The most important event in two weeks’ time: the Future of Medicine on June 13th at the RSM!

In two weeks’ time, Donald Trump may meet Kim Jong-Un in Singapore and the World Cup will begin, though even more importantly the Royal Society of Medicine will be holding its fourth Future of Medicine event in partnership with the Institute of Engineering and Technology: on June 13th to be precise.

The full title is the Future of Medicine: the role of doctors in 2028.  The conference will explore just how far the delivery of health and care will be improved by the availability of new technology over the next decade, and what the latest predictions are by those working in the field of how this will change the way medicine will really be practised. It is aimed primarily at senior executives in the health and care world whose decisions today will hasten – or hinder – the arrival of improved technology-enabled care, though it’s relevant to anyone with an interest in knowing what’s happening at the cutting edge of how medical technology is changing medicine.

One area of focus will be training doctors to work in this new world: Professor Joanne Martin will describe how Barts are tackling this, and Dr Jean Nehme will describe how technology can specifically help train surgeons. Dr Harpreet Sood (not yet in the published programme) has kindly offered to talk about how the NHS Digital Academy fits into the picture. The future of the profession will be explored by Dr Will Cavendish, now at Arup,  and Professor Pali Hungin.

AI is a key topic running through the event, for which Dr Clare Novorol of Ada.com and Dr Richard Dybowski of Cambridge University will offer contrasting views and Dr Vishal Nangalia will look specifically at its impact on surgery. Promoting innovation is clearly key, and our distinguished ‘regular’, Professor Tony Young will give another of his high-intensity presentations on it.  Speakers on specific key relevant topics will include Professor Rachel McKendry on rapid diagnostic tests, Dr James Wollard on changing the way mental health is managed and Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu on the future of nanomedicine. Finally, wrapping it all up, Andy Wilkins, Consultant, and Chris Burghes, CEO, The Royal Free Charity, will describe the new vision they have been developing of the future of person-centred care. 

Another great day, in short, and at the usual very low cost RSM rates!

For more information, and to book, click here.

(Disclosure, this editor was involved in putting together this conference.)

A few short topical items: NHS Digital, DHACA, IET, more

Rob Shaw, NHS Digital’s Deputy CEO, gave a welcome talk at EHI Live on Tuesday encouraging the NHS organisations to become “intelligent” customers. To quote “We have got to make it easier for suppliers to sell into health and social care”. Let’s hope that the message is received and acted on! Until it is, the Kent Surrey and Sussex AHSN is offering help to SMEs to make that first sales – how to book, and to get more details on the event on 23rd November go here.

DHACA’s Digital Health Safety event, in partnership with Digital Health.London on 7th November is proving extremely popular, to the point where it may be oversubscribed soon, so if you want a seat for this really important event for all digital health developers and suppliers, book now.

The IET is running a TechStyle event on the evening of 22 November entitled the world of wearables aimed at people “between 14 and 114”. For today only (1 November) they are offering a special “2 for 1” deal making the already tiny cost essentially insignificant. Book here.  Hat tip to Prof Mike Short.

Prof Short has also highlighted a recent report from Agilysis looking at the role digital technology can play in delivering the vital step change our nation’s care services need. It concluded that: 

  • Leading digital professionals say lack of digital skills biggest risk to transforming care services fit for the 21st century;
  • Lack of knowledge of digital tools is largely responsible for delays in embracing new ways of working;
  • Believe digital technology could cut costs associated with social care delivery and therefore address the number one issue affecting UK social care today;
  • Digital technology can help local authorities manage both demand (improved customer satisfaction) and supply (improves multi-agency working).

There’s a great (more…)

Two London events worth considering

A quick blog to draw your attention to two events at the Royal Society of Medicine that this editor has been involved in setting up, and that should be of interest.

The first is the Future of Medicine: the Doctor’s Role in 2027, on May 18th, which has a host of excellent speakers looking at how technology is likely to change the way medicine is practised in ten year’s time, to help clinicians, healthcare managers, academics and suppliers prepare for those changes to ensure maximum improvement in patient outcomes. Book here

The second event, in partnership with the IET, Digital Health and Insurance: a Perfect Partnership? on June 1st brings in a wide range of international speakers to explore how, by giving insurers precision over the risks they are taking, digital health is transforming health insurance, both for humans and for pets, and in the process may well result in a fundamentally different way of providing, and paying for, health in the future. Not to be missed! Book here.

As has been said before, the RSM has medical education as one of its charitable objects (the other is promoting medical advances) so their events are extremely attractively priced.

