Previously, we explored how data sharing will help ICSs to level up their care. We looked at how improving collaboration and proliferating best practice will ensure all individuals – regardless of their circumstances – can access the highest quality services. Now, we’ll look at the role of technology in underpinning collaboration and in driving more joined-up, effective care.

Capitalising on collaboration

Do you remember when health and care providers were strongly encouraged to compete with each other for business? Anyone in the NHS will appreciate this was at best a double-edged sword. Competition incentivises individual provider organisations to improve their services and gives patients more choice. However, it can also lead to poor coordination, duplication of effort and wasted resources. Striking a balance is key.

Collaboration has been a priority for the NHS since the Five Year Forward View was published in 2014. It was also underlined more recently in The Long Term Plan. But COVID-19 threw it into sharp relief. With unprecedented demand—and limited finances—siloed competition was no longer a viable option. The sheer scale of the task called for a collective response. Health and care providers shifted their focus towards more collaboration. Leveraging technology at the same time to facilitate collaboration and improve outcomes for local communities.

Louise Robson, Chief Executive Lead for Provider Collaboration across the North of England, puts it best:

“The collaborative response of trusts working together to deal with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 gave a tantalising glimpse of the potential achievements that could be realised by working at scale.”

COVID-19 is just one of the many challenges the NHS has been facing lately. But it has shown that successfully levelling up communities is without doubt a shared endeavour.

Levelling up begins with integration

This is where Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) come in. They bring together NHS, local councils and voluntary organisations, as well as wider delivery partners. ICSs seek to unlock the full potential of collaboration and provide better services to all. Early signs are promising. According to a survey by the NHS Confederation: “90 percent of system leaders believe they have been able to improve joint working quite or very effectively.”

ICSs are not a silver bullet, though. There is significant variance between different areas and complex relationships to negotiate. Many regions, such as the South East, have large numbers of NHS providers and multiple local authorities. They all must find ways to work together effectively. As the NHS Confederation notes: “Ultimately the success of systems (as with many healthcare reforms) will rely most on the kind of culture that develops between partners.”

Technology drives collaboration

How can health and care providers establish clear lines of communication, responsibility and accountability, both within and between each ICS? And, crucially, how can they provide the kind of care that truly levels up communities?

There remains much to work out, but one thing is certain: Technology will be essential.

Microsoft was proud to support health and care providers during COVID-19. Microsoft Teams, in particular, proved invaluable. By enabling collaborative and remote working, we helped staff to improve safety and productivity. They were able to deliver essential services to the people who needed them the most.

Collaboration allows the care team to optimise resources and solve problems together. But there are many other ways in which technology can help health and care professionals to work together more effectively.

For instance, patient monitoring, supported by Internet of Things (IoT) devices and analytics, ensures that staff are aware of their patients’ needs, and can coordinate and escalate their involvement accordingly. When organised into virtual wards, these technologies allow staff to deliver safe, effective and efficient care while allowing patients to remain in the comfort of their own homes.

But the value of technology extends beyond any one service. It’s a cultural enabler. By promoting a sense of belonging to a single organisation, ICSs can realise their vision of collective leadership and joined up care.

In this spirit of collaboration, ICSs can share their insights on the use of technology to help level up other ICSs. For example, the latest best practice developed in South West London ICS can be quickly translated across all London ICSs and beyond. In this way, whole regions—indeed, the whole nation—can improve their care.

From survival mode to sustainable modernisation

Microsoft played a vital role during COVID-19. And we’re committed to continue supporting your organisation to transform quickly in an agile, collaborative and people-focussed way.

Truly integrated care can only happen when health and care organisations can collaborate seamlessly. As a strategic partner, we can help you pursue long-term transformation. One based on integration and collaboration. And one that puts people at the centre of everything you do.

Find out more

Data-led foundation for unrivalled patient care

About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post Part 2: The role of technology in helping communities to level up appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

What does levelling up actually mean? In the health and care context, the term means better services and better care for all. It ensures all communities can access the very best services. Also, it makes sure no individuals, or individual segments of the population are left behind.

The challenges

The last couple of years has not made levelling up easy. Health and care providers have performed against the odds during a time of unprecedented demand. However, there is now an extra burden to an overstretched and under resourced workforce. With over 6 million people waiting for treatment, the NHS now faces its highest backlog on record. Halfway through last year, more than 300,000 people were estimated to have missed urgent cancer screenings in England alone.

