The first meeting of the Healthtech Advisory Board will meet today (19 November) to help advise health secretary Matt Hancock on technology within the NHS.
Chaired by academic Dr Ben Goldacre, the board will be focused on the future to assist policy creation, challenge decision making and act as a sounding board for new ideas.
Goldacre is a clinician, academic and author who runs the DataLab at the University of Oxford.
He said: “I am delighted that Matt Hancock has created this board to inject challenge and diverse expertise around better use of data, evidence and technology in healthcare.
“I hope we can bring positive change for staff and patients, and realise the Tech Vision with a cutting-edge 21st century NHS. Medicine is driven by information: better use of data can revolutionise health care.”
Goldacre will be joined by Rachel Dunscombe, who is the CEO of the NHS Digital Academy and director of digital for Salford Royal NHS Group.
The other members of the board are:
- Nicole Junkermann – Founder of NJF Holdings, an international finance and investment company
- Manoj Badale – Co-Founder of Blenheim Chalcot, a Digital Venture Builder
- David Gann – Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Imperial College London
- Sir Mark Walport – Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
- Nicola Blackwood – Chair of the Human Tissue Authority
- Roger Taylor – Chair of Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
- Daniel Korski CBE – is the co-founder and CEO of PUBLIC, a venture capital firm
- Michelle Brennan – Company Group Chair for Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies
- Dan Sheldon – Head of Digital at Well Pharmacy
- Jeni Tennison – CEO of the Open Data Institute
- Parker Moss – Health technology entrepreneur in residence at F-Prime and Eight Roads
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care first announced the advisory board during his keynote speech at NHS Expo in Manchester in September.
He said: “I want the UK to have the most advanced health tech ecosystem in the worlds. That starts with improving the technology and IT systems in the NHS and creating a culture of innovation so patients can benefit from cutting-edge treatments while reducing the workload of staff.
“The new future-focused HealthTech Advisory Board will bring together tech experts, clinicians and academics to identify where change needs to happen and be an ideas hub for how we can improve patient outcomes and to make the lives of NHS staff easier.”
22 November 2018 @ 17:22
Ah another board that can blame other boards for not doing stuff who will set up more boards to try and fix what the board had no idea was a problem
Bored or Boards
The NHS pays a lot of people a lot of money to deliver stuff that’s supposed to help. stand them up and hold them to account fore not doing what they are paid to do.
22 November 2018 @ 17:42
I didn’t know that Boards could breed so quickly!
22 November 2018 @ 17:46
Yes exactly. Soft jobs, excellent salaries and expenses, politically very correct, attendance at international meetings in far flung places the result same old same old?
So lets see the minutes of Hancocks meeting, the strategy and the plan. Fine words, much hype and a declining service to our population.
22 November 2018 @ 18:38
Yes Michael, same as NHS Wachter report, ‘Fit for 2020’ report, 10 year plan and so on. No objectives, plans, names, milestones, CSFs, accountability, responsibilities, budget, TCO, sponsor, stakeholders etc etc. The same old wishlists, promises and platitudes, all stitched in place with ‘technology’, the saviour of us all. In reality, another car crash awaits but the driver will flee the scene.
22 November 2018 @ 19:41
If the plans for implementing the supposed agenda are unconvincing that is because the putative agenda is only there to conceal the real hidden agenda. Downgrade all NHS services so that, while ostensibly free at the point of care, they will be so inadequate that patients will have the choice of doing without healthcare or paying for private care. Divert the funding thus saved into developing the IT infrastructure and systems required to control all patient data and harness it to the purpose of driving the digital economy, and enriching those who have a vested interest in it. Stuff free healthcare, that is only for the rabble.
22 November 2018 @ 16:36
People realise Ben Goldacre is a clinician, right?
COI – I’ve worked with Rachel, she’s brilliant.
But back to Ben, he’s a respected clinician and academic who has a strong focus on evidence-based practice and a healthy scepticism. I think he knows the difference between what works and what is hype and people won’t get any nonsense past him. Yes, he has a certain amount of celebrity, but that’s been earned through writing books that remind us all (doctors especially) not to fall for whatever we are being sold.
I’m sure everyone has an idea of what their ideal board make-up will be but this is a good start and I’m sure it will only get better.
