Digital technology falling (even) short(er) in NHS nursing: QNI report (UK)

February 9, 2023 | by | 2 Comments

When health tech ‘magic’–isn’t. Roy Lilley and his several times per week newsletter (NHSManagers.net, subscribe here) are really must reads for our UK readers dealing with the foibles of the NHS and NHS Digital. Billions have been poured into digitization of records and equipping district (community) nurses with laptops and access to apps that connect them to patient information. All of which is apparently, a flop for the money spent. 

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) has published a study, Nursing in the Digital Age 2023, via its data gathering and analytics area, the International Community Nursing Observatory (ICNO). It obviously should be microscope-read by NHS Digital, but also by US developers (and in other countries) with clinical users. (Oracle Cerner, Epic, and 00’s of EHRs and workflow apps–take notice).

Mr. Lilley outlines the level of failure here–from his article: 

  • 5 yrs ago; 32.7% reported problems with lack of compatibility between different computer systems… in 2022 the figure had risen to 43.1%.
  • 5 yrs ago; around 85% of respondents reported issues with mobile connectivity… in 2022 this figure was around 87%.
  • 5 yrs ago; 29.5% reported problems with device battery life… in 2022 the figure was almost 53%.

The overall take of the QNI study is that nurses are highly digitally literate and embrace technology at scale, but in practice, the apps and the hardware have become impediments as the workload increases. For non-UK readers, district nurses travel a lot, often working from home–akin to home care or rural nurses in the US. Points from their executive summary:

  • Hardware–battery life, weight of laptop, old laptops, ergonomics not only from weight but also when working in cars. Safety and confidentiality issues lead many nurses to take the work home, leading to delays.
  • Software–connectivity, authentication, multiple platforms, little integration, repetition of data entry, and poor connectivity and software design leading to interrupted workflows.
  • Some scheduling tools cause workload issues, such as over-allocation of work, unmanageable workloads and loss of personal autonomy.
  • Systems design–impersonal, designed to act as a barrier to interacting with patients.
  • Duplicative workload–repetition with dual entry on paper and into platforms because of poor connectivity and software design
  • The use of electronic health records (EHR) and similar platforms was mixed in terms of productivity gains and work capture. 

Another issue: “Moving technology-enabled care (remote monitoring) to the community appears to have shifted work from the hospital to the community”, meaning an increased workload on nurses where specialists or non-nursing staff could do this. 

Mr. Lilley summarizes as a service what both the hardware and software should be accomplishing:

Just ten simple things:

  1. Who is the patient,
  2. where have they come from.
  3. See their record, have they been sick before and…
  4. What we did we do?
  5. Anything in their history that’s a red flag?
  6. What do we do to fix them up this time and…
  7. Record how we did it.
  8. Figure out what worked,
  9. What did it cost and…
  10. Do we want to do it again.

Both Mr. Lilley’s newsletter and the study (PDF) are must reads wherever you live. Especially if you are a software designer.

No wonder nurses are single-day rolling striking!

(He also has an interesting take on ChatGPT, AI for copywriting and reporting, which we will take on next week….) Hat tip to Editor Emeritus Steve.

Week-end news roundup: Fitbit revives with 3 new watches, Sena Health hospital-at-home, SteadyMD surveys telehealth clinicians, 9.4% fewer adult dental visits in England, save the date for ATA 2023

August 25, 2022 | by

Fitbit’s three new wearables–will they revive the brand? Fitbit, now owned by Google, announced the debut of two new smartwatches and one fitness tracker, available now for preorder and shipping in September. Will buyers find them more attractive than their predecessors? From left to right:

Fitbit Inspire 3 upgrades from the predecessor with a color display and similar $99.95 price. Monitors for irregular heartbeat, reminders to move, wakey-wakey alarm, apps, and more.

Fitbit Versa 4 is a thin, light fitness smartwatch with sleep, SpO2 monitoring, GPS, irregular heartbeat, stress, pay hands free, Amazon Alexa, and connects to your smartphone. Four colors, will set you back $229.95.

Fitbit Sense 2 is chunkier with more information and tracking on health and stress than Versa 4 for a higher price at $299.95.

Readers can weigh in on whether these will be attractive, as the Fitbit brand has, over the past two years, almost vanished from the fitness smartwatch consciousness. GearPatrol, Mobihealthnews

New entrant in the developing hospital-to-home service provision area Sena Health is partnering with southern New Jersey’s Salem Medical Center to deliver Salem’s hospital-to-home program. Sena’s capabilities with Salem include up to 23 hospital-level services at home and 24/7 care coordinators. To qualify, patients must have been seen in the ER and evaluated on certain criteria. When cared for at home, they receive two in-person nursing visits daily and can connect with a dedicated clinical team if needed. Hospital-to-home is being trialed all over the country and is considered to be ‘hot’, but at this point is not all that widespread. HealthcareITNews. 

