A Digital Health All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has been constituted to highlight the benefits that successful use of data and digital health technologies can bring to the NHS, to patients and to the UK economy.
The APPG will be chaired by Dean Russell, Member of Parliament for Watford, and will bring together parliamentarians and senior health and technology leaders.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets out their ambitions for improvement over the next decade, and underpins the importance of technology in the future NHS; establishing the critical priorities that will support digital transformation and provide a step change in the way the NHS cares for citizens.
With 12,900 employees, Digital Health is UK healthtech’s largest sub-sector employer, turning over £1.7 billion, with 63% of businesses formed in the last 10 years. Increasingly, digital health technologies are being implemented to support healthcare delivery, identify unmet needs, measure outcomes and shape services.
These technologies encompass a wide variety of tools, all underpinned by how data is collected, aggregated, analysed and acted upon. A key need is the availability of this data, to enable improved outcomes, which in turn relies on building trust with patients and the public. The APPG’s role will be to progress this agenda, focussing on trust, consent, and appropriate regulation.
APPG chair, Dean Russel MP said: “There is no doubt that data and the use of digital technologies is a significant driving force in shaping today’s society and economy. The take-up of such solutions in response to the COVID pandemic has further demonstrated this. I look forward to the APPG connecting parliamentarians with the health system, industry, academia, third sector organisations and civil society, so that collectively, we can shape a safe and trustworthy framework that will benefit patients and establish the UK as a home for digital health excellence.”
The APPG’s secretariat services will be provided by the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI), the UK’s leading industry association for health technology.
The full list of officers for the Digital Health APPG are:
- Dean Russell MP (chair)
- Anne Marie Morris MP
- Greg Smith MP
- Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