22 November 2018 @ 23:53
I made no comments about the merits of those included but rather a comment on who was absent.
One clinician is hardly representative and as far as I know he is involved in academic research (very important) and not on the ground care. He certainly isn’t a primary care clinician. Representation of primary care is important because we have the bulk of patient contact and have, until recently at least, been at the forefront of NHS IT.
21 November 2018 @ 21:25
nhs.uk
22 November 2018 @ 16:57
50 years since Dr. Larry Weeds paper “Medical Records that Guide and Teach” the genesis of the EMR.
£Billions spent on NPfIT, LPfIT and individual trusts post these programmes.
Still no integrated national care record. Issues raised by Sir Muir Gray in the Atlas of Variation in Diagnostics as an example still unresolved.
Einstein suggests the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
So what is new with Hancocks approach?
When will we have the first HIMMS level 7 hospital?
The NHS Digital leadership has done little to improve the eHealth systems and NHS efficiency. – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-35059833/nhs-misses-key-targets-in-patient-care-in-england and things are deteriating.
Taxpayer and patients getting a very poor deal.
24 November 2018 @ 20:00
MH is + and technical, do not blame politicians for an NHS which is running extremely inefficiently compared with other services. Do not blame the clinicians either, who I trust implicitly (both NHS and non NHS). U have to be cruel to be kind … it is down to too much non clinical leadership. Where there is too much leadership you will have a lack of unit, the NHS has too many leaders / leading organisations. If they are standing on their own feet, fine, if they are reliant on tax payers money (i.e. future generations) not fine. U have 2B cruel to be kind, start … start to introduce real accountability @ the top NOW, non clinical ? then count the money and measure the performance.
21 November 2018 @ 21:23
I work for the NHS, in MH&PO:
* The answer to an efficient NHS is DATA
* The tech is available NOW, it is NOT the ussue
* Business Intelligence (DATA) measures performance for those a provider serves, word of mouth (i.e. “we are all doing very well”, is not acceptable, the NHS serves the PEOPLE, not the other way round)
* Analytics (DATA) provides insight i.e. a form a powerful research
* PEOPLE should have control of their DATA and who accesses it, if a PERSON has access and control of their health DATA (throughout their health journey), then the clinicians who are trying to help them will
* PEOPLE should be able to see their health DATA via apps on their mobiles, this, in 2018, is what is happening in the real world in every other domain, the NHS should be no different
I work for the NATIONAL Health Service and technology, specifically DATA, should be being used to offer all the people it serves and equal service (tech crosses geographic, socio economic, ethnic, sexuality, gender … IT crosses all boundaries, far far more than words can).
No one gives a damn what’s going on behind the scenes, the NHS can no longer do it all for free, but at least it can use tech, specifically DATA, to try to ensure that the service that it can offer is equal across the entire country.
Declare my interest ? I work as a substantive techie for the NHS on £30,000 per year and I would like to keep my job, I am convinced DATA is the new currency of health.
22 November 2018 @ 16:59
Wrong Clive, the need in NHS is ‘fit for purpose’ PROCESSES, to which technology bends its knees; all part of the trilogy 3Ps – Process, These are either broken, non-existent or ignored.
People, Product (technology in this case). Data is assumed ( a ‘given’) need otherwise we wouldn’t need computers. I agree that it is an issue as most NHS data is still in thousands of manila files (I saw about 50 in a large plastic box in a hospital yesterday and that was just for the patients arriving in that hour or so. Then and only then can you apply your stated needs for DATA. Incidentally, there is also a need for INFORMATION, which is ‘cooked’ DATA and give actionable insights into just what is going on in the NHS . The two are not the same.
21 November 2018 @ 09:03
NP unFIT part II, sad time when there are no clinicians or patients/patient advocates at the table when looking to redesign the future of IT in healthcare.
21 November 2018 @ 16:17
Sometimes need to be in the camp to change things. Thats the judgement call you have to make.
21 November 2018 @ 21:26
What is an Ussue????????????????
* The tech is available NOW, it is NOT the ussue
Why con’t the NHS be free at the point of need?
21 November 2018 @ 21:30
Sounds like Nick Clegg I won’t increase University fees supported the Conservative government and did the opposite. He did it for the greater good?