SteadyMD conducted a survey among a group of potential workers for their telehealth care team, among 1,700 clinicians: doctors (35%), nurse practitioners (52%), and therapists (12%). Some interesting findings such as:

  • Experienced (10 years +) doctors and therapists are most interested in telehealth practice, with nurse-practitioners (NPs) less so
  • Flexible schedules and working from home are the main attractions
  • Night shifts are attractive to 86% of therapists. Doctors and therapists average about 60%. But the latter two are far more interested in weekend work–not the therapists.
  • Telehealth as a full time delivery of care goes between 50 and 69% for each. Clinicians want more hours if the arrangement is part-time.

SteadyMD is a telehealth infrastructure provider that works with healthcare organizations, labs and diagnostics companies in 50 US states.

Something that can’t be delivered by telehealth except for diagnosis is your annual dental visit and treatments, and it’s down 9.5% in England, based on a report published by NHS Digital. The tracking of NHS adult dental visits covers the 24 months prior to June 2022 compared to the 24 months prior to June 2021. When compared to the 24 months up to June 2019, the reduction is 25.3%. Since dental practices closed except for emergency care due to Covid in March of 2020, there is an overlap in the numbers. They do indicate that dental treatments have not recovered in volume from before the pandemic. One good sign is that child dental treatment has strongly rebounded, up 42.1% in the 12 months prior to June 2022 versus up to June 2021, but still down over 20% compared to the 12 months prior to June 2019. Regional data is included in the NHS Digital report (link above).

The American Telemedicine Association announced its 2023 ATA annual conference will be in San Antonio, 5-7 March 2023. More information on “From Now What? to How To! The Vision and Realities of Telehealth Adoption” already is up on their website here.

NHS Digital trialling Wireless Center of Excellence–in face of ‘crisis’ level staffing shortages

August 4, 2022 | by

NHS Digital has just closed a solicitation for organizations to demonstrate how wireless technologies can improve health and care services. This trial series, the Wireless Centre of Excellence, is in the process of being reviewed by NHS Digital and interviews will be set up with qualifying organizations. The trials fund wireless technologies that improve connectivity in health and care settings.

The Wireless Centre of Excellence appears to be the latest trial in a NHS Digital series. The current trial is University College London Hospitals’ Find & Treat service using 5G and low Earth orbit satellites to enable front-line screening services for tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis B and C to homeless people, individuals with drug or alcohol dependencies, vulnerable migrants and people who have been in prison. Another trial made South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust the first 5G-connected hospital in the UK. NHS Digital hopes that these wireless products can be a UK export adopted by other healthcare systems. There is more on NHS Digital’s efforts in wireless tech in Healthcare IT News, along with additional UK/NHS news (below)

Staff shortages power wireless innovation. A good part of the impetus for wireless technologies is contained in a recent cross-party MP report that states that NHS England is now short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives, in a ‘crisis’ not seen since, well, ever. Both threaten patient safety and aggravate wait times. NHS Digital is trying to present an alternative using wireless to cut time to treatment and to reach patients the way they want faster. While NHS England is drawing up long-term plans to recruit more staff, the current shortage comes from clinical burnout and pay that has not kept up with inflation–not that different than the US, particularly in primary care and psychiatry. According to BBC reports, half of nurses are being recruited ex-UK. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have similar staffing pressures. BBC News

Additional UK news from Healthcare IT News:

  • Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Elsevier entered into a three-year partnership. Elsevier’s Care Planning solution will be integrated within the trust’s EHR.
  • The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published plans to strengthen the regulation of medical devices to improve patient safety and encourage innovation in five areas, taking advantage of Britain’s exit from the EU.
  • HelloSelf, a digital therapeutics startup, is partnering with Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust to refer patients to its therapy and coaching platform.

NHS Digital roundup: £200M allocated for research, COVID-19/cancer cross-research using the new Trusted Research Environment (TRE)

March 18, 2022 | by

NHS Digital has awakened with recent news around funding and research using data in the new Trusted Research Environment (TRE).

