By: Bob Quin, Head of Marketing, Global Health, BT Global Services
Phew! That was a busy couple of days.
As you probably gathered from our previous posts, we were looking forward eagerly to the EHI Live conference — and it lived up to expectations. We’ve finally managed to unpack our bags, and now it’s time to unpack our minds.
Held on 5-6 November, the event had a real buzz about it as people came together to debate the future of IT in health and care. It was clear from my conversations with attendees that the opportunity for clinicians, IT experts, suppliers and managers to come together to share ideas and information provided inspiration and significant food for thought.
Amongst the major announcements from senior members of the NHS, a message around just how much potential there is for IT to transform the way care is delivered really came across. IT has the power to connect people, help them work more closely together, and share information and break down barriers. It can introduce the highest levels of collaboration, helping to meet the challenges that the whole public sector faces. It can transform lives.
We took the opportunity to launch the first of our BT and HSJ technology guides at the conference. The guides are designed to enable NHS boards to understand how IT can be used more effectively to drive the transformation of their organisations — and the lives of their patients. This first guide is aimed at IT directors to support their quest to deliver higher quality patient care at lower cost.
Given the pivotal nature of the current position of the NHS, a fundamental change needs to take place, on an enormous scale. The way that care is delivered needs to be altered in order for it to flourish. IT will play a major role in creating the new world of care we need. We know that lasting improvement doesn’t only come from intelligent technology, but also from the ability to facilitate demonstrable clinical transformation. It’s a significant challenge, and we’re ready to help, putting our 65 years of experience of supporting the NHS to the best use.
Another highlight was our announcement of our partnerships with Harris Corporation, InterSystems and Healthcare Gateway to offer a managed interoperability solution. Interoperability will mean that organisations can share data across multiple care services, giving health and social care workers a fuller picture of each individual’s care history.
Authorised care workers will be able to securely access alerts about vulnerable or at-risk patients, as well as being able to access Accident and Emergency records from within mental health care systems. Patients, too, will benefit, being able to access their own records to see test results, organise appointments and communicate quickly and efficiently with their doctors.
The conference has made us realise that this is an exciting time. A time when we can look forward to creating a new sustainable world of care. A time where we can do things differently to transform experiences, health and quality of life.
Now, let’s get going.
You can download a copy of our first technology guide here.
Find out more about BT’s health solutions.