Meanwhile, the full impact of COVID-19 is still unfolding. For example, according to research commissioned by NHS England, COVID-19 could trigger increased demand for mental health services, rising by 40 percent for adults and 60 percent for children and adolescents.

In recognition of the extra challenges caused by COVID-19, the NHS is spending £30 billion across England to clear the backlog of treatment. At the same time, the health service is working on the wider task at hand. This includes addressing systemic challenges and reform. As the NHS Confederation put it:

“The lesson from the 2000s is that only when far-reaching reforms were put in place – alongside the right level of resources – did services improve and waiting times fall.”

Rather than just plugging the gaps, the focus is now very much on improving long-term efficiency and effectiveness. This is exemplified by the goal to deliver 30 percent more elective activity by 2024-25.

There’s clearly a lot of work ahead, for both the NHS and wider social care. So how can ICS leaders, clinicians and provider organisations meet their ambitious targets and improve outcomes across the board. And specifically, how can they consistently level up the communities they serve?

Better data, better outcomes

Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) hold the promise of hyper-integrated health and care services. Underpinning this is partnerships, process innovations and data-driven decision making.

Collaboration is key. At Microsoft, we’re helping ICS organisations transition from the old, fragmented model towards truly joined-up care. By pooling data across health and care providers—and leveraging the power of predictive insights—ICSs can make more informed planning decisions that maximise the impact of their collective resources.

We help ICSs to invest where it matters most: empowering their workforce, improving outcomes and productivity. And all while reducing health and care inequalities.

Integrated data, integrated care

Enhanced data access will transform the roles of health and care professionals over the coming years. Data insights already enable provider organisations to maximise the efficiency of telehealth and digital telecare services. This ensures their services join up and are mutually reinforced. But that’s only the beginning.

Enhanced data access will also enable health and care professionals to shift their focus from reactive care towards pre-emptive and preventative solutions. Microsoft can help you create a 360 degree view of an individual’s care history. This can include key factors such as their housing needs and caring responsibilities. By making use of the latest in analytics and AI, we support ICSs to improve health and care outcomes for their whole population. That means redesigning care pathways to promote wellbeing, prevention and independence. For example, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is doing some great work in this area.

Unify your data, unify your workforce

Data sharing also fosters a ‘one workforce’ culture of collaboration which extends across the health and care spectrum. 90 percent of ICSs have already adopted a shared care record. They’re using their newfound connectivity to improve how primary, secondary, mental health, and social care work with each other. Additionally, they’re supporting local social and economic development. Rich data and analytics will help the different components of an ICS to work together. They can tackle health inequalities, prioritise at-risk population groups and deliver the best possible care to all.

In this way, data sharing will be a major contributor to creating healthier, happier communities. Microsoft can help ICSs work towards this brighter future while ensuring a ‘privacy-by-design’ approach that ensures the highest levels of data security and role-based access controls.

We’ve only scratched the surface

“The scale of the challenge cannot be underestimated. But neither can the potential rewards,” says Geraint Lewis, Director of Population Health at Microsoft. “Because of their focus on preventive care, and the impact they can have on the wider determinants of health, Integrated Care Systems are ideally poised to help their populations live longer, happier and healthier lives.”

Budgetary pressures will doubtless remain, but technology can help ensure that ICSs use their resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. Data is one of an ICS’s most valuable assets. However, many NHS organisations are only scratching at the surface of its true potential. At Microsoft, we can help your ICS access, connect and translate your population’s data. We’ll help you identify opportunities for improving the quality, equity and efficiency of care. Use this ‘opportunity analysis’ to shape your policies, empower your workforce, and to level up your providers and the communities they serve.

Find out more

Data-led foundation for unrivalled patient care

About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post Part 1: The role of data in helping communities to level up appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Sometimes it takes a crisis to fully grasp an opportunity. Virtual wards were invented in the early 2000’s by Dr Geraint Lewis, now Director of Population Health at Microsoft. Despite that, it’s only in the last few years that they have taken the NHS by storm. Virtual wards help reduce hospital admissions, keep patients safer, and discharge them earlier in collaboration with social care where appropriate.

Watford General Hospital was an early adopter. They use remote monitoring technology to monitor patients’ symptoms and physiological parameters such as heart rate, level of oxygen saturation and temperature. Their app-based model proved overwhelmingly popular with staff and patients alike. In a survey conducted on behalf of the NHSE, 95 percent of patients found the application easy to use and 93 percent were pleased with the remote care service.

