Cloud and mobile and connected care were the topics of conversation up for debate in the morning of day three of Digital Health Rewired.
Over on the Cloud and Mobile Summit on 17 March, the day kicked off with Andy Callow, group chief digital information officer at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who opened with the question of ‘why are we still talking about cloud’.
Callow also said there needs to be an agreement that cloud is something that needs to be implemented across the NHS and “we need to get it done”.
He also called on CIOs to band together and challenge regulators on the capital / revenue issues which can block progress, adding that they should “hold their nerve”.
Callow also raised the debate of whether 2021 could be the year for cloud.
“It would be really great if we didn’t have to discuss this again – wouldn’t it be great if 2021 is the year we push the NHS towards the and not have to come back and have this conversation every year,” he said.
Fantabulous 'Cloud first' presentation from @andy_callow to open day 3 #DHRewired21. Major call to arms for CIOs to join forces to "challenge the regulator" on the Capital/Revenue issues blocking progress. CIOs need to "Hold their nerve" #ClassAct #inspiring #pragmatic pic.twitter.com/pLvsqCLyXw
— Andy Kinnear 🇪🇺 (@Andy_Kinnear) March 17, 2021
Also speaking in the morning was Chris Ryan, founder of Attend Anywhere, who showed a timeline of the organisation’s journey.
He also shared how there were around 7.2million Attend Anywhere consultations in 2020.
Connecting up care
Meanwhile on the Connected Care Summit, audience members heard from Lee Rickles, director of the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record Programme, about the successful implementation of connected care.
The CIO at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust said having a set of principles to follow is “absolutely key”. His list of principles includes ongoing communication; commitment to a common cause; acceptance of differences; and fairness.
The paramount principle, Rickles said, was trust. “Without trust none of the other points [principles] really make any difference,” he said.
“If nobody trusts the system, nobody is going to use it. If nobody trusts the team nobody’s going to work with them.”
Rickles was followed by a keynote from Jason Keane, patient chief executive officer at EMIS Group, the sponsor of the Connected Care Summit.
Keane spoke about the shift EMIS had seen in how patients access services during the Covid-19 pandemic. He told the audience self-care services had proved “hugely popular”, including access to personalised clinical leaflets through the Patient Access app.
He also said community pharmacy has also been a “real winner” as patients began to realise they weren’t only a place to pick up medication, they’re place to seek medical advice.
The keynotes were followed by a series of case studies and lightning talks including the evolution of the Great North Care Record; getting artificial intelligence (AI) adopted at scale; and integrating workflow access the health and care system.
Neil Perry, CIO at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, spoke about the potential to scale AI across the NHS using integrated care systems (ICS).
He suggested ICSs could be called upon to develop, adopt and scale an AI care pathway, which could then be implemented across the entire NHS using a blueprinting programme.
Digital Health Rewired 2021 is running from 15-19 March and is free for everyone from NHS, public sector, independent providers, charities and education sectors, plus start-ups less than three-years old.