IBM. Emerging smarter. Rethinking healthcare in a time of COVID-19

Summary

The COVID-19 crisis has created a watershed moment for the NHS, demanding a reappraisal of how essential services are delivered to the public.

Even prior to COVID-19, the NHS recognised a pressing need to rethink healthcare using user-centred design principles, based on populations, not organisations. With the advent of the pandemic that pressing need has become an operational imperative. Digital capability has been and will continue to be a key part of transformation, but will only work when aligned with reforms in other key enablers such as financial flow, workforce planning and regulation. Many industries have already made the shift to enabling collaboration and innovation through more agile models of delivery by embracing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and/or flexible and secure forms of (multi) cloud storage. Health, on the other hand, until now has introduced new technologies with the objective of improving existing pathways and service delivery models.

There is now an opportunity to reimagine healthcare, driving true transformation enabled by digital capabilities.