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Leadership Futures recently published a report 'Harnessing technology for human progress: Advancing into Industry 5.0', which is driven by a bold ambition: to transform organisations worldwide through technological advancements. In this blog, Caroline Beardall looks at the implications of this for healthcare and suggests five actions that organisation's should take to ensure we achieve the benefits from technology while keeping patient safety at the forefront of an evolving landscape. The recent Leadership Futures report 'Harnessing technology for human progress: Advancing into Industry 5.0' provides a valuable framework for integrating technology with human-centered leadership, which is highly applicable to advancing patient safety in health and care. Its vision of Industry 5.0 as a collaborative human-AI partnership offers a route to reduce errors, enhance clinician capacity and improve patient outcomes. However, realising these benefits requires caution—ethical and inclusive implementation strategies that address the complexities and risks unique to health and care settings. It throws up three fundamental challenges: How can healthcare leaders ensure AI tools are safe to use and that clinical staff can trust them? Who should be responsible if an AI system makes a mistake that affects a patient? How can healthcare organisations use technology to work better without losing the importance of human interaction and the skills needed for high levels of patient satisfaction and safety? In order to answer these questions, and deepen the discussion on harnessing technology responsibly to safeguard and improve patient care, there are some actions we can take to build on the report and begin to gain evidence and experience specific to healthcare. As the landscape of healthcare shifts and evolves, we should consider applying the following five actions (with examples of how to do this) so we can achieve the maximum benefits from technology for patient safety. 1. Foster collective, collaborative leadership across boundaries Leaders should actively promote cooperation and shared responsibility across organisational and professional boundaries, focusing on the overall patient journey rather than siloed departmental goals. This aligns with the report’s emphasis on human-machine collaboration and the need for integrative leadership cultures that support safe, seamless care delivery. By working collectively, leaders can ensure technology is implemented with broad input and oversight, reducing risks and enhancing patient safety. Implement interdisciplinary collaboration practices: Organise regular team meetings involving diverse healthcare professionals to discuss patient care holistically, ensuring all voices contribute to decision making. Create shared goals and aligned metrics: Develop common objectives focused on patient safety and quality that unify departments and reduce siloed working. Lead by example: Demonstrate collaborative behaviours and openness to input, encouraging a culture of trust and teamwork. 2. Embed ethical, human-centred use of technology Leaders must champion ethical principles in technology adoption, ensuring AI and digital tools augment rather than replace human judgment and empathy. This includes rigorous validation of new technologies, transparency in AI decision-making, and ongoing monitoring to prevent harm or bias. Prioritising patient experience and human values in technology deployment safeguards safety and trust. Prioritise transparency and clinician involvement: Engage frontline staff early in AI and technology design and deployment to ensure tools meet clinical needs and ethical standards. Establish continuous monitoring and feedback loops: Use data and user feedback to identify and mitigate risks or biases in technology that could impact patient safety. Promote ethical leadership training: Equip leaders with skills to balance innovation with patient experience and accountability. 3. Develop and support workforce readiness and engagement Preparing staff to work effectively alongside new technologies is vital. Leaders should invest in training that builds digital literacy, critical thinking and resilience, while also fostering a positive work climate where staff feel valued and supported. Engaged and confident clinicians are better able to use technology safely and maintain high standards of care. Invest in targeted training and digital upskilling: Provide contextual, in-app guidance and interactive training to help staff adopt new technologies confidently and efficiently. Foster a culture of psychological safety and empowerment: Encourage open discussion, honest feedback and staff involvement in decision making to build trust and resilience. Practice empathetic leadership: Focus on emotional and professional needs of staff to reduce burnout and improve engagement. 4. Set clear, aligned objectives focused on quality and safety Leadership should establish clear, challenging and aligned goals at every level that prioritise patient safety and quality improvement over mere efficiency or target-driven metrics. This clarity helps reduce staff stress and confusion, enabling teams to focus on delivering compassionate, safe care supported by technology. Communicate clear expectations and priorities: Use consistent, transparent communication to align teams around patient safety goals and reduce ambiguity. Implement continuous feedback and learning systems: Regularly review performance data and patient feedback to refine objectives and improve care quality. Balance efficiency with human factors: Ensure operational goals do not compromise critical human skills or patient-centred care. 5. Champion diversity, inclusion and accountability in leadership Inclusive leadership practices that promote equality and diversity are essential to fostering innovation and ethical decision-making in healthcare technology adoption. Leaders must also clarify accountability frameworks for technology-related decisions and errors, ensuring responsibility is shared and transparent to maintain patient safety. Promote inclusive leadership practices: Value diverse perspectives and foster equity