Existing ICT underused, Royal Society finds

A working group that set out to look at future technology in healthcare information and communications technology (ICT) has found that services are not making  best use of current technologies.

The group, from the prestigious Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, says the NHS is slow to exploit even the simplest existing information and communications technology (ICT) which has the potential to bring considerable benefits to health,

Professor David May from Bristol University’s department of computer science, said: “We set out to explore how future technologies could be used to improve healthcare, however it soon became apparent that existing technologies were not being used to their full potential.

“A variety of inexpensive, existing technologies can be adapted for a healthcare environment, for example, home security systems could be easily enhanced to incorporate personal monitoring to detect falls in the elderly, or mobile phones could be modified to analyse blood sugar readings for monitoring chronic conditions such as diabetes.”

Dame June Clark, professor of community nursing at Swansea University, cited another example: “District nurses spend hours a day travelling to visit patients when a call on a mobile phone would do the same job in a fraction of the time. Technology should never be a replacement for personal contact, but used as a complementary practice it will ensure the best use of limited resources.”

Professor Frances Mair, researcher at Glasgow University’s department of general practice and primary care, said: “Simple technologies can make a real difference. Hospitals for example, are already text-messaging patients to remind them of appointments – which saves hours of doctors’ time in missed appointments. Web-cam ‘consultations’ could also enable healthcare professionals to monitor patients which chronic conditions such as asthma in their own homes.”

According to the report, “Digital Healthcare: the impact of ICTs on health and healthcare”, there is some feeling of resistance and scepticism towards new technology in healthcare, both from patients and healthcare workers.

This is attributed to a poor track record of design, implementation and integration with existing systems and compounded by a lack of training and involvement with those who will use new systems to ensure their needs are met.

The working group recommends that both existing technologies and developments in new technologies should be continuously monitored at local and national level so that those with net benefits to health and heathcare can be assessed and effectively deployed. It suggests that health departments in the UK should recognise the value of learned and professional societies in identifying technologies that might help.

Returning to its original purpose, the working group looked at the potential of future technologies and analysed them in five groups: global communications and information infrastructure; personal and ubiquitous technologies; data capture and imaging; high performance computing and autonomous and robotic systems.

To help overcome difficulties in adoption, the report recommends an iterative approach to design, implementation and evaluation when introducing new ICTs in healthcare. Learning lessons from the different approaches adopted in the four countries of the UK is also suggested.

The importance of setting and using standards is emphasised. “Fully interoperable systems cannot be deployed until national and international standards are agreed. We acknowledge the government health departments have been working towards achieving convergence between standards being developed. However, we encourage these efforts to be increased to reach convergence as soon as possible…”