{"id":229,"date":"2018-12-04T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T14:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/?p=229"},"modified":"2018-12-18T15:37:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T15:37:26","slug":"digital-data-a-double-edged-sword-for-safer-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/2018\/12\/04\/digital-data-a-double-edged-sword-for-safer-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital data: a double-edged sword for safer healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

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?<\/p>\n

These are big questions. But none too bold to be addressed at our recent NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre<\/a> (PSTRC) Symposium. By tackling challenging topics such as these, our event provoked impassioned discussion and debate while whetting the captive audience\u2019s appetite with plenty of food for thought.<\/p>\n

Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Director of the NIHR Imperial PSTRC opened the annual Symposium<\/a> by reminding delegates of why our Centre exists: despite progress, there\u2019s still \u201ca huge amount of work to do\u201d to improve the safety of care. Medication errors, antimicrobial resistance and cybersecurity were top of his list as threats to safer care, with the latter a major focus of this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Tech on trial<\/h2>\n

First to the floor was Professor David Bates from Harvard Medical School. He said that while \u201charm is ubiquitous\u201d \u2013 citing research suggesting that around 1 in 10 patients experience harm when they come into a hospital \u2013 so too is information technology in healthcare. He made a strong case for the proliferation of IT, presenting evidence suggesting that it could have benefits ranging from improved medication safety to better patient monitoring. Despite these positives, he warned against becoming dependent on digital.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation technology is just a tool,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have good IT but don\u2019t have a good safety programme, you won\u2019t get anywhere. You can\u2019t solely rely on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baroness Dido Harding, Non-Executive Chair of NHS Improvement, echoed this point and emphasised the role that humans have to play. \u201cDigital is changing everything, and it\u2019s changing healthcare dramatically,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s people that facilitate the change towards something more positive.<\/p>\n

\"Baroness
Baroness Harding. Credit: Kevin Lines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTechnology is about making things better, and enabling staff to be better at what they do. It\u2019s a powerful driver to deliver better safety culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

This paints a pleasing picture of tech. But there were no rose-tinted glasses in the audience. Security start-up founder Cal Leeming was quick to bring the reality of digital security\u2019s flaws into sharp focus. He showcased the worrying weaknesses of systems we\u2019re familiar with, ranging from diabetics\u2019 insulin pumps to the messaging service WhatsApp. But perhaps most stark was his point that despite being one of the most heavily-regulated industries, our health system may be one of the weakest when it comes to cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

So why is our health system perforated with holes from which our precious data can seep through? Andrew Eland, Deep Mind\u2019s director of engineering, pointed the finger at an historic \u201cchronic underinvestment\u201d in IT infrastructure. This oversight, Eland said, can be attributed to the fact that \u201cwe don\u2019t have a good understanding of the economic benefit of investing in security\u201d. Whereas the benefits of equipment such as incubators for premature babies are plain and tangible, those of new security systems are less clear-cut, he explained.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Andrew Eland (centre). Credit: Kevin Lines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People power<\/h2>\n

While digital was a hot topic of the day, it was joined by another imperative of safety: involvement. Highlighting the need for patient empowerment, Dr Neelam Dhingra-Kumar from the World Health Organisation put the onus on patients to be their own advocates: \u201cThe most important lever for change is people themselves, for patients to be aware of their needs and their rights.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr Dhingra-Kumar (right). Credit: Kevin Lines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cUntil patients take on their own responsibility, we won\u2019t achieve positive change.\u201d<\/p>\n

If patient involvement is done right, though, Director of the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber PSTRC Professor Rebecca Lawton mused that it could be crucial towards the goal of shifting healthcare from a focus on treatment to prevention.<\/p>\n

But what are some of the barriers for patients becoming more involved in developing healthcare? Language was one suggestion that seemed to bring agreement among one panel discussing the subject. Ditch the jargon and off-putting acronyms, was the advice of Uscreates co-founder Zo\u00eb Stanton, and \u201cspeak the language of the people we\u2019re trying to reach\u201d.<\/p>\n

And so in spite of the differing backgrounds, experiences and expertise of the day\u2019s speakers, a thread emerged among the talks that stitched together a clear picture: it\u2019s people, not technology, that are at the heart of positive change in patient safety.<\/p>\n

While technological advances will no doubt have a role, it\u2019s patient empowerment that\u2019s necessary to catalyse much-needed improvements in healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get your hands dirty and get involved in improving the system,\u201d said NHS National Director of patient safety Dr Aidan Fowler, as he drew the event to a close, \u201cyou can make a bigger difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
Credit: Kevin Lines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1308,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7959],"tags":[264415,86129,390],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","tag-patient-data","tag-patient-involvement","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/pstrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}