Digital Health offers huge potential for the NHS

Today marks Seventy years of the NHS, arguably the most loved and cherished institution within the UK. Yet in recent years, we have seen the NHS has become a victim of its own success. The innovations within the service are enabling people to live longer, but this has not come without its consequences.

As patients live longer, we see far more complex illnesses, which take longer to treat, and require a large amount of ongoing care once the patient is discharged. The knock-on effect of this is we see higher demand for social care than ever before, with providers struggling to meet the required supply needed to fulfil this ever-increasing demand.

These problems have meant that the political debate around the NHS has never been more toxic, with both main parties fighting over the matters that have caused the current issues, with few debates actually focusing on how we can improve the problems at hand.

The Government has marked the 70th anniversary, with a 10-year funding settlement, promising an extra £20 billion funding, per year, by 2023. This leaves NHS England with a task of great importance, spending this money efficiently and creatively, benefitting the patient directly.

I believe we are entering a really exciting time in healthcare, with the potential digital health and patient data offers. The enhanced ability and levels of digital health technologies, we are beginning to see huge potential for both patients and clinicians. Deploying these technologies in the correct areas and coupling them with more effective uses of patient data could go some way in helping the NHS meet the current demand for its services.

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