The future of digital health technologies in the changing COVID-19 landscape

Glyn Barnes, director of strategic marketing at iRhythm, examines the role digital innovations has had and will continue to have following COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an urgent need for healthcare professionals to implement emerging technologies creatively and proactively, so that patients can continue to receive the treatments they need.

Some of these new technologies have been quickly adopted in Trusts, in order to address the immense challenges facing the healthcare sector during the pandemic. The European Parliament Think Tank  acknowledged that the pandemic has accelerated the rise of remote monitoring and AI-enabled diagnosis support, and that digital health will certainly remain a permanent fixture after the pandemic. For example, a report by the Patient Coalition for AI, Data and Digital Tech in Health analysed a case study about supporting patients to self-monitor in the community, particularly those who have been shielding.

In fact, in April 2021 a YouGov survey found that the vast majority of people feel comfortable fitting monitoring devices themselves and using new data-driven technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor and diagnose health conditions. 85% of respondents said they would be happy to fit a monitor themselves if advised to by a doctor, and 72% feel comfortable with the use of AI. Providing vulnerable patients with devices to self-monitor specific health conditions can enable them to further immerse themselves with their health conditions, while keeping them safe by avoiding in-person consultations. This is a very positive start in ensuring a digital future, but we must go further.

As previously mentioned, there continues to be numerous healthcare-related pressures as we venture through the pandemic. These pressures include long hospital waiting times, which, despite the best efforts from digital health innovators, could reach over 13 million in the next few months, according to health secretary Sajid Javid. This is in addition to the seven million people who decided not to seek medical attention during the pandemic through fear of contracting the disease. It’s believed that this figure includes thousands of people who did not receive treatment for heart conditions.

It is therefore imperative that everybody in the healthcare sector pre-emptively thinks about potential future challenges and hurdles, so we have an adequate plan in place to deal with them. The NHS’ Long-Term Plan for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), which will oblige all elements of the NHS to work together, will be critical in delving deeper into partnerships with local authorities and the voluntary sector to tackle health inequalities resulting from COVID-19. Future-proofing the delivery of primary and specialist care, physical and mental health services, and health with social care is a positive step in the right direction. The requirement for ICSs to have smart digital and data platforms by April 2022 should be welcomed.

As outlined in the NHS’ Long Term Plan, digitally-enabled primary and outpatient care will go mainstream across the NHS, with an aim of providing convenient ways for patients to access advice and care. ICSs will seek to deliver more efficient, joined-up support for cardiology patients throughout the NHS, which in turn can bring together all primary care settings.

As cardiovascular disease remains the biggest cause of premature mortality, it’s imperative that the NHS’ long-term vision for improving patient outcomes puts innovation at the heart of this by calling upon leaders in the digital health tech sphere to make their voices heard and showcase their solutions. This includes iRhythm’s Zio XT product, an easy-to-wear ECG monitoring device, which  continuously monitors heart rhythm for up to 14 days. After wearing the device, it’s returned to us by post and a comprehensive patient report is produced within two to four days. This provides a clear, concise, analysis of the patient’s cardiac activity enabling the cardiologist to make an accurate diagnosis. Digital products such as Zio XT have the potential to revolutionise the NHS’s approach to ECG testing, and significantly reduce the time required to diagnose suspected arrhythmias. In turn, the rapid turnaround means that the backlog of patients waiting could potentially disappear.

Having won funding through the NHSX AI in Health and Care Award, which aspires to speed up the introduction of such technologies into the NHS, Zio XT has been implemented across nine NHS Trusts so far, with an additional four further down the line. The AI in Health and Care Award has proven to be a positive initiative that has been of high value during the pandemic.

In a post-pandemic world, consensus would suggest that we must not return to the previous ways of delivering healthcare. Instead, we should seek to support digital health tech innovators in creating and developing original solutions to our country’s biggest healthcare problems. It’s clear that new technologies are providing better clinical outcomes and that they help to reduce health inequalities. Long term, they will ensure that cardiac and stroke patients receive a faster diagnosis and ultimately, a faster time to treatment. It’s our hope, and indeed vision, that healthcare providers have the confidence to embrace new technology and to embrace the positive improvements that it promises to bring in the years to come.