to enhance innovation and ethical decision-making Clarify accountability frameworks: Define roles and responsibilities clearly, especially concerning technology-related decisions and errors, to maintain trust and safety Model human-centred leadership traits: Practice self-awareness, compassion and mindfulness to create cultures of excellence, trust, and caring. By integrating these strategies, human-centric leaders can effectively translate the insights from the Leadership Futures report into practical actions that improve patient safety, staff satisfaction and overall health system resilience. This approach embraces complexity and change as opportunities, not obstacles, which then enables sustainable progress in better health and care delivery. Further reading Amelia N. 6 Effective Leadership Strategies for Healthcare in 2025. Edstellar, 31 December 2024. West M, et al. Leadership in Healthcare: a Summary of the Evidence Base. Kings Fund; Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management; Center for Creative Leadership, 2015. LeClerc L, Kennedy K, Campis S. Human-Centered Leadership in Health Care: An Idea That's Time Has Come. Nursing Administration Quarterly 2020; 44(2):p 117-26.- Posted
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The transition into Industry 5.0 is driven by a bold ambition: to transform organisations worldwide through technological advancements. As leaders navigate this era of unprecedented digital transformation, they must confront the challenges posed by emerging technologies as they begin to impact traditional work structures, employee productivity, organisational security and workforce dynamics. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), digital tools and other technological innovations brings both promise and confusion. But it also presents an unparalleled opportunity: to redefine the role of human labour. To effect real change, leaders must meet this moment head on. By shifting from routine, repetitive tasks to higher-order, creative and strategic roles, organisations can unlock innovation, value and progress on a transformative scale, This report explores the importance of a human-centred approach to technological adoption. It emphasises the need for leaders to prepare their workforces for disruption, integrate AI as a force for good and embrace their ethical responsibilities in guiding their organisations forward. Additionally, it provides actionable insights into effective change management strategies, equipping leaders to navigate the complexities of AI and technological transformation with confidence and purpose.- Posted
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Technology plays an increasingly important role in our health and care system. It allows us to consult specialists and receive care from home, order medications using our phones, and receive new digital treatments. This shift towards technology can, and should, be positive; technology can drive change, facilitating better patient outcomes and experiences. However, NHS patients struggle with aspects of digital health care, such as having multiple apps with siloed records, fragmented digitalisation, a lack of digital options, and insufficient accessibility features. This study from the King's Fund aimed to understand the skills, knowledge and capabilities needed for health and care systems to do this well.- Posted
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Digital Health Rewired 2025
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
untilRewired 2025 is the largest UK digital health expo connecting everyone working to use digital and data to deliver improvements in health and care. The event convenes healthcare providers and planners, researchers, and academics, established industry leaders, suppliers and the latest and most exciting start-ups to address how the NHS achieves productivity, equity and improved outcomes through digital health technologies and innovations. Running 18-19 March at The NEC in Birmingham, the show is packed with insights and inspiration for anyone wanting to learn from the UK’s best digital health speakers and NHS case studies. If you are looking to do great things in digital health, then Rewired is the must-attend event for networking, learning and developing your career. Programme Register- Posted
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This free eGuide will aid your strategic communications design, and show you how you can develop strategic communications that support and educate populations and patients to make better lifestyle decisions and live healthier lives. In the eGuide, you’ll discover: Why is behavioural change critical for prevention? What are the fundamental elements of strategic healthcare communications. How to develop your vision for patient activation communications to become a reality. The guide is free, but you will need to submit your details download the Apteco guide from their website.- Posted
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In late 2015, the National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology in England was formed to advise the Department of Health and NHS England on its efforts to digitise the secondary care system. Our recommendations fall into two broad categories: 10 overall findings and principles, followed by 10 implementation recommendations. Overall findings and principles 1. Digitise for the correct reasons The goal of digitisation of health systems is to promote what has become widely known as healthcare’s Triple Aim: better health, better healthcare, and lower cost. These aims are consistent with those of the NHS’s 2014 Five Year Forward View, which called for improvements in quality and service, as well as £22 billion in efficiencies. The Advisory Group believes that trying to achieve the aims of the Five Year Forward View without giving highest priority to digitisation would be a costly and painful mistake. 2. It is better to get digitisation right than to do it quickly While there is urgency to digitise the NHS, there is also risk in going too quickly. The Advisory Group urges the NHS to digitise the secondary care sector in a staged fashion, in which trusts that are ready to digitise are prompted to do so, while those that are not ready should be encouraged and supported to build capacity, a process that will take several years. 