Calling all digital health people in the North of the UK (and the South)

Sadly the DHACA Day in Leeds on 27th April had to be cancelled because of competing events on that day – readers are reminded of the next DHACA Day now in London on 21st June – agenda still to be set.

Elsewhere, Nesta has updated its European Digital City Index, showing the position at the end of 2016
of the top 50 cities in Europe for start-ups. Not digital health-specific though very interesting, nevertheless. TechCity have produced a more detailed website exploring why the UK is the Tech Nation of Europe, which is excellently animated. Though with little mention of digital health it is nevertheless an excellent read, and resource…and something to make those of us who are involved in the UK digital scene proud of our achievements. And if you are a supplier looking for opportunities to capitalise on the UK’s standing, what better than to attend Healthcare UK and NHS Digital’s International Digital Health Opportunities event in London on 25th April?

If you are still feeling international though less interested in exporting, perhaps you might like to attend (more…)

A cornucopia of events and opportunities (UK/EU)

This editor has been extremely busy of late representing DHACA members’ interests in Brexit discussions, finalising RSM events and researching technology to help carers. However the requests to promote events have continued to arrive so here is a very brief summary:

Innovate UK is looking for new assessors – click here for more information.

On 7th March ADASS is holding its Care Apps Showcase and Conference event in Central Birmingham. Book here.

The Wearable Technology Show is on 7th & 8th March at Excel, and for the first time will include within it the Digital Health Technology Show. This editor is presenting. Readers can get free entry to the exhibition and cut-price entry to the conference sessions (quote DHTDHAC17).

On 23rd March, the London Health Technology Forum has its annual pitch session. If you fancy trying your hand at pitching your start-up, or your new idea, we want you! There’s no guarantee that winners will get funded. However there are lots of finance people coming, and winners will certainly get some nice champagne…and bag lots of useful experience. Book here. Contact marie.carey@bakerbotts.com if you want to pitch.

The RSM’s Apps event is in its fifth year and on 4th April. We have a veritable constellation of who’s who in mHealth apps presenting this year: I hate the expression “must see” though it’s very appropriate in this case. Book here. These are incredible value events because one of the charitable objects of the RSM is education: compared with commercial events they are a steal, and the quality is superb.

PwC has a 13 week startup growth programme for revenue generating health companies, entitled ‘future of health’ starting 6th March. They still seem to be taking enquiries though, more details here.

Aging (sic) 2.0 has come to London and holds a global startup search event on 11 April. If you want to register on their startup database,  perhaps to participate in that event, go here.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is now open again for applications. Closing date is 12 midnight on Thursday 20 April

EHTEL have their Symposium in Brussels on 15-16 March – apply here.

The RSM is working with the IET in partnership for the third year to offer you Future of Medicine; the role of Doctors in 2027 on 18th May with the now-expected array of iconoclastic presenters telling us how different the delivery of care will be in ten years. Book here.

More shortly.

Catch-up: what you may have missed whilst on holiday

This was the month when the UK Press seemingly finally woke up to the existence of STPs (Sustainability & Transformation Plans). This article by Derek du Preez and this in Digital Health are two one of a few that pick out the hope that digital health can help with making the NHS more sustainable. Sadly the headlines were grabbed with concern over closing hospital beds, which politicians in the UK still seem to consider to be a Bad Thing. Even though hospital beds have been reduced in most European countries over recent years, and those such as Denmark now trumpet reductions in hospital beds as progress, we have still to break the connection in people’s minds in the UK that beds are a good surrogate for health service delivery volume, (even though when pressed no individual seems keen to spend longer in hospital than absolutely necessary, or would prefer a treatment as an inpatient over treatment as an outpatient.)

Though not directly connected, the NHS offered over £100m to acute care trusts for “global digital excellence” – in line with the previous comments, perhaps the money could alternatively be spent on the UK building on its excellent primary care IT with the specific intention of moving more treatment out of hospitals…and follow that up with a proposal to put the hospital that is judged to be the least “globally digitally excellent” (more…)

Tech savvy ageing

Future technologies are expected to play an important role in supporting independence in later life says one of the main findings [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/How-tech-savvy-are-we.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]from research published this week in the UK. People aged 65 and over who have not grown up with technology around them, perhaps unsurprisingly, find it more difficult to master the latest technologies initially than younger groups do and there are concerns that society could become more inactive and too reliant on technology. This are some of the other main findings given in the report ‘How Tech Savvy are We?’  from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the UK.

Although the research was not focused on just the older age group there are some aspects which are particularly looking at this group of people.

