By Pip Batey, Design Strategist, Helix Centre, IGHI
I have always cared about social causes, particularly within mental health and environmental-related issues. I enjoy making sense of complex problems and taking concrete steps to improve systems that can have a lasting positive impact. Both of these elements are a core part of Helix’s ethos and ways of working.
This week we’re opening applications for IGHI’s annual Student Challenges Competition. We’re inviting aspiring global health innovators to submit their project in a bid to win £10,000.
To help budding student innovators get started, IGHI Visiting Professor and former BMJ editor Dr Richard Smith reveals his most essential pieces of advice.
With a new year comes new goals.
Our staff have been reflecting on the changes and progress they want to see over the coming year. So as we settle into 2020, we asked some key people across IGHI about the developments they’d like to see in healthcare.
Our National Health Service owns some of the most comprehensive patient data sets across the globe. This makes these data a very valuable asset – not just as a springboard for improving health and care through learning from the data, but also in terms of the potential for financial return. It is critical that if the NHS shares this data with companies, in an appropriate and secure way, it also receives a fair share of this financial return.
These are arguments we make in a new article published in Lancet Digital Health. We also highlight the need for a wide and transparent debate on this topic, alongside making some key recommendations for policy and practice change in this area. By taking these critical actions, we believe that we all stand to benefit – both as patients and taxpayers.
Healthcare data is extremely valuable. Through increasing our understanding of health and how healthcare systems are working, it has the potential to make care more effective and efficient. Thus, improving patient outcomes and financial sustainability. In other words, it can help providers and health systems, like the NHS in the UK, get better at what they do.
It can also enable the discovery of new drugs or the development of new technologies, including digital health applications and artificial intelligence algorithms. Accessing healthcare data is therefore a priority for businesses and research institutions, which traditionally drive this type of innovation. In doing so, they certainly can help develop a better future for our healthcare systems.
However, giving access to sensitive data, even in anonymised form, to private organisations is something that the public has often expressed concerns about or rejected altogether. It is therefore critical that if the data is shared, it is done with the awareness and support of the public. And, according to secure and well-defined processes. Shortcuts should be avoided. The public should also be properly consulted and listened to, not nudged towards what policy wonks like us, even if well-meaning, think is right.
The issue of how to share the financial value generated from healthcare data merits a lot more attention and discussion than what has been the case so far. If NHS data leads to successful products or innovations, should the NHS receive something in return? We believe the answer is yes.
Our recent article in the Lancet Digital Health is an attempt to start a more vibrant and wider debate on this topic. We believe this should involve the public, healthcare practitioners, policy-makers, academics and colleagues from the private sector.
In the article, we suggest the need for an updated policy and decision-making framework to ensure that the NHS realises fair financial value from its data. We strongly recommend that NHS organisations consider a wide range of mechanisms to capture some of the value, including:
The right approach will vary from case to case, but it is important to consider the full range of options.
It is critical that this issue is discussed more widely and that an approach supported by the public is identified and implemented. As shown by recent press coverage and by the debate leading up to the last UK general election, less-than-transparent or rushed attempts to take action in this area are likely to generate significant resistance, and to negatively impact trust in the NHS and the progress towards a better, data-supported future in healthcare.
Gianluca Fontana is the Director of Operations at IGHI’s Centre for Health Policy. Dr Saira Ghafur is the Centre’s Lead for Digital Health.
Every Christmas, researchers from IGHI’s Hamlyn Centre gather to show off their latest innovations in robotics and healthcare technology.
We caught up with some of the team to find out more about their research, and how they hope it could make a difference to people’s lives.
As the year draws to a close, we look back at some of IGHI’s best moments over the past 12 months. From launching new trials to test out promising health innovations, to partnering for better mental health, our Institute has achieved many things we’re proud of.
Find out how our progress is leading us towards our ambition of transforming health and care for all. (more…)
Many will be wishing to discover an Xbox-shaped gift glittering under the Christmas tree this year. Aside from the seemingly endless hours of entertainment, joy, frustration and competition that these consoles offer, Xbox technology – and other similar gadgets – is finding uses outside of the gaming world, and in the healthcare research sphere. (more…)
IGHI is home to a team of staff who are skilled and passionate about their roles. Our talented people are the reason we’re able to tackle some of the most pressing global health challenges through cutting-edge innovation.
We’re giving you the chance to get to know some of them a little better and learn about what motivates them in their roles, who inspires them and what they like to get up to outside of IGHI.
Meet Nicolette Davies, IGHI’s Head of Operations. We sat down with her to find out more about the person who helps keep IGHI running smoothly.
Having an idea that could make a difference is only the beginning of becoming the next big innovator.
As we gear up for the opening of our 2019/20 IGHI Student Challenges Competition on 7 January, we’ve gathered some top tips from IGHI and Imperial College London’s many experts in innovation to help you bring your ideas to life.
These innovative individuals draw upon a wealth of experience and knowledge that they’ve built up from establishing their own start-ups or working in innovation.
Read on for their words of wisdom, and if you’re inspired by these, why not submit your global health project for our Student Challenges Competition in January, for the chance to win £10,000?
By Gianluca Fontana, Senior Policy Fellow and Director of Operations, Centre for Health Policy, IGHI
In my first job out of university, I was a management consultant. That led me to work on glamorous and intellectually stimulating activities such as figuring out how to distribute fresh fish in a supermarket display to maximise sales. But I’ve always had a passion for healthcare. So through the years, I was able to get myself involved with much more interesting projects. (more…)