Digital health data strategies across Scotland could be a significant factor in the quality of care patients receive throughout the country. Refining this has a number of clear benefits for the National Digital Health Platform, as well as broad medical services. As with any industry, how the medical sector collects and uses information may revolutionise the field.
The Scotland Policy Conference (@scotlandpolicy) focused on “Developing digital health and use of data in Scotland”. The event that took place on the 19th of April provided a great opportunity to engage on important public policy issues surrounding the Scottish healthcare industry. Grant Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Elcom joined Professor Julie Brittenden (University of Glasgow) and Dr Ken Sutherland (President, Canon Medical Systems Europe) to discuss the priorities for implementing digital healthcare with special attention on collaborative frameworks and supporting adoption of innovative digital technologies.
Grant Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Elcom on April 19th at Scottish Policy Conference.
“Elcom is delighted to be part of the Scotland Policy Conference. Elcom is working to reduce administrative burden, streamline processes, and deliver better patient outcomes across the Public Sector and particularly in Health. Our view is that adopting data standards and improving data capture through technology increases data quality towards delivering actionable intelligence through data analytics”
Professor Naeem Ramzan University of the West of Scotland, was also a speaker at a speaker at #ScottishPolicyConference and shared thoughts about:
“Priorities for innovation in key areas where digitalisation has the potential to improve outcomes – waiting times and care backlogs, remote consultations and management of conditions, and developing the use of healthcare apps”
In this article, we look at the future of digital health and data in Scotland – including the four priorities for implementation that providers must always account for.
Attracting investment
Adopting innovative digital solutions could allow the Scottish healthcare sector to reach its full potential; wider financial pressures are significantly affecting the NHS and other health organisations. With a clear commitment to advancing the industry at large via digital health, it’s possible to attract local and national investment. These services can only succeed or continue with strong financial backing, and delivering provable results using data is just one way of achieving this – and allows the solutions to flourish and grow over time.
Regulatory standards for medical devices
Strict standards are essential in any field – but the medical sector must be especially vigilant about maintaining this commitment. Legislation and industry-wide standards are constantly shifting in ways that affect patients and the effectiveness of their care. Each digital solution you implement and engage with must abide by current guidelines in order to guarantee good performance. This validates the medical devices which your service uses, illustrating exactly how effective they are at refining your organisation’s long-term approach to healthcare.
Watch now webinar on-demand here: “How can data standards and inventory technology help our healthcare system?”
Collaborative frameworks
Collaboration can help these services grow even further by combining digital technologies in innovative ways – this closes potential gaps in care and limits the prevalence of errors. The goal of any collaborative framework is to build an even higher standard of care, and formalising this across your organisation can help guarantee it has the necessary impact. Digital solutions represent an incredible opportunity for many rapidly-growing sectors to work together and address shortfalls of all kinds that are present in current digital healthcare strategies.
Supporting adoption of innovative digital technologies
Another key priority for Scottish health organisations is to support and embrace these technologies, meaning a stronger focus on digital procurement and other similar solutions. Many of these advances can be confusing to some staff members – making it important that your service works to provide adequate training which ensures everyone understands these innovations. Changing your current approach to integrate new solutions is often a difficult process at first but allows providers to deliver an even better healthcare service.
When implementing a new digital health strategy, it’s critical that you always keep these priorities in mind; this allows your organisation to successfully integrate emerging technologies. eProcurement is one major area that can benefit from this approach, offering exciting opportunities for investment and collaboration while allowing your service to streamline many of its processes. As the landscape of digital health in Scotland constantly shifts over time, procurement officials and other decision-makers must be aware of how to adopt and maintain new, innovative solutions.