See virtual wards in action: NHSE Director of Digital Care Models Tara Donnelly shared a video showing how remote monitoring technologies supported over 78,000 people across England between November 2020 and May 2021.

Widespread remote care is closer than you think

COVID-19 may have been the catalyst, but the long-term potential of harnessing remote technology is clear. By the end of 2021, over 53 virtual wards were providing over 2,500 ‘beds’ nationwide. They support people with a range of conditions. From acute respiratory infections to urinary tract infections and chronic pulmonary disease to more complex presentations, such as people living with frailty.

The NHS is now spending up to £450 million to create at least 25,000 virtual ward beds over the next few years. They help increase capacity, efficiency and safety. Additionally, virtual wards allow health and care providers to: “Fully exploit remote monitoring technology and wider digital platforms to deliver effective and efficient care,” according to the latest operational and planning guidance from the NHS. 

At Microsoft, we’re helping health and care providers harness technology to bring the hospital ward into the home. For example, the staff at Kendal Care Home in Cumbria have been using Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and Microsoft Teams. This allows GPs to speak to and assess elderly residents in a COVID-safe way—something they’ve celebrated as a “game changer”.

Virtual wards: A hospital in every home?

There’s a reason why hospitals the world over are organised into wards. Now imagine making use of all the systems, staffing and daily routines of a hospital ward—developed and improved over decades—but in the patient’s home. That’s the power of a virtual ward. The point is that remote monitoring and communication technology are essential but not sufficient. To provide safe and effective care, you must apply these technologies within a robust framework. That’s why virtual wards mirror the structures and processes of their real-world counterparts, while replicating several core functions digitally.

Any virtual ward must include:

• Admission process—an easy to follow, step-by-step process to onboard new patients remotely.
• “Call bell” system—patients can call for help via a video conferencing and messaging app. There’s also failsafe backup arrangements in place.
• Regular observations—remote monitoring allows clinicians to keep an eye on each patient’s vital stats. Differing from patient to patient, these may include blood pressure, temperature, pulse, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate etc.
• Tests—patients can conduct blood, urine and other routine tests. These can be uploaded remotely under guidance from clinicians where required.
• Medicines—patients should receive instructions and prompts about which medicines to take, at what time, and can confirm what they’ve taken.
• Ward rounds—video conferencing enables a virtual ward team to review patients face-to-face
• Board rounds—remote whiteboard and productivity tools enable a virtual ward team to quickly review all the patients under their care
• Escalation—a streamlined process moves patients to a real hospital if their condition deteriorates.
• Engaging the support network—extend communication channels to friends and family and formal carers.
• Discharge process—a system for patients to leave their virtual ward and return to the care of their GPs.

Aside from the high level of care coordination, one of the main reasons why virtual wards are so popular with patients is all the above can be done while they sleep in their own beds—and enjoy their own food!

The potential of virtual wards is clear for all to see. At Microsoft, we’re excited to see how remote care evolves. Also, we’re proud to play a key role in supporting the nationwide roll out.

Find out more

Find out more about Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post Virtual wards, real world benefits appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

I think this is true. There are always going to be more patients. But as recent times have shown, there’s hardly ever going to be enough of everything else.

The last two years has certainly exacerbated this situation. Backlogs of patients requiring care have multiplied dramatically. We’ve essentially lost two years’ worth of elective treatment. And waiting lists are worse than ever.

Despite this, I’m actually optimistic. We’ve known that we would have to face up to these challenges eventually. The pandemic has significantly brought them forward, but we’ve also learnt a lot about ourselves over the last few years.

It is a fact of life that demand for healthcare will grow faster than our supply of doctors and nurses. As a result, we must be open to how technology can help.

What’s interesting, however, is that a lot of the challenges that we didn’t know how to answer have already been by necessity. We didn’t know if people would use their phones and various technology to interact with healthcare. But they have and it’s not been anywhere near as problematic as we thought.

In other words, it turns out that technology is much further along than we thought it would be for our sector.

More importantly, we can now much more confidently use it to deal with more current and future issues. We can tackle key problems such as clearing waiting lists, improving time management and more.

The importance of looking at the bigger picture

I may be Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft, but I’m also a paediatrician. Spending my Fridays at the children’s hospital is still my favourite part of the week. This is where I get to really see life on the shop floor. As a result, I can help find the digital solutions to help improve it.

And the inspiration can really come from anywhere. For example, at the hospital we use an orange, lever arch folder where we store all the relevant information about a patient; tests we’ve run, follow-ups and more.