3. ‘Return on investment’ from digitisation is not just financial While it is natural to seek a short-term financial return on investment (ROI) from health IT, experience has shown that the short-term ROI is more likely to come in the form of improvements in safety and quality than in raw financial terms. In fact, cost savings may take 10 years or more to emerge (the so-called ‘productivity paradox’ of IT), since the keys to these gains are improvements in the technology, reconfiguration of the workforce, local adaptation to digital technologies, and a reimagining of the work. 4. When it comes to centralisation, the NHS should learn, but not over-learn, the lessons of NPfIT While it is true that NPfIT erred partly through overcentralisation, it is also important to note that centralisation sometimes makes sense, particularly in the context of a national health system. A new digital strategy should seek an appropriate balance between local/regional control and engagement versus centralisation. 5. Interoperability should be built in from the start Local and regional efforts to promote interoperability and data sharing, which are beginning to bear fruit, should be built upon. National standards for interoperability should be developed and enforced, with an expectation of widespread interoperability of core data elements by 2020. In addition, the Advisory Group endorses giving patients full access to their electronic data, including clinician notes. 6. While privacy is very important, so too is data sharing Privacy is very important, but it is easy for privacy and confidentiality concerns to hinder data sharing that is desirable for patient care and research. It would be a mistake to lock down everyone’s healthcare data in the name of privacy. We endorse the recommendations of the National Data Guardian’s Review of Data Security, Consent, and Opt-Outs, which was commissioned to achieve this balance. 7. Health IT Systems must embrace user-centered design IT systems must be designed with the input of end-users, employing basic principles of user-centered design. Poorly designed and implemented systems can create opportunities for errors, and can result in frustrated healthcare professionals and patients. 8. Going live with a health IT system is the beginning, not the end The ‘go live’ period in a large hospital or trust is always difficult, but is nonetheless just the start. Health IT systems need to evolve and mature, and the workforce and leadership must be appropriate for this task. While patient safety is non-negotiable, regulators and commissioners need to have a degree of tolerance for short-term slow downs and unanticipated consequences in the period following electronic health record (EHR) implementation. 9. A successful digital strategy must be multifaceted, and requires workforce development The NHS’s digital strategy should involve a thoughtful blend of funding and resources to help defray the costs of IT purchases and implementation, resources for infrastructure, support for leadership and informatics training, as well as support for education of leaders, front-line providers, trainees and clinician- and non-clinician informaticians. The Advisory Group was struck by the small number of leaders at most trusts who are trained in both clinical care and informatics, and their limited budgetary authority and organisational clout. This deficit, along with a general lack of workforce capacity amongst both clinician and non-clinician informatics professionals, needs to be remedied. 10. Health IT entails both technical and adaptive change Many observers and stakeholders mistakenly believed that implementing health IT would be a simple matter of technical change – a straightforward process of following a recipe or a checklist. In fact, implementing health IT is one of the most complex adaptive changes in the history of healthcare, and perhaps of any industry. Adaptive change involves substantial and long-lasting engagement between the leaders implementing the changes and the individuals on the front lines who are tasked with making them work. Successful implementation of health IT across the NHS will require the sustained engagement of front-line users of the technology. Recommendations 1. Carry out a thoughtful long-term national engagement strategy The Advisory Group believes that a long-term engagement strategy is needed to promote the case for healthcare IT, identify the likely challenges during implementation, educate stakeholders about the opportunities afforded by a digital NHS, and set the stage for long-term engagement of end users and co-creation of systems and strategies. The campaign needs to emphasise that the goal is not digitisation for digitisation’s sake, but rather to improve the way care is delivered in the NHS, in part by using digital tools. 2. Appoint and give appropriate authority to a national chief clinical information officer A national chief clinical information officer (CCIO), with a background in clinical care, informatics, and leadership, should be appointed to oversee and coordinate NHS clinical digitisation efforts. This individual and his or her team must be given appropriate organisational and budgetary authority. Because health IT crosses the domains and budgets of so many NHS organisations, this individual and team will assume a crucial coordinating function. 3. Develop a workforce of trained clinician-informaticists at the trusts, and give them appropriate resources and authority There must be a major effort to place well-qualified clinicians with advanced informatics training in every trust. The Advisory Group estimates that an average-sized trust needs at least 5 such individuals on staff. Their leader, the CCIO, should be a well trained and credentialed clinician-informatician, and should report directly to the board or CEO. In considering whether to offer government money to subsidise digital implementation in a trust, close attention should be paid to the adequacy of the trust’s plan to hire and support this clinical-IT workforce. 