For some time now, we have been in the era where digital solutions have the potential to revolutionize care by facilitating smarter decision-making, creating greater efficiencies, and improving patient outcomes.
We hear about these discoveries all the time; from AI’s ability to spot 12% more breast cancers in scans than humans in a recent trial to the inspiring example of how a video game helped a stroke sufferer to regain her speech. Technology is accelerating it seems, at a pace which eclipses any likely speed to scale innovations up. The result? We see and hear about new inventions, but the stories are distilled into fun science fictions; notions of what the future could hold, rather than creations which may impact us now.
What are the reasons behind the lag and how can digitalization truly help more patients more quickly, and what needs to adapt across the entire healthcare ecosystem?
Starting from scratch? The NHS needs to accelerate digital health and partnership to deliver better outcomes
At the recent Labour Party conference, Health Secretary Wes Streeting listed the various challenges threatening the NHS and recognized the need to create an NHS that is ‘able to share data, partner with innovators, and adopt new technologies at scale.’ The new Government has made it very clear that leveraging digital and AI technologies is a priority for the NHS, offering potential in enhanced patient care, improve healthcare delivery, and the contribution to more efficient and effective healthcare systems.
Is this a likely reality? Actually, it is already happening and demonstrating immense potential to reduce future ailments and costs to the NHS. Take the recent study by Oxford University which found that AI could detect heart attack risks undetectable to the human eye or CT scans. Almost half of the 40,000 patients taking part in that trial were put on medication or given lifestyle advice to prevent a future heart attack as a result of that trial. That is 18,000 patients, who may have had signs of risk now fully informed – and let’s not forget each heart attack costs the NHS around £3-4,000 and the total burden across the NHS each year is £7.4 billion. The hidden costs we don’t see include the sheer workload for staff for what is one of the biggest conditions existing in the UK.
The partnership Labour wants to see is happening; the study by Oxford took place in partnership with a private AI platform and the NHS, and NICE is assessing the technology for wider roll-out. However, the EU is moving ahead of us as the technology has already been approved there.
We know that many in the pharmaceutical and MedTech industries are developing digital health solutions they hope will be as successful as the example just mentioned. They are not sleeping on the open door that this Government is positioning for private and public sector collaboration in digital health.
So why is it that some innovations find their way into NHS sites sooner than others?
A key consideration, particularly when engaging with the NHS, is partnership. Digital solutions must be developed not with the NHS in mind but developed with the NHS. Co-design and co-production is not only helpful to trials and obtaining buy-in from clinicians, but it helps ensure interoperability.
Approval processes aside, we have heard first hand from experts across the NHS that once a digital health solution is ready, it then faces an entirely new ballgame of how well it actually integrates within hospital systems. Unhelpfully, every system across the country is different and so ready-made solutions often aren’t tailored to each unique set of requirements. Organisations and healthcare systems simply do not want to have to purchase, download, train and integrate entirely new pieces of software that add to their workload. You would be surprised by how many digital solutions don’t consider this.
All Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are aiming to have electronic patient records in place by March 2025, which makes interoperability a critical success factor for any new digital health solution. Many teams and specialists exist across the NHS who can advise on how best to tailor new digital solutions for them; engagement with digital transformation officers at ICSs, chief information and operation officers and indeed the clinicians will be vital. Advice is available from the NHS AI Lab, HDR UK and others, particularly on the Federated Data Platform (FDP) which aims to link data between hospital trusts.
It will also be important for the Labour Government to get the basic infrastructure right, including digital infrastructure, skilled staff and an enabling environment. Clarity on the FDP and sticking to delivery of its AI ambition and strategy will truly help the full benefits of AI can be realised at scale across the NHS, preventing the exacerbation of health inequalities.
How pharma is using digital technologies to improve efficiencies
Looking beyond solutions for the NHS, digital technologies are transforming the pharmaceutical sector itself in various ways. From improving customer interactions and increasing manufacturing productivity to enabling the development of omnichannel marketing strategies powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
One of the significant areas of impact is drug discovery and clinical trials. For example, AI has been used to assist in the search for suitable disease targets and new molecule designs and can be used in clinical trials to write protocols, recruit patients and analyse data. Also, with advancements in cloud computing and cybersecurity, decentralising these processes is now possible, and speeding up timelines. The ability to expedite analysis and shorten time-to-market offers clear advantages for patients by providing faster access to a wider range of treatment options.
Even regulatory and experimental processes are becoming more streamlined. A great example is Merck’s BayBE, an open-source tool designed to accelerate experimentation in chemistry and materials science. The goal? Better results, faster.
And it’s not just happening at Merck, pharma companies worldwide are jumping on this opportunity, integrating new technologies to work more efficiently and deliver new treatments faster than even before. With these developments in innovations, the future of healthcare looks promising – with patients standing to benefit the most from these rapid changes.
Digital solutions must put the patient needs at their heart
Digital health is transforming how we support and best serve patients. Any health care solution that is created must consider the end user – the patient. Research is a critical starting point and understanding how the patient population likes to access support and what healthcare professionals (HCPs) think would be valuable is key to making something that is going to be useful. Whether a companion digital therapeutic solution to manage treatment and ensure treatment adherence or providing tools to monitor conditions or provide greater holistic support.
Last year, Merck announced a partnership with the digital tech experts Huma. By merging Merck’s oncology expertise with Huma’s digital technologies, a mobile app specifically for bladder cancer patients was developed. This app isn’t just another digital tool – it empowers patients to take more control over their treatment journey, offering enhanced management and support, ultimately aiming for better outcomes and quicker results.
This partnership showcases how patient-first approaches can better support their treatment regimen and lighten the load for HCPs, allowing for a more efficient and effective care system.
As healthcare evolves, embracing digital solutions will be essential to delivering the best care possible, improving patient outcomes, and driving operational efficiency. Digitalization is an enabler for creating a more collaborative, dynamic, and innovative healthcare environment.
It is an exciting time and by fully embracing digital solutions, we can help to reshape and innovate across the entire healthcare ecosystem.
Dr. Doina Ionescu
Dr Doina Ionescu is General Manager UK and Ireland of Merck Healthcare.