  • Of the government’s commitment of £260 million for life sciences manufacturing and health research, £200 million will go toward research into diagnostics and treatment. The NHS data will be deployed through Trusted Research Environments (TRE) and digital clinical trial services, with the intent that the data will be made available to researchers faster and more securely. Of the remaining funding of £60 million, it will be distributed through the new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF). The committing agencies are the Departments for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Health and Social Care (DHSC). Release
  • The TRE provides approved researchers from trusted organizations with timely and secure access to health and care data. According to NHS Digital’s information page, the TRE is a “secure data platform with the analytical and statistical tools to support researchers in conducting their work. Their findings can then be exported safely, ensuring the formats and analyses are approved and sent to authorised users.”
  • The first new TRE project announced is a cross-research project to discover the impact of COVID on cancer patients and services with DATA-CAN, the UK’s Health Data Research Hub for Cancer, curated by NHS Digital’s National Disease Registration Service. The TRE datasets have de-identified data that is available for analysis without being downloaded, which secures data for analysis and research. NHS release

Weekend reading: 1/3 of global healthcare orgs ransomwared, 50%+ mobile privacy problems–BMJ study, med device insecurity

June 25, 2021 | by

Weekend reading to make you feel insecure, indeed. Healthcare continues to be one of the most vulnerable sectors to hacking, breaches, ransomware. (It likely was one of the top 5 on the list handed to Mr. Putin in Geneva a week ago.) It doesn’t help that many organizations from providers to payers, legacy devices to apps, figuratively have a ‘Welcome Hackers’ neon sign on their doors, virtual and otherwise.

Three articles from the always interesting Healthcare Dive, two by Rebecca Pifer and the third by veteran Greg Slobodkin, will give our Readers a quick and unsettling overview:

  • According to cybersecurity company Sophos in their 16-page report, 2020 was an annus horribilis for healthcare organizations and ransomware, with 34 percent suffering a ransomware attack, 65 percent confirming the attacks encrypted their data, but only 69 percent reported that the encrypted data was restored after the ransom was paid. Costs were upward of $1 million. Their conclusion: assume you will be hit, and at least three backups. Dive 24 June
  • The BMJ found that lax or no privacy policies were a key problem with over half of mobile health apps. 23 percent of user data transmissions occurred on insecure communication protocols and 28.1 percent of apps provided no privacy policies. There’s a lot to unpack in the BMJ study by the Macquarie University (Sydney) team. Our long-time Readers will recall our articles about insecure smartphone apps dating back to 2013 with Charles Lowe’s article here as an example. Dive 16 June
  • Old medical devices, continuing vulnerability that can’t be fixed. Yes, fully functioning and legacy medical devices, often costing beaucoup bucks, are shockingly running on Windows 98 (!), Windows XP, outdated software, and manufacturers’ passwords. It’s hard to believe that Dive is writing about this as it’s been an issue this Editor’s written about since (drumroll) 2013 when TTA picked up on BBC and other reports of ‘murderous defibrillators and pacemakers’. If too far back, try 2015 with Kevin Fu’s and Ponemon’s warnings then to ‘wash their hands’ of these systems even if they’re still working. Chris Gates quoted in the article: “You can’t always bolt-on security after the fact, especially with a legacy piece of equipment — I’ve literally handed checks back to clients and told them there’s no fixing this.” Dive 23 June

What to do?

  • If you are a healthcare organization, think security first. Other organizations in finance and BPO do, locking down to excruciating points. And yes, you’ll have to pay a premium for the best IT security people, up your budgets, and lower your bureaucracy to attract them. Payers are extremely vulnerable with their wealth of PHI and PII, yet tend to skimp here.
  • Consider bringing in all your IT teams to your home country and not offshoring. Much of the hacking occurs overseas where it’s tougher to secure servers and the cloud reliably and fully.
  • Pay for regular and full probes and audits done by outside experts.
  • If you supply a mobile app–design with security and privacy first, from the phone or device to the cloud or server, including data sharing. There are companies that can assist you with this. One example is Blue Cedar, but there are others.
  • If you supply hardware and software for medical devices, think updates, patches, and tracking every bit you sell to make sure your customers do what they need to do. Even if your customer is a past one.

(Side message to NHS Digital–don’t rush your GPDPR upload to the summer holidays. Make it fourth quarter. Your GPs will thank you.)

Suggestions from our Readers wanted! While your Editor has been covering security issues since early days here, she is not an expert, programmer, or developer, nor has stayed at a Holiday Inn Express lately.

GPDPR update: GPs must set own patient opt-out date prior to 1 September extraction (updated for ‘Data Saves Lives’)

June 24, 2021 | by

(Editor’s Note: Read till the end for Roy Lilley’s take on data and the NHS Bureaucracy. “Bureaucracy… creates delays, duplication, interfaces and costs lives.)

