Innovation in healthcare is opening up new possibilities to treat patients remotely, to improve patient flow through digital appointments and acute discharge, to access medical records on the road for community practitioners or to share information from emergency services on route to hospital. The challenge for health providers is to ensure new opportunities can be grasped, that NHS staff have the right digital skills and the right technology in place to improve care.
SBRI Healthcare is an NHS England initiative, led by the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), who aim to promote UK economic growth whilst addressing unmet health needs and enhancing the take up of known best practice.
Virtual Reality technology is still in its infancy, but the technology is improving and becoming more affordable to a point where it will become a more mass-market device. Currently the main market for VR is in entertainment. An area that is developing is its use within a healthcare setting, and the potential to improve rehabilitation techniques and help distract patients during painful treatments.
The healthcare enterprise comprises vast dispersed resources of varying capacities with immense untapped potential to improve patient access for services. Leveraging essential technologies for patient flow management affords opportunities to automate, load balance and improve access to services through virtual health, location awareness and predictive modelling. The results are decreased wait times and enhanced patient experience using existing resources.
Jennifer Weller, Clinical Operations Manager, iRhythm (confirmed)
The role of strategic system redesign in transformation and safe and effective health and care provision.
Richard Harding, Digital Innovation Lead, NHS Digital (confirmed)
With the NHS undergoing a sustained period of transformation, there is a clear need for more effective information sharing between care settings, organisations and geographies, as well as between professionals and citizens, to optimise patient outcomes and quality of care. This is reliant on the ability of IT systems across health and care to be interoperable with one another, and is key to the delivery of the future vision of care in England.
Alison Baum OBE, CEO & Founder, Best Beginnings (confirmed)
Baby Buddy: A case study highlighting the power of evidence, innovation and collaboration to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities.
Construction of The Bridgewater Hall commenced on 22 March 1993, but the idea of a new concert hall for Manchester dates back to the reconstruction of the Free Trade Hall in the 1950s after wartime bomb damage. The Free Trade Hall was home to the city’s famous Hallé orchestra and also hosted rock and pop concerts. However, despite holding great public affection, the 1850s Free Trade Hall was ill-equipped to respond to the rising standards of service and acoustic excellence demanded by performers and audiences.
