3 Why are digital technologies important?

There are a range of advantages and disadvantages of technology in health and social care. For now, this section will look at the advantages.

Imison et al. (2016) suggests that there are seven opportunities for the productivity and quality of care.

1. More systematic, high-quality care
2. More proactive and targeted care
3. Better co-ordinated care
4. Improved access to specialist expertise
5. Greater patient engagement
6. Improved resource management
7. System improvement and learning.

Decision support tools for clinical decision making could improve the quality of care, and the use of electronic observations alongside laboratory tests can help to identify patients whose condition is deteriorating and thus improve productivity and care delivery. Remote community monitoring can improve access to services and electronic patient records can enable professionals from different areas of health and social care to access the right information at the right time and improve access to specialist expertise.

Technology can also promote better engagement with service users through the use of online networks and mobile applications. To help staff and managers, electronic rotas and mobile working can help to manage resources more effectively and efficiently. Finally, it is possible to use technology such as simulation in the education of health and care professionals. For example, the University of Derby have an immersive interactive Clinical skills simulation suite [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]  that imitates a real ‘hospital ward’ and where students are able to make decisions about care in a ‘safe’ environment.

Activity 3 The potential of digital technology for integrating care

Watch the following video, which discusses ‘the role of technology of care integration’, and make some notes in the box below about what you see as the advantages of electronic records. Understanding the advantages for integrated care will help you later in this course when examining the challenges of implementation and when exploring some of the innovations across the UK.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2 Role of technology in care integration

Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 2 Role of technology in care integration

GARY BIRKS

Undoubtedly, technology is key to the success of delivering integrated care. As patients need to move more across the health care boundaries from organisation to organisation, it's key that data can follow them, that the patient record can follow them, both to deliver on increased efficiencies that integrated care will bring, but also to deliver benefits around patient safety and clinical care.

Traditionally, sharing data across health and social care has been constrained both through organisational silos, but also by the silos of technology and data across those health care organisations. For example, sharing data within acute care has typically been successful, but beyond the boundaries of thought, it's actually been quite limited. And now through the needs of an ageing population, it's important that care and the data can move beyond the acute setting.

One way that organisations can better share data within a local care economy is through the development and introduction of an integrated digital care record. An integrated digital care record brings together the patient's data from many different sources from many different care settings to give the clinician the right data at the right time. That means the clinician can make the best decision for the patient and also help deliver the greatest efficiencies for the health economy.

There are some great examples in the NHS of the use of integrated digital care records. In Northern Ireland, for example, the health and social care boards have come together to develop an electronic care record. In Bristol, with the Connecting Care programme, which has brought together some 14 or so health and social care organisations to create a shared care record.

A more recent example is in the west of Scotland, where five health boards who have their own integrated digital care record held within clinical portals are now undertaking a programme of work that allows them to share and give access to each other's clinical portals. One of the benefits of the west of Scotland portal is actually with regards to the efficiency of clinicians finding patient data, and research ahead of the project showed that clinicians spent on average 70 minutes a day looking for patient data across health borders, and it was anticipated a reduction in the time to search for a patient record would create savings of around 20,000 pound per year per clinician.

Beyond the benefits of efficiency, organisations will find that through the use of an integrated digital care record, they'll actually begin to collate more and more data for each of their patients. That data will allow them to be less reactive, to be more proactive, and move along the journey towards population health management.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The first thing that health care leaders need to do in developing an integrated digital care record is actually to engage all the stakeholders, including their patients, bringing your key stakeholders together to agree on the reasons and the importance of creating an integrated digital care record.

End transcript: Video 2 Role of technology in care integration

Download

Video 2 Role of technology in care integration

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.

Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Discussion

This video provided some examples of integrated patient records from different parts of the United Kingdom. Digital technologies are essential for progression of integrated care, sharing patient information between different agencies and organisations so that the information is available in the right place at the right time. Integrated digital care records are an example of how this can improve patient care, reduce costs and promote efficiency.