Is it 25 August–or earlier? Well, it depends… NHS Digital has informed GPs that, contrary to a prior announcement, the deadline for submitting those who wish to opt out of the General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) database must be set by the GP practice, and is not 25 August. The deadline for the mass extraction remains 1 September. This puts practices into a dilemma–informing patients of their right to opt-out. setting a date for staff to process the forms, and processing the hard copy forms in time for the 1 September extraction. (And right during summer holiday time with the bank holiday on 30 August)

For patients wishing to opt-out, they must submit a type-1 opt-out form (a Word document) and send it to their GP practice via mail or email by the deadline which then submits with the data collection. If a patient wishes to opt-out after, it’s permitted but any data before the opt-out date will be collected. The National Data Opt-Out does not apply to the GPDPR. 

According to the 22 June update in Pulse,

The BMA GP Committee’s latest newsletter quoted IT lead Dr Farah Jameel as saying: ‘The public needs a clear deadline by which they can opt out, alongside clear instructions on how to do this if they so wish.

‘We have been urging the government and NHS Digital to consider making the process of opting out simpler, and in effect remove any additional burden [that] large volumes of Type 1 opt-outs could place on already under-pressure general practice.

‘We urge NHS Digital to clarify this with both the public and practices.’

Another GP from Bristol is quoted as pointing out that most opt-outs will be received last minute, jamming the practices.

In addition, each GP practice has more work to do before the extraction–a data protection impact assessment (DPIA).

The problems of patient awareness, particularly during the summer, obtaining the form, and submitting it in time remain. So, what’s the rush? This Editor closes once again with the thought that the fourth quarter would be far better timing both for the surgeries and NHS Digital.

Our prior coverage 11 June and 2 June.

Addendum: Roy Lilley’s eLetter on ‘Data Saves Lives’ (draft publication here) is a Must Read. It is a most interesting take on how the NHS is botching the opportunities around health data by drowning it in bureaucracy. The latest example is a draft document titled ‘Data Saves Lives’. A course in obfuscation where even a casual look will reveal its true awfulness. Mr. Lilley has counted 96 commitments, 10 new organizations, and six major pieces of legislation. “It is bad, bad, bad and a perfect example of why the NHS’ relationship with the IT sector is so bad.” The GPDPR gets one–one–mention in this document. Sounds like some imports from the US Congress wrote it! In any case, if you’re in UK healthcare, you should be subscribing to this free eLetter. ‘Data Saves Lives’ NHS news release may go down easier

NHS Digital GPDPR medical database plans criticized by Royal College of GPs, privacy advocates (updated 8 June)

June 2, 2021 | by | 2 Comments

What our UK Readers may have missed on the long bank holiday weekend. And why this matters outside the UK.  NHS Digital is being roundly criticized by privacy advocates, the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), and individual GP surgeries on plans for creation of the General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR).

The GPDPR will compile information on 55 million patients–every patient in England registered with a GP surgery–into a database available to academic and commercial third parties for research and planning purposes. NHS has been collecting patient data on patients in a database, the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES), for the past decade. The GPDPR will replace it. Data collection on patients in England starts 1 July. What will be collected is at the end of this article as background.

The objections center on the sensitivity of the data, the short window of notification to patients, the lack of a clearly notified opt-out with sufficient time, and how it will be used.

  • The data apparently can include mental and sexual health data, criminal records (!), and other sensitive information. 
  • The short time–six weeks–between the announcement in late April (a low key affair with Matt Hancock-signed blog posts on the NHS Digital website, YouTube videos, and flyers at GP surgeries), and the start of data collection from the surgeries
  • How many patients are actually aware that this is happening and of their options is debatable. (See next two bullets)
    • If a patient didn’t pick up on it in the six-week window ending on 23 June (and go to the page with the Type 1 Opt-Out), a patient can opt out for data going forward, but cannot withdraw any data collected into the database prior to that date.
    • If a patient is in the National Data Opt-out program, their medical data will be collected anyway, since it applies to only identifiable and confidential patient information.
  • Many GPs are concerned about further erosion of the physician-patient relationship and the lack of communication to patients on how the data will be used, the ethical questions around the organizations to which it will be sold, and how patient privacy will be preserved.

The blackest mark here on NHS Digital is that the groups ostensibly involved in the development of the database–the RCGP and the British Medical Association (BMA)–are the ones sounding the alarm, along with the aforementioned DAUK and privacy groups such as MedConfidential and Foxglove. There is also a rebellion starting among London GPs. Reportedly, 36 doctors’ surgeries in Tower Hamlets, east London, will withhold data. An email is circulating to about 100 surgeries in north London questioning the legitimacy of the NHS data collection. This is despite penalties if they don’t submit.

