The New Normal in Healthcare Industry

About Nicola Hall

1. You’ve been working in the healthcare space for over a decade now. How do you see the space evolving?

The adoption curve for the use of technology has certainly changed over the last ten years, and the COVID pandemic certainly has opened eyes to what good technology can do for the healthcare space, in a short time.  There always seemed to be a deep contrast in attitudes between the technology used in direct patient care, to the use of technology in and around patient care, administratively and operationally. Prior obstacles to adopting technology, included the budgeting year, the lack of a forum to showcase technology, and actually which group to approach in healthcare for technology innovation. With the digitisation funding and the ongoing appointment of CIOs, the landscape has the capability of changing quickly in the following years. There is an increase in the development of Applications for this space.  The focus of the NHS is interoperability and the standards that the suppliers need to operate to, alongside centralised procurement.  As this develops smaller companies may struggle to meet those requirements, so lookout for a change in the supplier community through mergers and acquisitions if their main customers are the NHS. It is likely to increase the barriers to entry for smaller businesses. As always the healthcare community can be distracted by current circumstances as we move to the post covid phase the focus will be on waiting lists, not necessarily investment in technology for the future, unless it helps us get patients treated more quickly.

2. Where do you see Technology moving the needle in healthcare?

Of course in the area of patient treatment; there are many possibilities and certainly, the area of remote monitoring is currently expanding. I do hope that technology will also fill the gap in preventative healthcare and screening, as we very much focus on waiting for patients to become ill. The main area for me that I believe is the area of operational management and administration where there are many opportunities. We have seen improvements in the area of track and trace through the GS1 program, but adoption to date has been slow. There are many other areas that need to be addressed across both secondary and primary care.

3. What HealthTech innovation are you excited about?

I’m excited about the data that will come out of digitisation and the possibilities that may bring including the use of machine learning and AI.  As structured data becomes accessible from healthcare we will see large steps forward in how that data is used and reverted to patients, patient pathways and management.

4. What challenges do you see in new HealthTech ideas in practice? Any promising development?

The main challenge is a forum for the showcase of products and making sure there is an area for innovations, and adoptions of technology developed from other markets (there are some similarities). There are certainly some interesting developments at the moment in the areas of mental health, track and trace, data management and procurement.

5. What is your own experience in seeing HealthTech in truly innovative action?

My recent experience has been in Inventory Management as part of the GS1 programme, which changes the way products are replenished and tracked to the patient. The outcomes are an increase in patient safety, changes in the way they work to create significant efficiencies and savings and data that lets the management teams see where they need to make further changes.

Wrapping Up

The use of technology in healthcare is not only imperative but inevitable. Our expert Nicola very skillfully highlighted how technology can accelerate remote patient monitoring and be a game-changer in preventative healthcare. We hoped you found this Q&A just as helpful as we did.