Delays to NHS services, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to record numbers of people now waiting for hospital treatment across the UK. Six million are currently on a waiting list – one in nine of the population – and, according to ministers, that figure won’t start falling for another two years.
This month, the government announced its Delivery Plan for tackling the backlog, which proposes, among other things, increasing capacity, making greater use of the independent sector, and prioritising demand according to clinical need. However, technology, including data, analytics, AI, IoT and the cloud have also been, and will continue to do, a lot to support GP and hospital staff in the reduction of waiting lists at this crucial time.
Remote healthcare technology today
Telemedicine, for example, has been used extensively over the last two years of the pandemic, enabling patients to continue to receive treatment from healthcare providers, even remotely while in lockdown or isolating. In fact, in April 2020, overall telehealth use for office visits and outpatient care was 78 times higher than in February 2020, according to McKinsey. And now, even as the pandemic in the UK slows, people continue to be receptive to telemedicine. Sixty-three per cent of UK adults said they would be willing to have a video consultation with their GP for a minor ailment, and 55 per cent for advice on an ongoing condition or problem, according to health think tank Nuffield Trust.
This positive sentiment is exciting because the opportunities that remote healthcare is opening up for people stretch far beyond virtual GP appointments. They also include, for example, technologies that allow patients to be safely monitored in their home environment, using remote health solutions that provide care teams with relevant and real-time data. This could involve technologies that facilitate electronic personal health records or personal health apps that can store medical information, calculate and track calorie intake, schedule reminders for taking medicine, or record physical activity, such as a daily step count. In the future, they could even include remote surgeries, performed by doctors who are not physically in the same location as patients.
Increased patient involvement
These health tech innovations are part of a wider trend that is seeing patients playing an increasingly central role in the management of their own health. One way we see this happening is through the increasing use of patient portals, which give people the ability to access their own healthcare record online from wherever they are. Whereas previously, a patient’s healthcare record was something curated and reviewed exclusively by medical professionals, what we are now seeing is the opening up of this healthcare process to patients. By accessing their record from a phone or laptop, people can examine their healthcare details and ensure that their information is accurate and up to date. Whether this is identifying incorrect allergy information or updating outdated treatment details, involving people in this way is creating a far more transparent healthcare process, improving doctor’s decision-making, and driving quality in patient care.
We are also seeing people assuming far greater responsibility for monitoring their own health more broadly. Consumer trends that already exist in this area – such as using wearables to track heart rate, blood oxygen levels and body composition – are now set to become deeply wedded with medical practices, allowing people to provide medical information from home that can bridge the gaps between hospital visits. Processes like these allow patients to share valuable healthcare data that simply cannot be obtained through a doctor’s visit, such as a monthly average heartrate or sleep patterns. This will prove vital in giving doctors a better overview of their patients, and allow them to take a more informed, data-driven approach to dealing with health issues.
Current barriers to progress
While these advancements undoubtedly present huge opportunities for both improving efficiencies across healthcare organisations and reducing wait times – as well as potentially patient outcomes too – they understandably require additional technology investment. They also require additional training for healthcare staff, who without a certain level of data literacy, will struggle to implement them effectively. Healthcare trusts hampered by squeezed budgets or interoperability challenges across different or aging healthcare IT systems may therefore be slow to adopt more digital ways of working, without extra financial and practical support by government.
Patients too are varied in their access to, and understanding of, data and technology, so these tools may not be right for all situations. However, with more and more of us using technology in our day to day lives – to do our shopping, banking, travel and more – it stands to reason that remote healthcare technology will become increasingly intuitive for both healthcare professionals and patients alike.
What’s next for remote healthcare
New research indicates telehealth use has increased 38X from the pre-COVID-19 baseline, according to McKinsey, and it appears set to remain a viable option for care, thanks to favourable public perception and regulatory environment, and continued investment. As we continue to understand what living with Covid means for us as a country and for our NHS, healthcare organisations should look at ways to embed remote healthcare technologies into their strategies for 2022. This could involve, for example, devising plans for addressing fluctuations in demand, in the face of various ‘waves’ of Covid infections, as well as understanding the key technological advancements required to make this vision a reality, such as interoperability across different platforms. Embracing new technologies and care pathways across healthcare organisations, where appropriate, may help us to address the nation’s treatment backlog far more effectively, so that patients can access the care they need, when they need it.
By Dr John Payne, Consultant Transplant Cardiologist and Physician Executive at InterSystems