Panel discusses digital health's impact on patient outcomes

The UK Government welcomed a panel of UK and UAE experts in its digital health at Arab Health 2022 to explore the role digital health has in improving patient outcomes in the UK and the Middle East.

The seminar, ‘Next Steps for Digital Health’, featured Dr Mubaraka Ibrahim, NHS Transformation representative Dr Tim Ferris, Babylon CEO Ali Parsa, Dr Dirk Richter, and Neville Young, director of Enterprise and Innovation at the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).

They discussed a range of topics and challenge areas, including maximising the potential of digital and data to transform care pathways, reduce unwarranted variation and improve health and wellbeing; deploying digital solutions to enhance services for patients across the whole Integrated Care System; enabling consistent delivery of care using remote digital solutions; and the need for pathway transformation to unlock the power of digital health.

The session also showcased the work UK companies are undertaking to redefine healthcare services, provide consistent care and implement virtual services that support remote monitoring and diagnosis. The seminar featured live case studies from UK innovators Kheiron Medical Technologies, RLDatix, Behold.ai, Huma, and EIDO Healthcare, highlighting their success in providing solutions for digital health.

Neville Young, director of Enterprise and Innovation at the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) said after the conference: “Digital health has been central to the public COVID-19 response, and the market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, including in regions such as the Middle East where the rise in non-communicable diseases continue to pose a great challenge. With hospitals striving to catch up with backlogs, and new systems and processes needing to be set up to give patients access to remote hospital care, digital solutions are in high demand globally.”

One important contribution is AI and machine learning, step-by-step machine-learning triage and diagnostic support tool aimed at improving the diagnostic accuracy and confidence of healthcare staff.

Babylon Health runs the UK’s largest GP practice (by patient population) and having recently been publicly listed on the NYSE is set to grow its global footprint through the addition of integrated care-based solutions.

To help address the current radiology workforce crisis and give women better outcomes in their cancer treatments, Kheiron Medical Technologies has developed an AI breast screening solution, ‘Mia,’ which supports radiologists to read breast mammograms. This leading applied science company is committed to transforming cancer diagnostics through the power of deep learning.

Compiling such solutions in an accessible format, Healthcare UK, part of DIT, has created a collection of UK companies who are not only leading innovators but who are also dedicated to exporting, ready to work in partnership with healthcare providers and organisations overseas.

Following the success of #First100 last year, the playbook – which features some of the UK’s most impressive digital health companies – has now been expanded to feature 165 UK companies. Backed by major healthtech bodies, #Beyond100 aims to provide a well-researched credible list for international healthcare organisations and governments to call upon to get support for their needs.