Innovation to be “core business” of NHS

How to make innovation “core business for the NHS” was discussed at a Westminster Health Forum this week.

The Innovation, Heath and Wealth report was published in December last year with the aim of accelerating adoption and diffusion of innovation in the NHS.

Speaking at the forum, Rachel Cashman, IHW programme implementation and business operations manager, said NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson’s goal for the programme is to make innovation core business and the “raison d’etre of every NHS employee.”

Cashman told attendees that IHW is launching a culture change programme in the first quarter of next year to make sure everybody is working on realising the aims identified in the report. These include driving greater compliance with NICE guidance and the rapid spread of telehealth technology.

She argued that: “the creation of academic health science networks is absolutely critical to the delivery of innovation in the NHS.”

The DH says the goal of these networks is, “to improve patient and population health outcomes by translating research into practice and developing and implementing integrated health care systems.”

Cashman said the first network is due to be announced early next year.

Another important date will be the release of Sir Ian Carruthers’ review of procurement in the NHS. Cashman said there had been about 200 submissions received and she expected to see emerging themes and recommendations from that report over coming months.

Sally Chisholm, chief executive of the NHS Technology Adoption Centre, said the centre has been looking at what barriers are stopping people trying to innovate and adopt new technologies.

Budget siloes were identified as a clear issue as funding streams mean there are often financial disincentives to changing a way of working.

She said the European tender process is “problematic and difficult for people”, as is the need for real world evidence before procuring.

Chisholm also said there is a reluctance to decommission services in the NHS, which means benefits are harder to realise.

All the speakers talked about the need for those trying to introduce innovation to work out where it will sit in the current care pathways and the “ripple effect” of changing those.

Chisholm said; “busy day jobs leave little time for implementing innovation” and many NHS staff simply do not know what opportunities or change new innovation might offer.

Success depends on pulling together people within an organisation or local health community who are going to be “given the responsibility and have the drive and interest to find and implement solutions.”

Imperial College London chair in technology and innovation James Barlow told the Westminster forum that there are some big issues that people need to start seriously thinking about with regards to innovation.

“We know technology and innovation allows us to do more things, treat more people, pick up more problems that need to be treated and through this we raise potential demand for health care, which clearly has fundamental implications for policy makers and tax-payers,” he said.

“The growing pressure from new technology coming in raises some important issues about how we make choices about what to pay for, how much innovation to adopt and how do we pay for it?”

Barlow said the NHS needs to get better at applying “what we know works” and good evidence-based innovation is too often locked up in small-scale trials or pilot projects.

There is also a “whole set of thorny issues” around how to manage the inevitable decline of the current hospital contract model as well as the need to better coordinate with social care, he added.