The future of healthtech: A new decade requires new solutions

Dame Barbara Hakin, speaks to MTI News outlining her role as chair of the Health Tech Alliance and why she has long championed healthtech.

In my 40 years of experience in the NHS, I dealt with many difficult and varying challenges, whether as a practising doctor or as a senior manager; as CEO of a PCT and a SHA or latterly as COO and deputy chief executive of NHS England. Over this time the health service has evolved massively; we are treating record numbers of patients, curing conditions previously deemed untreatable and saving more lives than ever. But as we end this year and begin a new decade, there are still a number of fundamental challenges facing the NHS that have not been solved since I started as a GP all those years ago.

Technology has become increasingly valuable to the NHS as an ageing population and stretched budgets make it harder to sustain the high levels of care that we expect from our health service. If we get it right however, then technology really does have the potential to solve a lot of the persisting problems plaguing the NHS.

But technology is not yet a panacea to all of the NHS’ problems. Widespread adoption of healthtech has been slow across the entire NHS, bogged down by structural barriers which are limiting innovation. We are also still in the infancy of AI, which is already starting to revolutionise our health and social care system, but unless integrated effectively into existing practices, then will only provide short-term relief rather than long-term solutions.

I have long-believed that healthtech will be crucial in providing the level of integrated and personalised care that patients expect and deserve in the next decade and beyond. This is why I became the chair of the Health Tech Alliance, a coalition of innovative healthtech companies working to drive the adoption and uptake of health technologies, devices and diagnostics across the NHS. Working collaboratively with health service bodies such as NIHR, NICE and the Academic Health Science Networks, the Alliance seeks to ensure that proven, cost-effective technologies can reach patients with greater ease.

But our Alliance alone cannot solve this challenge. This is why the Health Tech Alliance has decided to launch the inaugural Parliament & Healthtech Conference on the 28 January 2020. The biggest healthcare challenges facing our country can only be solved if they are confronted by the entire spectrum of the health and social care system and civil society working collaboratively through a united strategy. This means that our policymakers in Westminster, our staff in hospitals, our healthtech businesses in industry and our supporters in civil society need to come together on a level never seen before to discuss how we can work together to ensure the long-term viability of our health service.

Health and social care remains by far the most important political issue in our society, which means that there is significant appetite from both policymakers and civil society to outline an ambitious and courageous strategy that we all know is needed. This half-day conference will provide that forum, and stakeholders will come together to discuss issues such as the key challenges that industry faces in securing the adoption and spread of health technologies and ensuring a more streamlined pathway for life-changing products.

We should not underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead. Solving the problems facing the NHS may well be the biggest and most difficult challenge that our society undertakes over the next decade. But if we get it right, then there will be no doubt that every ounce of effort would be worth it. So, as we begin a new decade, the time is now to come together and get to work in solving these challenges.