4. Strengthen and grow the CCIO field, others trained in clinical care and informatics, and health IT professionals more generally The dearth of professional, well-supported CCIOs with appropriate authority and resources is an enormous obstacle to successful deployment and benefits realisation of health IT at the trust level. To rectify this gap, not only will there need to be satisfying, sustainable positions available to CCIOs in trusts, but the CCIO field itself must also be strengthened and grown. This will involve a major effort by existing professional bodies to create and certify training programmes for clinician-informaticians. It will also require support for the development of vibrant professional societies. Moreover, the workforce of clinician and non-clinician informaticians, informatics researchers, programme evaluators, and system optimisers needs to be increased and nurtured. We favour a significant allocation of central resources – £42 million, or 1% of the £4.2 billion allocated for digitisation – to support this crucial workforce development. 5. Allocate the new national funding to help trusts go digital and achieve maximum benefit from digitisation The £4.2 billion the Treasury made available in 2016 to promote digitisation, while welcome, is not enough to enable digital implementation and optimisation at all NHS trusts. Therefore, we suggest a phased approach. During phase 1 (2016 to 2019), national funding should be combined with local resources to support implementation in trusts that are prepared to digitise, and to support those that are already digitised and ready to reach even higher levels of digital maturity. Another tranche of government funding (not yet allocated) will likely be needed to support a second stage (phase 2, 2020 to 2023) of the strategy, as described under recommendation 6. 6. While some trusts may need time to prepare to go digital, all trusts should be largely digitised by 2023 It would be reasonable to expect all trusts to have achieved a high degree of digital maturity by 2023. After that year, we recommend that no more government subsidies be made available, and that regulators should begin to deem trusts that have not reached a high level of digital maturity to be out of compliance on quality and safety grounds. 7. Link national funding to a viable local implementation/improvement plan The availability of central money to support digitisation should be linked to a parallel investment from each trust (based in part on ability to pay), NHS approval of a plan that demonstrates that the trust is adequately prepared to succeed in both digitisation and in promoting regional interoperability, evaluation of progress, and ongoing accountability that the money was well spent. 8. Organise local/regional learning networks to support implementation and improvement To support purchasing, implementation, and ongoing improvements by trusts, digital learning networks should be created or supported. Such networks may vary, with some helping in the early stages (choice of EHR system, contracting, implementation) and others at later stages (optimisation, decision support, analytics). The latter category may include IT supplier-specific networks. 9. Ensure interoperability as a core characteristic of the NHS digital ecosystem – to promote clinical care, innovation, and research The new effort to digitise the NHS should guarantee widespread interoperability. The goals of interoperability are to enable seamless care delivery across traditional organisational boundaries, and to ensure that patients can access all parts of their clinical record and, over time, import information into it. Widespread interoperability will require the development and enforcement of standards, along with penalties for suppliers, trusts, GPs, and others who stand in the way of appropriate data sharing. The system, standards, and interfaces should enable a mixed ecosystem of IT system providers to flourish, with the goal of promoting innovation and avoiding having any one vendor dominate the market. Plans for interoperability should be harmonised with other ongoing efforts to join up elements of the health and social care systems, such as those represented by the sustainability and transformation plans (STPs). 10. A robust independent evaluation of the programme should be supported and acted upon In light of the likelihood of unanticipated consequences, the high cost of digitisation, and the chequered history of past efforts to digitise the secondary care sector, the NHS should commission and help fund independent evaluations of the new IT strategy. Such evaluations should be formative (conducted and reported as the strategy is progressing) and summative (reporting at the end of each of the 2 phases of deployment). In assessing the benefits and costs of health IT, evaluations should consider the impact of digitsation on the satisfaction of healthcare professionals.- Posted
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NHS England provides regular updates on progress with the implementation of the Digital Clinical Safety Strategy to show how they've captures insights about digital clinical safety, how they are training their workforce to support safety in this area and how they use technology to drive safer care. October 2023 update: Since the publication of the Digital Clinical Safety Strategy in September 2021, NHS England have been working towards two aims: To improve the safety of digital technologies in health and care, now and in the future. To identify, and promote the use of, digital technologies as solutions to patient safety challenges. The health service continues to see the steady increase of digital health technologies, and with it a heightened interest in digital clinical safety. This has driven progress towards these aims as well as the strategy’s five strategic commitments. Ensuring patient safety is reflected in the digitisation agenda remains a key component of the National Patient Safety Strategy. Commitment 1: Collect information about digital clinical safety, including as part of the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service and use it to improve system-wide learning. Worked