Why does this matter if you’re not in England? Medical data–collecting, manipulating it, connecting it, finding insights, and selling it–is the Gold Rush of the 2020s. Pharma and payers as markets are just the start. Nearly every Roundup or deal this Editor covers has companies with a chunk of this gold rush. Why are telehealth companies worth their IPO/SPAC/funding prices? Why is McKesson ‘big banging’ four separate businesses into one division? Why do we follow ‘data warehouses’ like Sensyne [TTA 26 May],  Mayo Clinic’s big bet on a multi-line Remote Diagnostics and Management Platform [TTA 23 Apr], and virtual pharmacies like Capsule?  Why are insurtechs like Oscar and Bright Health hot? Why is it the #1 target of hackers?

It’s not altruistic. Services can be duplicated. Companies can be a hair away from failure. But ah, their data…the data has huge market value, even if its potential is not fully understood yet. Ask any data analytics person. Ask China, probably the most aggressive nation in collecting the health and personal data of its citizens, with Chinese capital for years now leading investment in global health tech companies.

In an article back in October 2015, this Editor described the many ways that deidentified patient data, in this case genomic data, can be identified by researchers through cross-checking via research database “beacons”, a network of servers. Referring to the 23andme and Ancestry.com collection of innocently given genomic data from consumers, this Editor proposed a Genomic Bill of Rights in 2018 and again in 2020. If this Editor, no data geek, can deduce it (hat tip to Toni Bunting back in 2015), this information has to be well known to researchers and to privacy advocates.

The controversy is just starting to ramp up. And it should. It’s about time there was a reckoning. The Guardian 30 May, 1 June

More background. According to the NHS Digital page on the GPDPR, patients will be anonymized by a process where de-identification software will replace their NHS Number, date of birth, and full postcode with unique codes produced by de-identification software. The data collected from GPs in England starting 1 July will be on: (more…)

Breaking: NHS Digital appoints Simon Bolton interim CEO

April 29, 2021 | by

Breaking News: NHS Digital announced today the appointment of Simon Bolton, currently chief information officer of Test and Trace, as interim chief executive officer effective on 4 June. He will be replacing Sarah Wilkinson, who was CEO since August 2017 and resigned on 26 March [TTA 26 Mar]. The NHS Digital release confirms her departure as of June and that the two will be working ahead of time to effect the transition.

NHS Digital provides and supervises information, data, and IT systems for the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Mr. Bolton was the former CIO of Jaguar Land Rover and joined Test and Trace last August. His LinkedIn profile also includes CIO and senior IT positions at Rolls-Royce and AkzoNobel. He holds a board position at Tech Partnership Degrees and is an independent governor of the University of Derby.

The NHS Digital Board will be conducting an open competition to recruit for the role on a permanent basis later this year. 

Breaking: Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of NHS Digital, resigns, to depart by summer

March 26, 2021 | by

Breaking News. NHS Digital announced Friday afternoon (UK time) that Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of NHS Digital since August 2017, has resigned and will be departing her post this summer. The rationale given in the release is to carry forward the work of NHS Digital after the COVID pandemic:

“As the work associated with the pandemic starts to stabilise, and planning commences for the ambitious program of transformation over the next few years, I have come to the conclusion that it would be better for a new CEO to step into the role now so that they can provide continuous leadership over the programs of that post-Covid agenda, and now is an appropriate time for me to leave the organisation. That new CEO will be able to build upon strong foundations in an organisation that knows what it can do, and I will work closely with them to ensure a smooth transition to new leadership for our programmes, products, and people.”

NHS Digital is seeking an interim CEO to transition the position from Ms. Wilkinson. The NHS Digital Board will start the open search for candidates to permanently fill the position later this year. NHS Digital provides and supervises information, data, and IT systems for the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Ms. Wilkinson came to NHS Digital from the chief information officer (CIO) position at the Home Office (2015-2017) and previously from the banking sector with technology titles at Credit Suisse, HSBC, and UBS. Her board positions include NatWest Markets and King’s College London.

Certainly more to come from this!

News, moves and M&A roundup: Appello acquires RedAssure, Shaw departs NHS Digital, NHS App goes biometric, GP at Hand in Manchester, Verita Singapore’s three startup buys, Novant Health and Tyto Care partner

October 17, 2019 | by

Appello telecare acquires RedAssure Independent Living from Worthing Homes. A 20-year provider of telecare services to about 700 homes in the Worthing area in West Sussex, the acquisition by Appello closed on 1 October. Previously, Appello provided monitoring services for RedAssure since 2010. Terms were not disclosed. Release.

