A Positive Vision for Health
Scotland’s The Herald recently ran an article talking about how technology could be used to genuinely improve health and care services. It quotes Professor George Crooks, head of Scotland’s Digital and Health Care Innovation Centre, saying it is time for a digital revolution which will empower both patients and free up clinical staff to direct their efforts to where it is most needed.
It may sound like science fiction, but Prof Crooks foresees a future where citizens are empowered to make decisions through having detailed knowledge of their own health needs, gathered by constant collection of data which flows into the hands of medical professionals digitally.
The ongoing health needs of individual Scots would be recorded in a data cloud accessible to themselves and those who need it, providing scope for targeted care on a round-the-clock basis.
Even details such as whether there are pets that need taken care of should someone need to go into hospital would be recorded, along with data which could even predict when care might be needed before a problem manifests in such a way that the health need becomes urgent.
The success of this programme, and the ethos behind it, is what Prof Crooks would like to see happen NHS Scotland as the digital revolution takes hold.
Professor Crooks said: “Scotland’s medical model of care, that has served us very well for the past 150 years, is no longer fit for purpose in the 21st Century. We must move away from our existing approach to one where we listen to, activate, and empower our citizens to make better informed health and wellbeing choices supported by resources in their communities.
“The only way that can happen is through the appropriate use of digital technologies allied to an understanding of the lived experience of people in Scotland, using our expertise to co-design with them, and tailoring services to meet their personal and local circumstances. That’s the crux of the knowledge, skills and experience DHI has acquired over the past 10 years.”
We, Mydex CIC, are proud to say we have been working with DHI over the past eight years to build the personal data infrastructure needed to make such an approach work. This infrastructure is now being used in an increasing number of projects.
The NHS faces relentless operational, front line and demographic challenges, compounded by increasing financial constraints. For example, the combined financial deficit in Scotland’s NHS Health Boards and Health & Social Care Partnerships now approaching one billion pounds for 2024–2025. Yet service providers in the third, public and independent sectors still have to find a way to deliver the best possible service.
It’s possible for them to work together on this, to develop a common vision and delivery plan for the future that is inclusive, building human rights and operational efficiencies into how it works. The person centred data infrastructure that is now available helps achieve this.
Our next blogs explore in detail how this infrastructure works.
