Embracing digital health to improve outcomes

Digital health technologies are increasingly being implemented to support healthcare delivery, identify unmet needs, measure outcomes and shape services. As the Secretary of State, Matt Hancock, commented at the start of 2020: “Better technology is vital to have, and embracing it is the only way to make the NHS sustainable over the long term.”

However, what he could not have predicted, when he issued this proclamation, was just how quickly digital health would advance within the NHS in a very short space of time. As the UK has battled with coronavirus, the adoption of digital technologies has accelerated at a previously unimaginable pace – from telehealth and remote monitoring, to technology to help identify new groups of people who may be at high risk from COVID-19. Many stories have emerged from Trusts of rapid digital technology adoption, in some instances advancing in four months what would normally take four years.¹

With 12,900 employees, digital health is UK health tech’s largest sub-sector employer, turning over £1.7bn, with 63% of businesses formed in the last 10 years.² These technologies encompass a wide variety of tools, all underpinned by how data is collected, aggregated, analysed and acted upon. A key need is the availability of this data to enable improved outcomes.