King’s Fund report on transformative technology for long-term health conditions in the UK and Nordic countries

On August 03, 2020, King’s Fund issued a report on technology and innovation for long-term health conditions.

This report, commissioned by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), explored four innovations from the UK and the Nordic countries that use digital technology to deliver a step-change in treatment:

• TeleCare North program to provide remote treatment for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Patients Know Best portal and electronic health record
• Remote diabetes monitoring for children at Helsinki University Hospital
• Huoleti app for connecting patients with a support network

The case studies illustrate the potential of digital technology to transform treatment, especially by empowering patients, supporting deeper therapeutic relationships and working together effectively across professional boundaries, and building patient support networks and communities.

There are ethical and technical challenges around how to transmit, share, and use patient data in ways that secure people’s consent, maintain trust, protect the confidentiality and ensure equitable benefits sharing between different constituencies. The research suggests that the solution may be in placing patients firmly in control of their data and how it is used, with simple arrangements for opting in and out of data sharing, including the ability to decide who can access the patient’s data and for what purposes. In doing so, some of these innovations help empower patients and establish a more balanced relationship between professionals and service users.

The paper also calls on health and care providers to assess the impact of the rapid transition to online services driven by the COVID-19 pandemic on workers and patients, to ensure that changes are fully assessed, and to ask whether there is potential for a more ambitious redesign of services.

It is concluded that harnessing technology to deliver transformative change in health care is harder than it might initially appear. The types of innovations most likely to spread are often those that fit within existing structures, making small improvements to existing ways of doing things rather than delivering transformative change.

The role of cross-cutting agencies, such as innovation funds, innovation centers, or development agencies, was highlighted in convening partnerships and structuring innovation processes.

See more information here.

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