Another NHS Digital departure is Rob Shaw, deputy CEO. He will be leaving to pursue a consulting career advising foreign governments on national health and care infrastructure. He is credited with moving the NHS Spine in-house and establishing NHS Digital’s cybersecurity function. The Digital Health article times it for around Christmas. Mr. Shaw’s departure follows other high-profile executives this year such as former chief digital officer Juliet Bauer who controversially moved to Kry/LIVI after penning a glowing article about them [TTA 24 Jan], Will Smart, Matthew Swindells, and Richard Corbridge.

One initiative that NHS Digital has lately implemented is passwordless, biometric facial or fingerprint-based log in for the NHS App, based on the FIDO (Fast-Identity Online) UAF (Universal Authentication Framework) protocol (whew!). NHS Digital’s most recent related announcement is the release of two pieces of code under open-source that will allow developers to include biometric verification for log in into their products.

Babylon Health’s GP at Hand plans Manchester expansion. The formal notification will likely be this month to commissioners of plans to open a Manchester clinic as a center for GP at Hand’s primarily virtual consults. This follows on their recent expansion into Birmingham via Hammersmith and Fulham CCG which will be notified. How it will work is that patients registering in Manchester would be added initially to a single patient list for GP at Hand located at Hammersmith and Fulham CCG. Babylon is now totalling 60,000 patients through GP at Hand.  GP Online

Singapore’s Verita Healthcare Group has acquired three digital health startups. The two from Singapore are nBuddy and CelliHealth, in addition to Germany’s Hanako. Verita has operations in Singapore, the US, Asia-Pacific and Europe, with 35 alliance partnerships with medical clinics and hospitals across Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe. Mobihealthnews APAC

Novant Health, a 640-location health system in North Carolina, is introducing Tyto Care’s TytoHome integrated telehealth diagnostic and consult device as part of its network service. Webpage, release

RSM’s Medical apps: mainstreaming innovation with Matt Hancock

February 28, 2019 | by

This event on 4 April run by the Royal Society of Medicine’s Digital Health Section continues the successful series started by this editor (now no longer involved) seven years ago. It will examine the growing role that apps are playing in healthcare delivery.

Join colleagues to hear renowned speakers, including the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, discuss the current and future part apps can play in the NHS and broader healthcare industry. We will hear Wendy Clarke, executive director at NHS Digital talk about the new NHS app. As apps move from concept to pilot to practice, demonstrating efficacy becomes increasingly important, so will be looking at how we can best assess clinical effectiveness. It is well recognised that poorly designed software can hamper rather than enhance healthcare. Matt Edgar Head of design for NHS Digital will talk of the importance of good design in medical apps, and how it can improve patient and clinician experience. The use of cutting edge technology in healthcare necessarily opens new regulatory and legal issues. We are pleased to have our legal counsel, Julian Hitchcock back to share his experience with this, with a particular focus on the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. We will also be examining the importance of interoperability, as medical apps become more mainstream, and how to make this happen. We have some presentations, too, from new and established medical start-ups, showcasing the transformative effects these new technologies can have. Finally, we will take a look at what the future may hold with futurologist Lewis Richards, Chief Digital Officer of Servest.

Aims:

This meeting aims to: 

  • Encourage clinicians to consider medical apps when deciding on an appropriate intervention
  • Aid understanding of the medicolegal issues around medical app use
  • Reduce the fear, uncertainty and doubt about the use of medical apps

Objectives:

By the end of this meeting, delegates will be able to,

  • Have an understanding of the current state of the art of medical apps
  • Explain the latest position on regulation and endorsement of medical apps
  • Have an appreciation of how to assess the clinical effectiveness of medical apps. 

Book here – best to book soon too, as currently the RSM has not allocated the largest lecture theatre to the event so it will almost certainly sell out.

