spending to £185bn.

“It’s clear that the UK is currently a relatively low spender on healthcare, with a prospect of sinking further down the international league tables,” Appleby said.

“This squeeze on health spending is bad for the NHS and it is bad for patients. It is clear that our health service is going to need much more money than this government is prepared to spend,” the shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander said.

Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat Health Minister who was part of the coalition last may stated: “These new figure show why we can’t just keep sleepwalking into a disaster. The NHS and care systems will crash if we carry on as we are because the current amount [going into the NHS] is not enough and everyone in the NHS knows it.”

Ministers have so far declined to comment on the aforementioned research. The Department of Health have stated that it is contributing to the NHS the necessary money that its Chief Executive Simon Stevens has said that is needed by 2020.

Last week the junior doctors strike heaped pressure on David Cameron and his Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and research showing a decline in healthcare funding compared to other European nations is hardly likely to relieve this pressure. It can be safely said that the average tax payer is strongly in favor of a strong, well funded and free NHS, well, the Kings Fund research has shown that at least one of these three points could be in decline, lets hope the other two don’t go in the same direction – the wrong direction as far as tax payers will be concerned.