Patient Centricity is on a roll. There is a palpable sense of momentum when it comes to recognising the benefits that come from creating healthcare services that are designed around the individual. There is common agreement that doing so becomes more achievable with the ubiquity of consumer technology and the potential for this to empower patients with their data.
Internet of Me is mapping the Patient Centricity landscape, bringing together ideas, voices, movers and shakers to explore how best to overcome the challenges and move from vision to reality. In the last few months we’ve interviewed leading figures from the cutting edge of digital healthcare transformation and innovation.
“What will inspire confidence is if individuals can have access to their own data in a way that they know is completely secure, completely private, and gives them control over the use of that data”
– ex-CEO of NHS Digital Andy Williams
With front line experience as the former CEO of NHS Digital, Andy Williams highlighted a key challenge as being the need to make it simple and secure for people to give consent for their data to be shared and used. Doing so is vital for establishing trust among users of new technologies.
He told IoM: “What will inspire confidence is if individuals can have access to their own data in a way that they know is completely secure, completely private, and gives them control over the use of that data.” Read the full interview here.
Former GP David Stables co-founded EMIS, one of the biggest providers of GP patient record software in the UK. David now heads Endeavour Charitable Trust which is working to solve the problems of data interoperability that he believes is the biggest barrier to patient centric healthcare. He tells how he has seen at first hand the potential for data to dramatically improve outcomes.
He told IoM: “If you put your data together – some entered by your GP, some by you, and some in hospital – and run algorithms on it you can detect these things and you can save hundred of thousands of lives.” Read more of David’s unique insights here.
We also spoke to Ben Moody who heads up the Health and Social Care team at TechUK. Ben is working with the 380 TechUK member organisations working in this space to find ways to break down barriers to digital transformation and data-driven healthcare.
“If you put your data together – some entered by your GP, some by you, and some in hospital – and run algorithms on it you can detect these things and you can save hundred of thousands of lives”
– EMIS co-founder David Stables
He highlighted how innovation can make life better for patients managing long-term conditions such as diabetes while also alleviating pressure on over-stretched GPs and other professionals – and delivering significant cost savings.
“I think that reducing demand on constrained NHS services can only be a good thing as long is the right safeguards are in place,” he said. Read the interview here.
We explored the vital part verified digital identity plays in the healthcare sector with Yoti’s CEO Robin Tombs and business development executive Gavin Watts. ID platform Yoti is working with Ipswich Hospital on a way to verify the identity of visitors as well as looking at other ways to let patients access and share data. Robin told IoM that utility will be the main factor in user uptake of technology: “Tangible benefits will be a big driver of mass adoption.” Read more here.
Internet of Me also took a ringside seat for global insight organisation Future Agenda’s global Future of Patient Data study which distilled findings from a series of workshops involving professionals across multiple industries around the world. Director Dr Tim Jones told IoM: “Combining together data sets and interoperability have been big issues that people have wanted to delve into in just about every location.” Read the interview with Tim here and the follow-up to the Patient Centric Data project here.
And there’s lots more to come . . .
Internet of Me has an exciting programme of Patient Centricity content lined up in the coming months.
Jen Horonjeff tells us all about Savvy Cooperative, which is described as the Match.com of patient insight. It’s a platform in the US that allows healthcare services, researchers, drug companies and other organisations to tap into the real-life experiences of patients, who get rewarded for providing insight. Our interview with Jen will be published here soon.
We also talk to Nick Chinn about WeCommunities, a platform that organises Twitter chats for nurses and other healthcare professionals to exchange best practices as well as discuss the issues facing the NHS such as the use of technology and data interoperability. That interview is coming very soon, too.
Thephilosophy for Patient Centricity is simple – give health data back to the individual each time they interact with services, allow them to gather that information together, and empower them control how they share it. When people hold their own health data it helps them in several ways. First, the information tends to be more accurate and up to date because the individual can see errors and get them corrected. Second, bringing together different sources of health data creates a broader picture that can offer personal insight that hasn’t been available before køb viagra. Third, being able to share data with healthcare providers – as well as researchers and businesses in the right circumstances – means better, more personalised care and treatment.
When data is freed from silos it can do more for patients and for healthcare services. For a more detailed dive into Patient Centricity, check out our White Paper here.
Internet of Me wants more voices to join the conversation: healthcare professionals, tech innovators, patients, public sector, private sector – anyone with something valuable to contribute. If you would like to take part in the Patient Centricity conversation you can find out how to contribute or propose a story here.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter@IoMTweets to stay up to date on the latest Patient Centricity news.
And we have an exciting announcement to tell you about very soon, so stay tuned.