One time the orange folder broke. There was panic, because we didn’t have another ‘orange’ folder to replace it (we only had black ones). We ended up having to order a new one online.

Now, the beauty of my job is not just finding a solution to this particular – and relatively small – issue. But to solve them on a much broader scale. Replacing the orange folder shouldn’t be the end goal. There are so many other parts of that system that we cannot just improve but transform for the better.

Using the cloud to stay agile in healthcare

One of the big issues we’ve always had in healthcare is that there’s always another revolution coming, another update or digital initiative that needs to be actioned.

To prevent the inevitable fatigue that comes from lots of change, we need to ensure everything we are doing is scalable and fit for the future. I believe that the answer to this is the cloud. We’re never going to be able to implement all of this if we do it as a small step. The last two years have shown us that we need to take some big steps. Cloud technology gives us just that. Combine that with Microsoft’s suite of CRM apps, like Dynamics 365, and we will be able to deliver patients with specific information, send them personalised advice and engage with them more.

Just look at the work we’re doing with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. They have moved their entire electronic record to the cloud. This has given them functionalities and scale that will serve them well into the future.

Leeds covers one and a half million patients. They’ve got about 20,000 staff and the sheer number of electronic forms that they must process has grown by 300,000 since 2015. That’s hundreds of thousands more forms that patients and caregivers are filling in. Additionally, they then need to be processed. It would be a nearly impossible task if they hadn’t just moved it all to the Azure cloud.

Beyond making them far more scalable this has also helped them to use their extra computing elsewhere. And therefore, to do things such as keeping track of data, analyse it and review it for any future needs.

Simplifying processes and consultations via Teams

Another technology that’s proving key in solving backlogs is Microsoft Teams.

The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust caregivers lead the way in this respect. They carry out virtual consultations that allow patients to utilise teams for clinical interactions.

This has double benefits. On one hand, it allows caregivers to visit their patients without having them come to the clinic. On the other, it gives patients greater visibility of their appointments. Additionally, they can reschedule without having to go through back-and-forth calls.

I have learned the pains of contacting patients through regular phones the hard way. For privacy reasons, the NHS forbids us to leave voicemails to patients, unless that person has a message that states who they are. Whilst understandable, this is a rather outdated policy as now no one picks up a private callers’ phone and too few people check their voicemail.

Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to start saying to our patients directly during the consultation: I’m going to send you a link for you to have the next appointment. However, even better than that they can choose a time that works best and it will automatically go into both our calendars.

And if you need to change it, you can do that online without wasting time with inefficient telephone calls.

Managing resources though Power Apps

Another brilliant way to use technology to clear backlogs and waiting times is using data and data-centric low and no code solutions.

We all obsess about this ability to try and find the right data and then be able to use it meaningfully to achieve better patient outcomes. With the help of cloud technology, organisations are increasingly shifting towards huge data centres. Here, they can analyse data in real time and use it to make decisions and forecast, identify patterns and much more.

Just look at the extraordinary work by the Northern Care Alliance. They use Microsoft Power Apps to get continuous, real-time updates on the state of beds and bays at their facilities.

In operation since before the pandemic, this solution turned out to be a game changer during the tough months of lockdowns, when the status of wards and beds would evolve constantly. Thanks to the solution, staff at the Northern Care Alliance were able to check availability on real-time dashboards and allocate available beds in a much more efficient way.

Driving digital modernisation in healthcare

The most amazing thing about the NHS is that it’s simply the world’s biggest team. Every person working within it is there to look after patients and is committed to doing things better.

If we can use technology to let this huge team be more efficient and work better together, we’ll really be able to help clear the backlog and relieve staff of all the simple repetitive tasks that frustrate them and get in the way of treating patients.

Organisations often ask me how they can start this much-needed digital modernisation in the most effective way.

My advice is to simply start off by looking around you. See what other organisations are doing, and then pick up the phone and find out how they got started and what is going well. Also keep an open mind. In my experience, there is always a group of people that will remain negative. But don’t be discouraged by that – once you get started, you’ll be surprised at how quickly momentum can build and what seemed implausible becomes routine.

Lastly, make sure that you set and over-communicate your goals. Embracing new technologies will help empower all caregivers to achieve more – freeing them to spend more time caring for patients and leading to better outcomes. Plus, you’ll be making sure the foundations are strong for continued innovation, ensuring healthcare is fit for the future.

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 Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

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About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post Using technology to manage the healthcare backlog appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.