with the LFPSE team to ensure the system accurately and thoroughly captures digital clinical safety information. This includes adding three new digital clinical safety specific fields for certain types of incidents. There is now a national process in place to ensure routinely collected patient safety data is reviewed by digital clinical safety experts in the same way that all other safety incidents are reviewed, including a formal review of all incidents indicating severe harm or death. The digital safety teams within NHS England became accredited to issue National Patient Safety Alerts. Commitment 2: Develop new digital clinical safety training materials and expand access to training across the health and care workforce. Developed and launched a new training package called the Essentials of Digital Clinical Safety, with over 1,100 members of NHS staff trained so far. Developed an intermediate training package specifically for senior leaders and patient safety specialists. An innovative ‘train the trainer’ pilot has been commissioned to train 24 digital clinical safety professionals as trainers, enabling regions to rapidly increase the number of CSOs and create an environment of peer-to-peer support and local mentorship for digital clinical safety. Commitment 3: Create a centralised source of digital clinical safety information, including optimised standards, guidelines and best practice blueprints. Created a dedicated FutureNHS workspace to showcase blueprints that share best practice. The workspace also supports the NHS to build communities around digital clinical safety. To date, in partnership with individual NHS organisations, we have published six blueprints to help organisations ensure clinical leadership and involvement at the earliest opportunity when a new digital system is implemented, so that risks are mitigated and plans are clinically focussed with a user centred design approach. Commitment 4: Accelerate the adoption of digital technologies to record and track implanted medical devices. Launched a Scan4Safety website including a suite of Scan4Safety guidance material that enables organisations to understand the key benefits and cost savings associated with a Scan4Safety Programme. It includes key messages from MHRA, NHS England and trusts already using Scan4Safety. It offers trusts a practical guide for how to get started. Continued to provide advice, guidance and support to organisations that were prioritising local implementation of Scan4Safety. In addition, NHS England have also engaged with board members across acute providers to better understand their awareness of and plans to introduce Scan4Safety. The Outcomes and Registries programme will be used to improve patient safety and outcomes in procedures that use high-risk medical devices. Commitment 5: Generate evidence for how digital technologies can be best applied to patient safety challenges. Worked with existing patient safety data to explore patient safety risks associated with certain digital technologies. Built analytic partnerships with organisations like NHS Resolution to explore the potential for patient safety claims data to reveal new insights about digital clinical safety. Leveraged integrated working across patient safety teams to ensure that digital clinical safety features on upcoming national frameworks for patient safety research priorities. Developed a benefits case for major digital transformation programmes in frontline services to evaluate their impact on safety. NHS Resolution worked with a large acute provider to analyse claims data and other patient safety data to consider how digital technologies contributed to or helped mitigate the risk of harm. A machine learning methodology was developed that could be replicated across other organisations.- Posted
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The TEC Action Alliance, in partnership with over 30 organisations, has released a challenge paper titled “Technology-Enabled Lives: Delivering Outcomes for People and Providers.” The paper highlights the lack of widespread adoption of digital social care services despite the public’s desire for technology to better support those who draw on social care and health services. The paper reveals that only a handful of councils, housing, and care organisations are delivering digital care in people’s homes at scale. This is despite evidence that using technology in social care keeps people safe, healthy, and happy at home. The paper indicates that digital social care services: reduce ambulance trips to A&E by 68-85% help 85-94% of people remain at home if emergency calls are handled by TEC responder teams cut emergency response times to 30 minutes help to refer 35-40% of people to community services rather than formal social care. The paper calls on care commissioners and suppliers to listen carefully to what people want and co-produce their services and products with individuals who use them to ensure an enhanced focus on personal needs. Read the report in full via the link below.- Posted
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The implementation of policies from the centre, getting systems talking to each other and bridging the gap between analysts and clinicians all remain system-wide issues. The HSJ Data & Analytics Forum is a unique opportunity to challenge thinking, discuss challenges openly and share best practice through a blend of keynote speeches, panel sessions and intimate round-table discussions. Register for this event- Posted
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untilDigital technologies are transforming the way in which health and care is delivered. They have played a crucial role in enabling the delivery of services during the pandemic and are set to continue to play a pivotal role in the design, delivery and innovation of health and care going forward. This event will take a deep dive into the practical implementation of digital solutions in health and care. We will explore how data insights and technology are being used to improve care, access and user experience against the backdrop of the impact of Covid-19. Sessions will also provide an opportunity to assess how a range of digital tools from simple to complex can be used to innovate service design, support integration, improve population health management, and reduce health inequalities, touching on implications for staff and patients. Book a ticket- Posted