News roundup: FCC RPM/telehealth push, NHS EHR coding breach, unstructured data in geriatric diagnosis, Cerner-Lumeris, NHS funds social care, hospital RFID uses

July 13, 2018 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Lasso.jpg” thumb_width=”125″ /]FCC backs post-discharge RPM plan. The “Connected Care Pilot Program” proposed by FCC commissioner Brendan Carr would provide $100 million for subsidies to hospitals or wireless providers running post-discharge remote monitoring programs for low-income and rural Americans such as those run by the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The goal is to lower readmissions and improve patient outcomes. The proposal still needs to be formalized so it would be 2019 at earliest. POLITICO Morning eHealth, Clarion-Ledger, Mobihealthnews

NHS Digital’s 150,000 patient data breach originated in a coding error in the SystmOne EHR used by GPs. Through the error by TPP, SystmOne did not recognize the “type 2 opt-out” for use of individual data in clinical research and planning purposes. This affected records after 31 March 2015. This breach also affects vendors which received the data, albeit unknowingly, but the duration of the breach makes it hard to put the genie back in the bottle, which NHS Digital would like to do. Inforisktoday, NHS Digital release

Unstructured data in EHRs more valuable than structured data in older adult patient health. A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society compared the number of geriatric syndrome cases identified using structured claims and structured and unstructured EHR data, finding that the unstructured data was needed to properly identify geriatric syndrome. Over 18,000 patients’ unstructured EHR notes were analyzed using a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm.

Cerner buying a share in population health/value-based care management company Lumeris through purchasing $266 million in stock in Lumeris parent Essence Group Holdings. The angle is data crunching to improve outcomes for patients in Medicare Advantage and other value-based plans. Lumeris also operates Essence Healthcare, a Medicare Advantage plan with 65,000 beneficiaries in Missouri. Fierce Healthcare

NHS Digital awarding £240,000 for investigating social care transformation through technology. The Social Care Digital Innovation Programme in 12 councils will be managed by both NHS and the Local Government Association (LGA). Projects to be funded span from assistive technologies to predictive analytics. Six winners from the original group of 12 after three months will be awarded up to a further £80,000 each to design and implement their solutions. New Statesman

Curious about RFID in use in healthcare, other than in asset management, access, and log in? Contactless payments is one area. As this is the first of four articles, you’ll have to follow up in Healthcare IT News

WannaCry’s anniversary: have we learned our malware and cybersecurity lessons?

May 16, 2018 | by

Hard to believe that WannaCry, and the damage this malware wreaked worldwide, was but a year ago. Two months later, there was Petya/NotPetya. We’ve had hacking and ransomware eruptions regularly, the latest being the slo-mo malware devised by the Orangeworm hackers. What WannaCry and Petya/NotPetya had in common, besides cyberdamage, was they were developed by state actors or hackers with state support (North Korea and–suspected–Russia and/or Ukraine).

The NHS managed to evade Petya, which was fortunate as they were still repairing damage from WannaCry, which initially was reported to affect 20 percent of NHS England trusts. The final count was 34 percent of trusts–at least 80 out of 236 hospital trusts in England, as well as 603 primary care practices and affiliates. 

Has the NHS learned its lesson, or is it still vulnerable? A National Audit Office report concluded in late October that the Department of Health and the NHS were warned at least a year in advance of the risk.  “It was a relatively unsophisticated attack and could have been prevented by the NHS following basic IT security best practice.” There was no mechanism in place for ensuring migration of Windows XP systems and old software, requested by April 2015, actually happened. Another basic–firewalls facing the internet–weren’t actively managed. Worse, there was no test or rehearsal for a cyberdisruption. “As the NHS had not rehearsed for a national cyber attack it was not immediately clear who should lead the response and there were problems with communications.” NHS Digital was especially sluggish in response, receiving first reports around noon but not issuing an alert till 5pm. It was fortunate that WannaCry had a kill switch, and it was found as quickly as it was by a British security specialist with the handle Malware Tech. 

Tests run since WannaCry have proven uneven at best. While there has been reported improvement, even head of IT audit and security services at West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust and a penetration tester for NHS trusts, said that they were “still finding some real shockers out there still.” NHS Digital deputy CEO Rob Shaw told a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in February that 200 NHS trusts tested against cyber security standards had failed. MPs criticized the NHS and the Department of Health for not implementing 22 recommendations laid out by NHS England’s CIO, Will Smart. Digital Health News

Think ‘cyber-resilience’. It’s not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. Healthcare organizations are never going to fix all the legacy systems that run their world. Medical devices and IoT add-ons will continue to run on outdated or never-updated platforms. Passwords are shared, initial passwords not changed in EHRs. Add to firewalls, prevention measures, emphasizing compliance and best practices, security cyber-resilience–more than a recovery plan, planning to keep operations running with warm backups ready to go, contingency plans, a way to make quick decisions on the main functions that keep the business going. Are healthcare organizations–and the NHS–capable of thinking and acting this way? WannaBet? CSO, Healthcare IT News. Hat tip to Joseph Tomaino of Grassi Healthcare Advisors via LinkedIn.

