Tag: Technology

Digital data: a double-edged sword for safer healthcare

How can we make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world? Can we harness the power of digital technology to improve patient safety? What digital innovations do we need to improve the safety of care, and what approaches are necessary to enable healthcare staff to interact with these innovations in technology?

These are big questions. But none too bold to be addressed at our recent NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) Symposium. By tackling challenging topics such as these, our event provoked impassioned discussion and debate while whetting the captive audience’s appetite with plenty of food for thought. (more…)

Part I, The last five years.

by Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham

Let me start with a personal story. I am a surgeon by training. Colleagues used to call me ‘robo-doc’ because of my interest in robotic keyhole surgery and because I helped to champion its use during a time when a surgeon’s reputation was measured by the size of his incisions. My journey into the academic study of patient safety happened naturally, aided by my interactions with patients and their carers. In fact, it was the quality of care that first drew me in.

I remember the first 24 hours after my very first keyhole surgery as if it was last week. I remember so vividly because never have I witnessed such drastic differences in patient outcomes as a result of a singular change in the way care was delivered. Almost immediately the patient was able to eat, walk without any assistance and, most importantly, with very little pain. We had dared to explore something different when the norm was not good enough. This was the start of my determination to do better. (more…)

One year on

by Kelsey Flott & Erik Mayer

A year on from the publication of NRLS Research and Development, building an improved model for learning from incidents has been a top priority across the Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) and the Big Data and Analytical Unit (BDAU). Researchers across our centres have been working in close collaboration with leaders at Imperial College Healthcare Trust (ICHT) to design evidence-based, practical solutions that work in the NHS.

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Forgotten Scientists

by Lindsay H. Dewa

“Certain people – men, of course – discouraged me, saying [science] was not a good career for women. That pushed me even more to persevere […] I was from the generation of 1968. It was a period of activism and women were demanding their rights.”
 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Virologist,
Nobel Prize Winner for Physiology or Medicine 2008

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is an inspiration to all women in science, determined to succeed despite discouragement and achieved the greatest honour in Science: a Nobel Prize. But, unfortunately, her bad experience in her earlier days as a scientist is still common amongst women today.

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