21 November 2018 @ 22:55
There is not enough money to do it all
21 November 2018 @ 22:03
His vision is going through but in traditional fashion it’s not going to be this group or any of the others trying to join the group.
We’ve seen the brief, can work out a number of key components, it doesn’t need a massive plan. We just need to keep running with it.
I noticed several suppliers showing the vision in action. Not far from parliament #INTEROPen.
Let’s keep the action going and cut down on the talking about it.
21 November 2018 @ 00:55
Will Johnson & Johnson put a sticking plaster over the problem?
21 November 2018 @ 18:05
Really? Not a chance. Still a place in the House of Lords is probably available?
20 November 2018 @ 15:09
This says it all “better use of data can revolutionise health care” of course it can and of course it’s important BUT it’s only half the picture.
What’s being missed here is the power of good digital tech to make the jobs of frontline staff easier, less stressful, more rewarding and more efficient – Helping them to deliver high quality, efficient, compassionate care.
This panel is data-user heavy and light on those focused on using tech to streamline the care process. Remember, if you want good quality data you have to give the frontline staff that create it a reason to invest the effort required in data quality and that comes from ensuring that entering good data makes their jobs easier ….. (op sit) https://woodcote-consulting.com/time-for-zero-tolerance/
20 November 2018 @ 22:19
Hmm, not just data user-heavy, but vested interest-heavy. It’s stuffed with the powerful and well-connected so that it can make decisions in the interests of the powerful and well-connected, and assist in the lining of pockets of potential Tory donors. No surprise their from a Conservative SoS.
There is no interest here in improving the NHS or the lot of front-line staff here, just in finding a mechanism to further the Care.Data agenda without scaring the horses again.
20 November 2018 @ 23:00
Precisely so!
22 November 2018 @ 17:01
Ewan, see my response to Clive elsewhere. gain, one must differentiate between DATA and what it tells us; INFORMATION.
20 November 2018 @ 13:52
I have to agree with Sam above – A complete lack of people who have battled in the trenches of NHS IT and understand the complexity of health and care data and the existing IT infrastructure.
Where are the clinicians, IT Vendors, struggling start-ups, experienced CIO and CCIOs and the poor victims of the broken “Computer says no” environment we have (otherwise known as patients and their family and informal carers)
We need people who no what it’s like in A&E on a Saturday Night, on a ward with a broken system after IT Support have gone home or a GP Practice on the Tuesday after a bank Holiday a flu epidemic.
19 November 2018 @ 19:06
Not customary for me to write posts but as a ‘veteran’ patient advocate I cannot see any patient representation. When all said and done, fine to have and attend all these congresses but without the missing link surely one is missing the point. And yes same people on these circuits as was said in one response. What about letting ‘others’ have a go …
19 November 2018 @ 20:29
I suggest that you need to separate the propaganda from the reality. The propaganda says that this is all for the benefit of patients and clinicians. The reality is that it is all about seizing control of patient level data by fair means or foul – mostly foul. Patient advocacy would be decidedly counterproductive, like giving turkeys representation on the board of a supplier of turkeys to the meat industry.
19 November 2018 @ 18:15
A real wasted opportunity – The same circuit of known personalities who seem to make a living attending conferences and chairing meetings. No SME’s, No clinicians, no one who has really faced the hard issues of developing tech and deploying it into the NHS. Nothing to see here….
19 November 2018 @ 15:49
Was anyone else scrolling through the list of names and disappointed not to see someone like Joe McDonald to talk clear practical sense without clear commercial vested interest like many of the members will unavoidably bring to the table?
19 November 2018 @ 15:28
It does seem a rather odd choice of members, I don’t think I’ve heard of any of them except Dr Goldacre and Ms Dunscombe. I would have thought you would need a few clinicians with real world experience? Without this it risks just being another ‘blue skies’ talking shop.
19 November 2018 @ 14:33
Any place for patient representation via patient advocates in terms of patient engagement which is key in all health-related matters?
19 November 2018 @ 14:10
Disappointed to see there are no GPs represented on the board. In fact it is not even clear on whether there are practicing clinicians on the board.
19 November 2018 @ 13:22
Has anyone on the Board ever heard of confidentiality? I suppose that would be too much to hope for.
19 November 2018 @ 11:57
Where will Board papers and minutes be published?