Telecoms Tech sat in on an interesting discussion from Bob Gann, head of international business development at NHS England, on steps the NHS is taking in cutting its costs and becoming more connected
M2M and IoT has traditionally been examined from a vertical perspective, with healthcare at the forefront. But even though some in the industry have forecast horizontal plays gaining prominence, it’s always refreshing to see where healthcare M2M, always a strong vertical, is going.
Bob Gann, head of international business development at NHS England, filled in the gaps, but noted the importance of the issue facing the NHS.
“We need to do this because we have an unsustainable challenge in the NHS at the moment,” Gann explained.
The stats are worrying. 40% of patients admitted to accident and emergency departments in the UK get discharged without any treatment. One in five GP appointments are for what Gann called “entirely minor” conditions that could easily have been treated by the patient.
It’s a lot of wasted time, and a hell of a lot of wasted money.
M2M solutions for connected healthcare have been seen as the white knight making both the patients and the balance sheets healthier.
Yet as Gann notes, there’s been a very recent paradigm shift.
“What’s happened until recently is that these types of M2M initiatives have been very much in the specialist health envionment,” he explains. “And I think, and most commentators would say the same, that the real revolution now is that those kinds of activities aren’t within a specialised health environment, but will become ubiquitous consumer devices.”
There are plenty of products on the market that back this up; mobile apps which allow patients to photograph a skin condition to a dermatologist; apps which monitor sleeping patterns; an app which measures heart rate by examining the patient’s face and detecting minor changes in their capillaries.
With 40,000 health apps on the market and a grand total of 40 million apps downloaded last year, this is no flash in the pan.
Yet the biggest sign of change, notes Gann, is acceptance from the authorities.
“We are now beginning to see regulation”, he explains. “Some of these apps are now medical devices, and they need regulating under the FDA.
“We’re also beginning to see GPs prescribing apps, and this is happening in the UK,” he added.
Above all though, Gann noted the power of social in providing better healthcare.
“When these devices become really powerful is when they are connected,” Gann said. “It can not only enable patients to monitor their own readings, but enable data to be downloaded and shared with third parties.”
This is a clear sign of the future of healthcare.
At the start of the session Gann asked: “Why do I have to go to a GP to get my test results?” Even though it was rhetorical, it seemed to hit home. Health, not unwisely, was one of the industry sectors where it would be better to err on the side of caution with data security and confidentiality.
But if users are happy to access an app to send a photo of their skin ailment, then perhaps confidentiality across mobile isn’t as big a risk as we think.
To learn more about Connected Healthcare visit IoT Tech Expo Europe in London’s Olympia, 2-3 December, 2015.