UK roundup: CCIO Simon Eccles warns against ‘shiny objects’, NHS Liverpool CCG award to Docobo, 87% concerned with NHS info security

February 23, 2018 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Lasso.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]NHS Digital CCIO doesn’t like ‘shiny objects’. Dr. Simon Eccles used his first NHS Digital board meeting as national CCIO to encourage delivering the current agenda first and not getting distracted by the ‘shiny objects’ of new innovations which also divert funding. “It is our collective challenge to make sure that doesn’t happen to things that are valued by the NHS – to do what we said we’d do and not be too distracted by new and shiny things.” This seems to be at odds with non-executive director Daniel Benton, who “suggested that NHS Digital needed to become more flexible as an organisation so that it was in a better position to roll with the punches in future.” Digital Health News

Docobo announced their win of the NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group‘s scale up of telehealth as part of the Healthy Liverpool program. The three to five-year contract has a maximum value of £11.5 million. The current Mi Programme (More Independent) partly funded by the Innovate UK dallas initiative and using Philips equipment is at 900 patients with 5,300 total patients since 2013. The plan is to scale up the program to 4-5,000 patients a year and support new clinical pathways and conditions including lung conditions, heart failure, and diabetes. Docobo’s platform is Doc@Home which uses patient information from the CarePortal device or their own digital devices. Docobo release. NHS Innovation Accelerator, Digital Health News

A survey of 500 British adults conducted by UK IT VAR Proband found that perceptions of public sector information security are poor. 87 percent were concerned about the security of their information with the NHS. Of that 87 percent, 34 percent were ‘very concerned’ about their cybersecurity. Taking this with a grain of salt, 80 percent distrusted security at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and 78 percent on data held by the police. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can’t come too soon [TTA 17 Feb] — but are you ready? More in Proband’s Online Security Audit (PDF).

Tender Alert: NHS England, London South Bank, Univ. of Leeds, NHS Digital, Halifax, Healthy New Towns

December 12, 2017 | by

We have a specially wrapped and large present from Susanne Woodman, our Eye on Tenders. Some are high value, all have short deadlines, so read up!

  • NHS England: This is through the NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit and is for a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for the procurement of online consultation systems. It is for a little over two years starting January 2018 and valued at £45 million. Closing is 29 December. Details at Gov.UK.
  • London South Bank University: This is for a Summative Assessment (Evaluation) of Simulation for Digital Health (SimDH). This would result in three reports to delivered electronically to be reviewed by the project team (LSBU) and project funders (GLA & ERDF). This is deadlined on Thursday 14 December, but an inquiry on this might invite further dialogue. Value is £13k. Gov.UK
  • University of Leeds: This is for an app specification and design, to engage participants in clinical trials, to thank and build relationships with these 600,000+ people in the UK. Again, an early close of 20 December, valued at £100k – £500k. Gov.UK
  • NHS Digital: The De-identification Project will implement a strategic approach to de-identifying data flowing into or out of NHS Digital or requiring linkage with NHS Digital data. Status is ‘open early engagement’ which means they are judging interest from potential suppliers. Another early closing of 18 December. Gov.UK
  • Borough of Calderdale, Halifax: Seeking provision of a community alarm and mobile response service; comprising of a community alarm – call monitoring centre, mobile response, and the installation of various pieces of assistive technology, carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors. The contract is for 36 months with extension up to 24 months. Value excluding VAT: £2,250, 000. Deadline is 10 January 2018. TED
  • NHS England–Healthy New Towns: This program is to support a vision of healthcare in a Healthy New Town. Responses should include: rationale for system transformation, key challenges and priorities for the healthcare sector, barriers to implementation and overcoming them, and the role of the Healthy New Towns programme in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View and Business Plan. This NHS England link may not work, so see attached PDF for requirements (thanks Susanne!). Deadline is 19 January 2018. Here’s more on it: 

    • As set out in the Specification of Requirements, the desired outcomes of the Healthy New Towns programme and the guidance are that: (A) Neighbourhoods, town and cities built in England after 2019 have:
      • populations with reduced levels of preventable disease;
      • communities with improved health and wellbeing; and
      • health and social care provision that is more effective and better for users
      (B) The guidance that this commission helps deliver has played a major role in achieving the above, because:
      • the guide and the process of developing it have built momentum and support; and
      • the guide collates good practice and shares it in a compelling, highly useable way.

      In a context of pressure on the NHS caused by preventable disease and changing demographics, how, in your role as New Care Models support partner for the Healthy New Towns programme, will you help us achieve these outcomes?

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

November 1, 2017 | by

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…)