Drawing on over 23 years of NHS and international digital health experience, Sarah Corbridge, Business Development Director at Hippo, explores the crucial role of data, user-centred design and expert collaboration for the digital future of the NHS.
The NHS is data rich and insight poor. It holds vast amounts of valuable data that could inform better care and outcomes, many organisations find it hard to use it properly. The sheer volume of data can be overwhelming, and determining the right course of action remains a challenge for many. Real-world successes remain limited and are mainly concentrated in larger hospitals with more access to funding.
As the NHS waits for its upcoming 10-Year Plan, we need a realistic, incremental and funded approach to NHS data driven by the real-world needs of clinical and service users.
AI and other innovations have potential benefits for efficiency and operations in the NHS. For example, AI is valuable in areas such as ambient speech, enabling hands-free documentation that improves the quality of patient notes while reducing the admin burden of manual typing.
However, AI should only be used responsibly and with caution to deliver any benefit. Its implementation should be centred around what people need and what data is available. With digitisation still underway across much of the NHS, and inconsistent application of standards, the NHS doesn’t yet have the data foundations needed to get on board the speeding bullet train of AI.
Data is powerful, but we shouldn’t try to boil the ocean with a £15m data strategy. Success means delivering on the right projects, for the right reasons, and with the right people involved. That means basing efforts in real-world needs.
Data must move beyond the sole remit of the data team. It should serve the needs of clinicians and services, supporting better decision making and care rather than feeding the proverbial beast.
Data can help save the NHS
In my time at Leeds Teaching Hospital, our specialist cancer services gave us access to rich oncology data, which became a major strategic focus for the hospital. We used the right data in the right context to deliver impact.
We must work on achievable projects that deliver value for frontline staff. To do this, we must identify the data we need to support those objectives. We don’t want to repeat past mistakes of storing and using data we neither need nor use.
I recognise the service is at breaking point. If we’re going to save the NHS, we must start using the data that we’ve got to better inform how we treat patients and how clinicians interact to free up time and create more capacity in the system.
The Federated Data Platform looks to deliver on that promise. Still, its introduction has been clouded by controversy and its rollout and focus on a limited set of use cases have disengaged many. The FDP has given NHS trusts a set of tools that potentially they wouldn’t have had the investment to buy. It as an intuitive, evolving tool that brings additional capabilities, but – as with an Electronic Patient Record – trusts need to be part of its journey. If they do, and they can figure out the best approach to using it now and in the future, then they will be best placed to realise its potential.
User-centred design can move us forward
There is debilitating uncertainty around the NHS 10-year plan and recent system changes, and people are worried for the future. However, the frontline has a clear appetite to plan and progress, backed by details on their burning platforms and priorities.
It feels like we are returning to a model where digital is fed from bigger acute services in the cities which is why placing users and expertise at the heart of digital initiatives is vital. User-centred design principles map out individual workflows, go beyond departmental siloes, and uncover hidden pain points. They enable organisations to co-design practical, tailored solutions that meet their needs.
Every organisation faces different challenges and approaches to care. The badge is the same, and that’s usually where any similarity stops. A user-centred approach can better meet individual needs.
Drawing on experience is also extremely useful. I know from working in the NHS that you can get consumed by a particular issue. That’s why working with experts to help you step back from the immediate issues can be so helpful; it can help identify crucial areas you may have missed, and which could be cured relatively quickly.
Such principles are the foundation on which the future of NHS digital transformation should rest and lie at the heart of why I am working with Hippo.
Founded by NHS and local government experts, it provides high-value, expert support that combines user needs with data and processes that help solve real-world public sector challenges. That’s where we need to be to realise the potential that data holds for the NHS.