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Cyber threats to health and patient safety
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
Through multidisciplinary lectures from expert speakers and lively panel discussions, this Royal Society of Medicine conference will look at the current cybersecurity threats facing health and care organisations and examine the progress made by healthcare institutions since 2017 in rising to the challenge of cybersecurity. We will focus on the issues facing the NHS today and the steps that NHS organisations should take to protect themselves. Attendees will learn how cybercriminals and hostile nation-states pose a threat to patient safety and trust. Delegates will hear from NHSX, NHS Digital and key organisations that combat cyber threats daily. They will also hear directly from experts in the field about the steps they are taking to help healthcare organisations to address their issues and concerns. During this event, you will: Current cybersecurity threats faced by healthcare organisations from both cybercriminals and hostile nations. Specific risks due to online working, increasing digitalisation and prevalence of connected medical devices and artificial intelligence (e.g. data provenance). Specific risks due to the use of medical and telehealth devices in the home and community. How the NHS is equipped to deal with current and future threats. Tools and approaches to protect organisations and devices from attack. Register- Posted
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Matt Hancock - the future of healthcare
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock delivered a ‘future of healthcare’ speech to the Royal College of Physicians on Thursday and laid out seven lessons from the health and care response to Covid-19 that he wants to see retained. If followed through, some of his points would mark significant shifts in policy and Conservative thinking. However, Hancock said it was important to “build better” in the way that London was built better after the Great Fire in 1666. Hancock’s seven points were: the NHS must value people and ‘bust bureaucracy’ that gets in their way; the future is “collaboration not competition”; “better technology means better healthcare”; the NHS must be open to other sectors; planning and funding will be “system first”; and social care and public health need more attention. On tech, Hancock said consultations will be digital first, and there will be a new focus on interoperability and data sharing. -
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Driving forward digital safety
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Patient safety in health and care
This blog discusses the need to ensure a safe digital health system. Kelsey Flott, Deputy Director of Patient Safety at NHSX explains how owing to the pandemic, the NHS like others, have had to embrace digital technology at a rapid pace to cope with the challenges faced in the healthcare system. Due to this adoption of digital technology, it is vitally important that digital safety is included in current and future strategies.- Posted
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This report, from The King's Fund, provides a summary of evidence and analysis to support leaders in health and care to engage in long-term thinking about the role of digital technology in their sector. It looks back at recent developments in digital technology in the health and care system, and looks forward, to a set of potential futures, to distil factors driving change and what this means for leaders now. -
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Regulating AI in health and care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
In his latest blog post, Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX, has reiterated the potential AI has to reduce the burden on the NHS by improving patient outcomes and increasing productivity. However, he said there are gaps in the rules that govern the use of AI and a lack of clarity on both standards and roles. These gaps mean there is a risk of using AI that is unsafe and that NHS organisations will delay employing AI until all the regulatory gaps have been filled. Gould says, “The benefits will be huge if we can find the sweet spot” that allows trust to be maintained whilst creating the freedom for innovation but warns that we are not in that position yet. At the end of January, the CEOs and heads of 12 regulators and associated organisations met to work through these issues and discuss what was required to ensure innovation-friendly processes and regulations are put in place. They agreed there needs to be a clarity of role for these organisations, including the MHRA being responsible for regulating the safety of AI systems; the Health Research Agency (HRA) for overseeing the research to generate evidence; NICE for assessing whether new AI solutions should be deployed; and the CQC to ensure providers are following best practice. Read the full blog Source: Techradar, 13 February 2020- Posted
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NHS Digital and the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) have launched a consultation as part of the next phase of a programme to align private healthcare data with NHS recorded activity. The consultation sets out a series of changes to how data is recorded and managed across private and NHS care, along with a series of pilot projects, based upon feedback from a variety of stakeholders. It aims to seek the views of private and NHS providers, clinicians, the public and other organisations with an interest in private healthcare and will be used to help shape the future changes. The consultation, which has been launched following the publication of the Paterson Inquiry, will be hosted on the NHS Digital Consultation Hub. Under the changes proposed in the Acute Data Alignment Programme (ADAPt), PHIN will share the national dataset of private admitted patient care in England with NHS Digital, creating a single source of healthcare data in England. This recommendation has been supported by recommendations in the Paterson Inquiry to create a single repository for practice of consultants in private and public healthcare across England. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Regardless of where you’re treated or how your care is funded, everybody deserves safe, compassionate care. The recent Paterson Inquiry highlighted the shocking failures that can occur when information is not shared and acted upon in both the NHS and independent sector. We are working tirelessly across the health system to deliver the highest standards of care for patients. Trusted data is absolutely critical to this mission and the ADAPt programme will help improve transparency and raise standards for all.” Read full story Source: NHS Digital, 19 February 2020- Posted
