The HETT Show has been a fixture in the UK's digital health calendar for several years now, and 2024 was no exception. We were delighted to have a stand at ExCeL for both days - it was our first conference as a team and we were delighted with how it went. We spoke with lots of clients old and new, and colleagues across the sector. Read on to find out who won the Liberty London Advent calendar and what we learned across the 2 days.
The new government is now well established with Wes Streeting as health secretary, alongside Peter Kyle at DSIT, overseeing all things health-tech. There is plenty of recurrent messaging in the media about the perilous state of the NHS. However there is little clarity among attendees about what this will actually mean in practice and where health care organisations and their industry partners should focus.
Some observers noted that NHS is in a state of indecision: waiting for direction from politicians and hoping to unlock the funding required to implement meaningful change. Others felt that the political pressure to improve care would likely be linked to specific top-down initiatives which will come with short-term tactical funding. The perennial challenge of short term funding will need to be addressed by the government if the systemic challenges of healthcare are to be met.
Now is the time to dust off your business cases and make sure you're organisationally ready for when the last minute funding rounds come in. Use this time to get stakeholders aligned inside and outside your organisation and line up delivery partners who you can trust to make it happen.
Amongst the many discussions at HETT we felt that three distinct themes emerged:
maintaining momentum on existing programmes,
accelerating new ideas and approaches,
topics that aren't quite cutting through.
Maintaining momentum
There was continued discussion and apparent investment on two ongoing programmes / areas of investment: frontline digitisation and virtual wards.
In 2021 the frontline digitisation programme promised that every NHS trust would have an electronic patient record by Spring 2025 and claimed (we may be sceptical!) in November 2023 that 90% of trusts had already achieved that target. We heard from various integrated care systems that there remains pressure from NHS England to converge on a single EPR across multiple providers. Change at this scale is complex with concerns about affordability, the scale and complexity of change and whether it is being led clinically.
"An EPR isn't an IT project"
It was great to be reminded of the challenges involved in single or multi-site EPR implementations: whether converging on EPIC or Oracle Cerner (it tends to be these two in most EPR mega-convergence discussions) the non-negotiable requirement is integrated leadership and governance from clinical and operational teams. EPR implementations directed by a well-intended national team and led by CIOs rather than genuinely committed multi-disciplinary executive teams is destined to fail.
Continued digitisation of the healthcare records is an essential step - can you afford not to get it right? Our experts have hands-on experience of unlocking pan-system alignment through to detailed implementation in multi-trust EPR programmes.
The other programme that continues to receive investment and focus is Virtual Wards. As a centrally funded initiative, the virtual ward is becoming an increasingly well established model of care across the country. However the approach to virtual wards has been the mirror opposite of EPRs with local teams left to design services, experiment and procure locally relevant services and technology. Central teams have focussed on sharing best practice, collating statistics around service provision and facilitating service development.
The success of this model is yet to be fully understood, with NHS England commissioning a multi-year evaluation of these services. EPR implementation and scale-up of virtual wards are very different however it's great to see there is room for both approaches, and possibly learning to be shared across them:
In what circumstances does a central mandate accelerate high quality outcomes?
When should the NHS encourage innovation and create the conditions for ideas to flourish?
At what scale should technology and service standards be defined and where should they be procured?
We expect some standardisation of operating models across organisations for virtual wards that define a clearer role for community services, primary care and social care emerging alongside acute-led services. The technology and service providers may also consolidate as the winners and losers of this new sector emerge.
Accelerating new ideas
The hottest conversations were sparked by the Secure Data Environments panel. There was strong interest from research-oriented organisations like Arcturis who are excited at the potential for much faster access to high quality data which can in turn lead to improved development of treatments for diseases like cancer.
Hearing from a patient as part of the panel discussion was an unusual aspect of a show like HETT, but it was a masterstroke and highly informative. The need to continue high quality dialogue at national and local level was key to maintaining public support. This requires taking the time to build an understanding of the complexities and sensitivities of making health data available for research and to make public partners a central tenet of decision making.
The SDEs themselves are at different stages - some building on existing relationships, developments and teams, and others starting from scratch. We had excellent discussions on our stand with people interested in how we are working with Oxford University Hospitals and Telefonica Tech to create the Thames Valley & Surrey Secure Data Environment. The team based in Oxford are among the leaders whose success is generating a strong response from academic and industry partners. Our workforce planning approach aligned well with ongoing work from the BCS to develop and promote the SFIA framework which has been an invaluable tool that we have used for many years.
The healthtech that isn't (yet) cutting through
Despite the marketing hype, the promise of artificial intelligence didn't have a big impact on discussions or the agenda. Lots of potential use cases emerged - for example improving clinical decision making in provision of hospice care - but the industry response wasn't really there.
The era of CoPilot in health is starting to emerge. The team at Buckinghamshire Council were on-stage at the GovTech show next door to HETT, with local authority CIO Tony Ellis showcasing the real-world benefits they're seeing from being a pioneer in the use of AI and CoPilot365. The NHS could learn from the approach local authorities have taken to rapidly scale use of CoPilot.
As we mentioned in our blog following Rewired at the NEC, health conference organisers haven't really got a grip on the links between health & social care. There was limited presence from social care providers, technology providers and on the agenda. Whether it's the social determinants of health outcomes or the vital role played in improving patient flow, this voice must be heard to address the challenges in the health sector.
Reflections from the Starlight team
The team have shared their personal thoughts from the conference below:
Ross: "Running a stand changes the dynamic of the event - rather than getting to spend the day attending seminars and exploring what's on show, we spent most of our time at our stand meeting with the many people who stopped to say hello. It was a privilege to have so many discussions - including clients present and past, colleagues in other consulting firms wishing us well, motivated clinicians thinking about their future career and many others we hadn't met before."
Anoop: It was a pleasure reconnecting with familiar faces from my professional journey and seeing how they have shaped their digital paths over the years. It was equally exciting to hear about innovative ideas, such as an AI-powered NICE-assured GP assistant, a remote monitoring app aimed at disrupting social care backed by an incubator, and first-hand reviews from UCL’s Virtual Ward teams.
Darren: A great 2 days spent chatting with old friends and new colleagues. As it was our first time exhibiting, it was so important to share our vision with others around our transformative model that supports the shift towards integrated and high-quality healthcare by creating tailored solutions based on clients' individual requirements, both in the present and the future. Happy to say our approach was met with much agreement and enthusiasm.
Feyzan: As an early adopter of several FemTech apps at different stages of my life, the lively panel discussion on Femtech was of particular interest. Much discussion centred around the funding behind these apps and the commercial models that ensue which prevent equitable access and don’t always have the best interests of the end user at heart. It is clear there is significant activity in this space but help is needed to guide start-ups through accelerators, alternative funding options and regulatory issues, all of which we are well placed to help with.
And finally... the big draw
A big feature of discussion was the draw for the Liberty Advent Calendar. This received a huge amount of interest ranging from curiosity through to someone who has an annual savings plan in place to buy one each year! We are delighted to announce that the winner is Dr Nilesh Bharakhada, a GP from London. Congratulations to Nilesh - we'll have it with him soon and now need to work out what to feature at our next event.
Thanks to everyone who came and spoke with us, entered the draw and shared your ideas. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.
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