Making the future a reality: harnessing the potential of patient-facing tech in healthcare (NHS Confederation, 25 March 2024)

Summary

Technology is advancing at a fast pace and holds significant promise for the future of healthcare and the NHS, with the potential to enhance productivity through cost, resource and time efficiencies. Yet there is a gap in practical guidance for healthcare stakeholders on how best to take this agenda forward, and what key roles are required.

Systems are now in a place where people can take a large-scale view and make connections across the system to advance the technology agenda. To support them, the NHS Confederation and Google Health have developed this guide.

Content

Who this guide is for

Intended for NHS leaders and those leading on the technology and transformation agenda within their organisation, this guide will support you to:

• review transformation plans against five key components for unlocking the future of patient-facing technology in healthcare
• stimulate conversations with team and board members, using our actions framework 
• bring external stakeholders and partners together to assess priorities for patient-facing technology. 

The NHS Confederation and Google Health are committed to making a contribution to support digital innovation being fully adopted across the NHS.

How this guide can help

This guide:

• Showcases what the future of healthcare could look like and challenges your own, and our, assumptions about what is possible for the NHS. 
• Demonstrates the future is already happening, and that developments can be harnessed to support high-quality, effective healthcare. 
• Highlights the potential actions technology leaders can take in the short and medium to long term to support reaching the ideal future state.
• Builds on a 2023 NHS Confederation report, supported by Google Health, based on findings from an Ipsos survey. 
• Elaborates on the report’s finding that people want more control over their health but would prefer healthcare professional endorsement. 
• Reflects the report’s finding that people felt there is a role for health technology but lacked confidence in using it.