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Better tech: not a ‘nice to have’ but vital to have for the NHS
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
In a keynote speech at the Healthtech Alliance on Tuesday, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, stressed how important adopting technology in healthcare is and why he believes that it is vital for the NHS to move into the digital era. “Today I want to set out the future for technology in the NHS and why the techno-pessimists are wrong. Because for any organisation to be the best it possibly can be, rejecting the best possible technology is a mistake.” Listing examples from endless paperwork to old systems resulting in wasted blood samples, Hancock highlights why in order to retain staff and see a thriving healthcare, embracing technology must be a priority. He also announced a £140m Artificial Intelligence (AI) competition to speed up testing and delivery of potential NHS tools. The competition will cover all stages of the product cycle, to proof of concept to real-world testing to initial adoption in the NHS. Examples of AI use currently being trialled were set out in the speech, including using AI to read mammograms, predict and prevent the risk of missed appointments and AI-assisted pathways for same-day chest X-ray triage. Tackling the issue of scalability, Hancock said, “Too many good ideas in the NHS never make it past the pilot stage. We need a culture that rewards and incentivises adoption as well as invention.” Read full speech- Posted
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'Outdated' IT leaves NHS staff with 15 different computer logins
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
IT systems in the NHS are so outdated that staff have to log in to up to 15 different systems to do their jobs. Doctors can find themselves using different logins for everything from ordering x-rays and getting lab results to accessing A&E records and rotas. The government in England said it was looking to streamline the systems as part of an IT upgrade. Around £40 million is being set aside to help hospitals and clinics introduce single-system logins in the next year. Alder Hey in Liverpool is one of a number of hospitals which have already done this, and found it reduced time spent logging in from one minute 45 seconds to just 10 seconds. With almost 5,000 logins per day, it saved over 130 hours of staff time a day, to focus on patient care. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was time to "get the basics right". "It is frankly ridiculous how much time our doctors and nurses waste logging on to multiple systems. Too often outdated technology slows down and frustrates staff." British Medical Association leader Dr Chaand Nagpaul said logging on to multiple systems did waste time. But he said on its own this move would not solve all the problems, pointing out that many of the IT systems themselves were "antiquated" and needed upgrading. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 January 2020 -
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As NHS X publishes the first ever Digital Clinical Safety Strategy, Dr Sarah El-Sheikha, Clinical Advisor at NHS X and Anaesthetic Registrar, and Holly Carr, Florence Nightingale Digital Leadership Fellow, discuss why we all need to understand digital safety, and the risks and benefits to patient care. -
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NHS X: Digital Clinical Safety Strategy (17 September 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in NHS X
The Digital Clinical Safety Strategy is a joint publication between NHSX, NHS Digital and NHS England and NHS Improvement. It is an addendum to the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, outlining the case for improved digital clinical safety across health and social care. The aim of the strategy is twofold: To improve the safety of digital technologies in health and care, now and in the future. To identify, and promote the use of, digital technologies as solutions to patient safety challenges. In other words, digital clinical safety is about making sure the technologies used in health and care are safe, and then using those technologies to improve patient safety. Part 1 of the Digital Clinical Safety Strategy provides an introduction to patient safety and defines digital clinical safety. It summarises the evidence base behind this strategy and it explains the regulatory and policy context for the strategy. Part 2 sets out the Digital Clinical Safety Strategy. It directly links to the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, mirroring its structure, which highlights ‘Insight, Involvement and Improvement’, as three strategic priorities for safer systems and safer cultures. Actions are outlined for each of these three areas. The strategy specifies 23 actions, which can be summarised as five national commitments. National commitments for digital clinical safety Collect information about digital clinical safety, including from the Learn from patient safety events (LFPSE) service and use it to improve system-wide learning. Develop new digital clinical safety training materials and expand access to training across the health and care workforce. Create a centralised source of digital clinical safety information, including optimised standards, guidelines and best practice blueprints. Accelerate the adoption of digital technologies to record and track implanted medical devices through the Medical Devices Safety Programme. Generate evidence for how digital technologies can be best applied to patient safety challenges. Part 3 explains how this strategy will be delivered and updated, with a focus on patient safety and digital health networks. This strategy establishes what is needed for digital technologies to enable safety across health and care and how that can be prioritised nationally and delivered with a range of stakeholders. This strategy’s objectives support the wider NHS Patient Safety Strategy’s aim to build safer systems and safer cultures. -
