The Health Foundation: Trust and confidence in technology-enabled care (14 November 2024)

Summary

Digital and data-driven technology has great potential to help the NHS meet the challenges it faces. Yet realising the benefits of technology-enabled care can be difficult, and progress has been slower than hoped. Lord Ara Darzi's report on the state of the NHS in England and the Prime Minister’s response highlight the urgent need to make progress in digitising NHS services. It is therefore vital to understand the factors that influence the adoption of technology in health and care.

Content

This analysis shares learnings from the success of four teams from the Q community's innovation lab (Q Lab) in building trust and confidence in technology-enabled remote monitoring. 

The teams highlighted that a solid foundation of good design, data accuracy and safeguarding is important but not in itself enough to build trust to the degree needed for technology adoption. Key factors influencing trust and confidence include technology’s potential to enhance existing services, the level of clinical risk involved, intersections with health disparities and the interconnection between staff and service users’ trust. 

To increase trust and confidence in digital technology, we recommend investing in co-design processes with end users and working collaboratively in partnerships, including with the tech industry, voluntary and community sector organisations and improvement experts. There also needs to be consideration of and clear dialogue about how technology-enabled care can enhance care models as well as its limitations.