Julian David
CEO, techUK
During COVID-19, at such an unprecedented time, technology companies have stepped up to support the health and care sector and help in the battle against the virus.
In a recent speech, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, said: “During our response to this pandemic, we have had a weapon in our armoury that previous generations simply did not possess: the incredible emerging technologies that have spurred so much innovation in healthcare.” The last year has seen major developments in how the health and care sector use digital technology, showing that digital health has never been more important.
Digital health has helped us to adapt at pace
A lot of progress was made possible through the use of remote monitoring, which has proven to be a vital tool in the fight against COVID-19. With vulnerable patients needing to shield at the height of the crisis, smart devices, portals, dashboards and other technologies have supported clinicians to monitor their patients’ conditions remotely and spot any signs of deterioration.
Remote monitoring shouldn’t end when the pandemic is over, but rather it should be further implemented to continue to improve patients’ access and lives.
There are of course a number of successful companies active in this space who have seen a dramatic increase in demand for their services over the past year. They have had to quickly scale their solutions, at a pace not thought possible before the pandemic broke the rules on the speed of digital transformation in the NHS.
As we move forward, we must take the learnings from the past year and apply them to build the future we need for our health and care system.
Remote monitoring is here to stay
Remote monitoring shouldn’t end when the pandemic is over, but rather it should be further implemented to continue to improve patients’ access and lives.
At techUK, our Health and Social Care team has just published our Ten Point Plan for Healthtech. It’s a new report that outlines a set of recommendations for how we can build on this collaboration to improve outcomes for citizens leveraging the use of digital technologies, such as remote monitoring. Now, we need to apply these recommendations.
In a recent blog, Melanie Martin, Physiotherapist, Clinical Advisor at NHSX and Topol Fellow, wrote: “Remote monitoring really is the future of the NHS.” We would wholeheartedly agree.
The full report is available at techUK.org