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This publication from the US-based Joint Commission shares recommendations for organizations to guide effective provision of telehealth services. The alert discusses insights to establish secure and reliable telehealth systems and programs. It highlights creating standards for virtual care delivery, training staff to understand virtual patient monitoring, outlining specific clinician roles, and targeting tasks needed to as tactics to ensure virtual care is complete.- Posted
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- Quality improvement
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Health IT (HIT) systems are increasingly becoming a core infrastructural technology in healthcare. However, failures of these systems, under certain conditions, can lead to patient harm and as such the safety case for HIT has to be explicitly made. This study from Habli et al., published in Safety Science, focuses on safety assurance practices of HIT in England and investigates how clinicians and engineers currently analyse, control and justify HIT safety risks. Two areas of strength were identified: establishment of a systematic approach to risk management and close engagement by clinicians; and two areas for improvement: greater depth and clarity in hazard analysis practices and greater organisational support for assuring safety. Overall, the dynamic characteristics of healthcare combined with insufficient funding have made it challenging to generate and explain the safety evidence to the required level of detail and rigour. Improvements in the form of practical HIT-specific safety guidelines and tools are needed. The lack of publicly available examples of credible HIT safety cases is a major deficit. The availability of these examples can help clarify the significance of the HIT risk analysis evidence and identify the necessary expertise and organisational commitments.- Posted
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- Information processing
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Crisis care summary 2.1- Professional Record Standards Body
Claire Cox posted an article in Transfers of care
Helping patients and their families cope during a terminal illness is fundamental to good health care and that depends on professionals and the people in their care having access to the right information at the right time to support them. The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) has published the crisis care standard to support better coordination of treatment in primary,acute and community care, as well as hospices, care homes, and social services. The standard will also help patients to avoid unnecessary admissions and procedures.- Posted
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- End of life care
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Over the next three years the Development of the Patient Safety Incident Management System (DPSIMS) project will define and deliver the successor to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) and the Strategic Executive Information System (STEIS). The NRLS is more than 13 years old and due for an upgrade, which is why we're working closely with stakeholders to create a system that will provide resources to support safety improvement and help the NHS learn when things go wrong. The new system will: meet both local and national needs in terms of accessibility to both staff and patients/carers integrate with other systems strike a balance of confidentiality and transparency support an open and honest NHS culture devoted to continuous learning and improvement of patient safety- Posted
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- Digital strategy
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A Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) is an internationally recognised NHS provider delivering improvements in the quality of care, through the world-class use of digital technologies and information. Exemplars will share their learning and experiences through the creation of blueprints to enable other trusts to follow in their footsteps as quickly and effectively as possible. The GDE Blueprinting workstream forms part of the national Provider Digitisation Programme. GDE blueprints are expected to help other NHS Trusts deliver digital capabilities more quickly and cost effectively than has been possible in the past. The GDE blueprints are a structured collection of knowledge assets and associated methodology for using them. They highlight important ingredients needed for sustainable health improvements such as organisational leadership and culture, technical guidance, clinical and staff engagement as well as the people and processes required to deliver the benefits of technology. They cover a range of digital initiatives such as using software to detect the risk of patients contracting sepsis, having a paperless A&E department or introducing e-prescribing across an organisation to improve safety and quality of care, clinical outcomes, and patient and staff experience. Created by NHS Trusts, who are recognised for using digital technologies to support wider transformation, the GDE blueprints are step-by-step guides that can also be tailored by individual Trusts to suit their own local needs and requirements. The GDE blueprints can be found on the FutureNHS platform. To register, email: [email protected]