Healthcare services across the UK and worldwide are being transformed through the deployment of innovative technology.
In particular, the digitalisation of services, both back-office and on the frontline, is having a huge positive impact on the delivery of clinical care and is driving much-needed financial efficiencies.
And last week, some of the most forward-thinking healthcare operators and technology companies were singled out for praise with the announcement of the winners of the 2018 Health Tech Awards.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Overall Winner
MySunrise App and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Award for Digital at the Point of Care
Winner: Coordinate My Care
Highly Commended: North East London Foundation Trust: Agile Working Programme
App of the Year
Winner: MySunrise App and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Highly Commended: King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Paperless Project of the Year
Winner: CCube Solutions: Milton Keynes EDRM Project
Highly Commended: Egton and Penrose Surgery
Best Use of Data
Winner: Draper and Dash
Highly Commended: NAViGO Health and Social Care CIC
Impact of the Year
Winner: North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and InterSystems
Highly Commended: Informatica Systems and NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group
Efficiency Savings of the Year
Winner: Tameside and Glossop Digital Health Service
Highly Commended: Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Ingenica Solutions
Case Study of the Year
Winner: IMS Maxims and Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
Highly Commended: South Tyneside optimises workflow with SolitonIT
User-led Innovation
Winner: Dr Gurkaran Samra at Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Highly Commended: North East London Foundation Trust: Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Technology
Tech Project of the Year
Winner: Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Highly Commended: Draper and Dash and Four Seasons Healthcare
Innovation of the Year
Winner: Genmed
Highly Commended: Changing Health
Commenting on its win in the Digital at the Point of Care class, Professor Julia Riley, clinical lead at Coordinate My Care, said: “We are committed to empowering patients to tell the NHS and care providers about the care they want to receive at a crucial point of their life.
“Recognition at awards like this is important in sharing just what is possible through the creation of digital care plans so that we can continue to expand the reach of the service to more and more patients.”
Coordinate My Care uses InterSystems HealthShare to build digital urgent care plans for patients with urgent or end-of-life care needs, sharing the plans with the capital’s emergency and out-of-hours providers so they can deliver the most-appropriate care and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
Recognition at awards like this is important in sharing just what is possible through the creation of digital care plans so that we can continue to expand the reach of the service to more and more patients
Another organisation singled out was North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, which picked up the Award for Impact of the Year after becoming the first acute trust to use InterSystems’ TrakCare as its electronic patient record.
The trust, which is a fast follower in NHS England’s global digital exemplar programme, is advancing digital maturity and looking beyond the borders of the hospital as it presses ahead with ambitions to achieve the globally-recognised HIMSS EMRAM stage 7 in just three years.
Dr Graham Evans, the trust’s chief information and technology officer, said: “Enabling efficient care is essential if we are to continue to meet patients’ needs in the NHS.
“Our work shows how technology can play a role in reconfiguring services and in enhancing the working lives of staff.
“I’m very grateful to the judges for selecting our project for a prestigious award. But it is important to remember that technology forms only part of the solution – managing people and process is just as crucial to achieving successful outcomes.”