In sickness, in health
Public sector cuts and the associated reformation of the NHS mean a bigger push for efficiencies
Leaders in the healthcare sector are still looking at IT as a way of delivering better services across the NHS, despite the cancellation of various big-ticket IT schemes.
The annual Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology (HETT) expo brought thousands of healthcare stakeholders together at Kensington Olympia this month to learn how best to achieve greater efficiencies using technology.
Data breach concerns
Jonathan Bamford, head of strategic liaison at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), said in his keynote that privacy solutions are a crucial part of what is needed. The large number of data breaches in the UK health sector is cause for concern, he said.
"The NHS is right up there with the private sector in having the biggest self-reported number of security breaches since 2007," he added.
He suggested that while individual healthcare professionals care deeply about patient privacy, they often fail to understand how their use of IT can endanger it, losing USB sticks and laptops on trains, for example. "A lot has changed. We can share and transport information very easily, and that introduces risk," Bamford said. "We can do more to look after people's personal information."
IT providers could develop offerings and educate healthcare users to help the sector reduce the risk of data loss, Bamford said.
Dame Fiona Caldicott, chairwoman of the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care (NIGB), said in her presentation that healthcare providers often struggle to balance the needs of the individual patient with the requirements for treatment, and the NIGB is working to develop the appropriate information governance policies, strategies and practices.
It is believed that technology can and must be of assistance here by providing ways to integrate information across the NHS, and anonymise that information for broader use yet keep it specific and tied directly to the individual where needed.
"There are also questions about when the individual can access his or her data, so it is not a straightforward issue," Caldicott said.
Bob Alexander, director of NHS finance for the Department of Health, said the way healthcare bodies charge for various services needs looking at. The right charging structure should encourage staff to make the best choices for the patient, as well as for organisational efficiency and productivity.
The healthcare sector needs to develop better ways of charging, Alexander said, which of course would need to be supported by the appropriate software.
Don't talk tech
John Thornbury, director of ICT services at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, said in his presentation that the primary challenges are about finding different ways of approaching various problems. IT providers need to assist here by "de-technicalising" their offerings as much as possible and communicating how they can actually help address organisational needs, he added.
"[Healthcare] needs to make £20bn in savings, increase quality, as well as customer focus and services," Thornbury said.
Attendees benefited from a full conference programme, including five technology theatres with 30 back-to-back healthcare-focused vendor presentations. Many technology seminars were heavily oversubscribed, with intensely interested delegates including surgeons, clinicians, nurses, administrators and other healthcare staff spilling out into the throughways.
There was also a technology expo. A diverse range of specialised and mainstream channel players, including VARs Trustmarque Solutions and Softcat, box builder Viglen, and IT vendors including HDS, 3M, Lenovo, Good Technology, McAfee and specialist iSoft, bought stands at the show in the hope of tempting healthcare providers to consider their offerings.
Andrea Carlson, NHS account director at McAfee, said the visitors to its stall shared with Trustmarque were mainly asking about encryption, with others focusing on antivirus. "The NHS has a limited budget, so we have to be at the right level for them, doing integrated security," Carlson said. "They do not have the top people to manage it any more."
Good show
Ben Jones, NHS client director at Trustmarque, thought the event was excellent. About 60 per cent of Trustmarque's business is public sector, and about 70 per cent of that is NHS, he added.
"The audience is right," Jones said. "We are getting the right types of people coming to our stand. There are changes happening in the NHS and it is an opportunity to talk to them about what we can do, but also to see what else is out there [in terms of rivals and other technology]."
Scott Ramsey, NHS business manager at Trustmarque, agreed, saying he had already made a few useful contacts by midday at the one-day event - either customers or potential partners.
It was Trustmarque's first year attending HETT, but people said the 2011 show was larger and busier than in previous years, he added.
Matt Hogarth, public sector account manager at Lenovo, said the event was "really good" with "a good standard of attendees". He was optimistic about the stand having a positive impact. "We are focusing on healthcare, and for us the investment in coming here has probably already paid off," he added.
Lenovo was sharing its stand with security vendor Good Technology and reseller partner Softcat. The idea was to show healthcare providers - nurses, doctors, and NHS support, admin and managerial staff - that there are organisation-oriented and secure mobility options for healthcare deployments.
"We are hoping to promote remote working to the NHS," Hogarth said. "We are promoting Lenovo's business [slate] device in particular to healthcare. The iPads are consumer products they are trying to shoehorn into healthcare. For a business environment, it should be fully encrypted, and our slate can still be used as a consumer device because you can separate your consumer data from your corporate data using partitioning.
"It has a full Office suite as standard, so there is no need to pay extra, and VPN. And it has Citrix Receiver built in, so you can have the full Windows experience on Android technology."
Anthony Cowen, public sector manager at Softcat, said the firm is investing heavily in the healthcare space and sought to demonstrate that at the show.
"We have grown our resources very quickly - from three people focused on healthcare to seven in the past three months," he said. "We have had lots of people through the stand. People have been interested in the Lenovo product, but also in the value that Softcat can add in around that."