Event

Developing trusted and inclusive digital healthcare

This event hosted by UK think tank The King’s Fund discusses the benefits of inclusive digital healthcare and the barriers and enablers of doing so.

Join us for our virtual event to discuss findings from our upcoming long read on designing inclusive and trusted digital services with people and communities, commissioned by the Health Foundation.

In September, Lord Darzi published his independent investigation of the NHS in England, commissioned by the newly-elected government. One of the themes he recommended for how to repair the NHS is a ‘tilt towards technology’. The review finds that the benefits from already-implemented technology are not always fully realised in the NHS, staff working outside hospitals urgently need the benefits of digital systems, and there is enormous potential in AI to transform care and for life sciences breakthroughs to create new treatments. Informed by this review, the Government set out one of its three ambitions for the upcoming NHS 10-year plan to be a shift from analogue to digital.

Darzi’s review also highlighted that the patient voice is not sufficiently heard. There has been a decline in patient satisfaction, an increase in complaints, and a reduction in patients’ empowerment to make decisions about their own care. To address these issues, the investigation suggests re-engaging staff and re-empowering patients.

Bringing these two things together, for digital services to be truly inclusive, they must function to serve the populations they are designed for, work as expected, and be trusted by both users and staff. The King’s Fund undertook research, funded by The Health Foundation, which sought to define the skills, knowledge, and capabilities needed for health and care systems to develop inclusive and trusted digitally enabled services, and identify the key barriers and enablers for doing this work in a meaningful and sustained way.

This online event will bring together key stakeholders to explore:

• Why the government must put staff, patients and the public at the heart of their ambition to shift from analogue to digital
• The barriers and enabling factors to developing inclusive and trusted digitally enabled services
• How to provide NHS staff and people with skills, knowledge and confidence to meaningfully engage with digital technology
• Recommendations on how national policy and the upcoming 10-year plan can make this shift a sustained reality

Pritesh Mistry, Fellow in Digital Technologies at The King’s Fund, will present findings from the new long read and chair the event. He will be joined for a panel discussion by Ahmed Binesmael, Senior Improvement Analyst, The Health Foundation and further panel guests will be confirmed in due course.