[Manchester, UK] Global Digital Exemplars (GDE) and their fast followers will support the NHS in moving away from ‘being trapped in a paper-based nightmare’, NHS England Director of Operations and Information Matthew Swindells has said.
Speaking at the Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester, Swindells explained IT will empower not only patients, but also carers, fostering an ‘ecosystem of development’ that will improve care outcomes.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt officially revealed the names of the 18 acute trusts that will be joining the fast follower scheme, buddying up with a GDE to follow their blueprint for digitisation through up to £5m that will have to be matched.
NHS England is expected to soon release the names of exemplars in the ambulance service, which was initially included in last year’s announcement on the launch of the GDE programme. Swindells briefly mentioned the initiative but gave no further details in regards to the official timeline.
“The first wave of global digital excellence centres will be selected from the acute sector but it is anticipated they will soon be established in community, mental health and ambulance settings as well,” it was said after Expo 2016.
Data sharing & digital innovation hubs
Swindells said the NHS will focus through IT on ‘real challenges’, starting with the development of ‘clinical’ or digital innovation hubs, as referred to in Sir John Bell’s Life Sciences Industrial strategy from August this year.
Covering regions of around three to five million people, up to five hubs will bring data together locally to ‘build on the best of what’s already happening’, said Swindells.
NHS England will collaborate with NHS Digital and other partners to put together a strategy for identifying areas that will start creating and using datasets to improve quality of care.
“So today, NHS England is explicitly nailing its colours to the mast in backing those recommendations from John Bell’s report and we will by the end of the calendar year set out the process we will be using with our partners at NHS Digital and elsewhere to identify the three to five locations across the country that will go live with those digital innovation hubs,” Stevens told the audience at the same conference in Manchester.
“I think we’re moving from press release to real delivery on the ground,” said Matthew Swindells, NHS England National Director for Operations and Information
Meanwhile, Swindells asked vendors to adopt an open approach to data sharing, adding he does not want to see any suppliers ‘locking data down’, but instead give the NHS an opportunity to ‘leverage’ and use resources to help patients and carers.
Speaking about individual NHS organisations, the director added “We now need every board to put IT at the top of their agenda, to be thinking cybersecurity, to be thinking service redesign, to be thinking data quality, to be thinking data capture, thinking how do I use the new technologies to drive the changes I’m making rather than IT being in a corner.”