There is no clear consensus on which of the six proposed technologies in the research would be most useful in later life – smart healthcare devices are rated most useful by 27%, whilst driver-less cars and robot help are deemed the most useful by only 10%. This suggests a possible disconnect between what industry is developing and what the public actually wants says the IET.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Chris Cartwright, Chair of the IET Information and Communications Sector, is quoted as saying: “It’s great to see strong public support and understanding for the potential benefits new technologies offer an ageing population. But it’s less encouraging that this support is still hindered by concerns around cost, lack of physical activity and loss of human contact. There is also a lack of clarity about which technologies people will find most useful, probably because they are unclear of the benefits.

(more…)

A gallimaufry of short digital health items to start the day with

The WHO has produced an excellent report on the state of eHealth in the European region, including a review of telehealth readiness. Ericsson have produced a very interesting report confirming what I guess anyone will have realised if they’ve traveled by public transport or have children: young people downloading video content are driving a surge in data usage: there’s much detail here though. Both are well worth the read.

Mentioning Ericsson reminds that the Telegraph recently produced a summary of the 20 best-selling mobile phones of all time – takes you back, with the substantial number once produced by Nokia.

The Royal Society of Medicine has it’s fifth annual medical app conference on April 7th – numbers booked have already well exceeded last year’s sellout so they are expecting to fill this year’s much larger conference venue. The focus this year is on the many legislative, regulatory and voluntary measures being introduced that will impact medical apps – there’s still room for old favourites though, such as Richard Brady’s always-topical (more…)

The Future of Medicine – Technology and the Role of the Doctor in 2025: May 6th

Come to this RSM/IET jointly organised event on May 6th in London for a rare glimpse of what technology may do for the role of the doctor in ten years’ time. We have a fabulous line-up of academics, clinicians and entrepreneurs who are all working on really exciting breakthroughs that will profoundly change the way healthcare is provided over the next ten years.

First off is Prof Ian Kunkler (Consultant Clinical Oncologist & Professor in Clinical Oncology at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre) who will set the scene for the day. He will be followed by Prof Joachim Gross (Chair of Systems Neuroscience, Acting Director of  the Centre  for Cognitive Neuroimaging  and Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator, University of Glasgow) who will be discussing Magnetoencephalopathy (MEG) Signal AnalysisDr David Clifton (Lecturer, Department of Engineering Science & Computational Informatics Group, University of Oxford) will then give a talk on Real-time Patient Monitoring. Finally in this section on Signals, Prof Bill Sandham (Managing Director, Scotsig; Director, Diabetes Technology Research, HCi Viocare; Visiting Professor, University of Strathclyde & Javeriana University, Colombia) will talk on Biosignal Processing and Analysis.

After the break, the subject turns to Imaging, where there will be two speakers (more…)

Early 2015 healthcare events & awards (UK)

The call for abstracts for Sensors in Medicine 2015 closes on 31st December. The event will be held at the Royal Geographic Society, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2AR on 24 – 26 March 2015. More details here.

There is an event entitled Are Telehealth and Telecare the Answer for Older People with Assisted Living Needs? on Tuesday January 13th 2015, 1 to 2.15pm. The venue is Room C143, Tait Building (Accessible through main University Building, Northampton Square, EC1V 0HB). The speaker is Joe Wherton, Senior Research Fellow, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. To book a place please email Doria Pilling: d.s.pilling@city.ac.uk

Entries for the IET’s Healthcare Technologies Student & Early Career Awards close on 16th January. The event takes place on 25th February. More details here.

The Digital Health & Care Alliance (DHACA) (of which this editor is Managing Director) is holding its third Members’ Day in London on 29th January. Members can attend for free. The day will be focused on developing the responses of the nine Special Interest Groups to  the recent NHS paper on Personalised Health & Care to 2020 and on how best to avoid duplicating innovations in the health & care sector (otherwise know as ‘reinventing wheels’). More details and how to book on the new DHACA website (existing members may need to refresh their passwords).

Finally the Royal Society of Medicine’s annual Recent Development in Digital Health 2015 event takes place on February 26th. For the past two years this event, showcasing upcoming healthcare technologies, has been a sellout so early booking here is recommended!

IET Annual Healthcare Awards and Lecture

The IET is kindly offering places at the above to all TTA readers.  The event is happening in London on the 21st November 2013. Mr Douglas Anderson OBE FRSE FRSA, Founder and VP of Global Advocacy, Optos Plc is the keynote speaker for the event, and his talk will focus on that company.  Optos’s ultra-widefield retinal imaging system products are apparently the world’s first capable of detecting a large range of sight and life threatening diseases. The talk will also discuss wider issues of technology development and the need to keep focused on the inherent value proposition.

Book here.