Waiting times in English A+E departments: What does the data say?
I was reading a BBC article from 2 days ago about the increased waiting times in Accident & Emergency (A+E) departments in England, The article highlights that the lack of access to GPs has been raised as a contributor and the controversial government plans for £250m funding for GP surgeries to see more patients face-to-face. […]
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Does digital health solutions create more work for doctors and nurses?
The to and fro on the virtues of policy focus on ‘remote’ versus ‘face-to-face’ GP appointments and the controversies around how to ‘incentivise’ GP to offer more face-to-face appointments made me think about the ‘default’ assumption that digital health is an ‘obvious’ choice and that it will make life easier for doctors and nurses. Research […]
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How can data help improve Covid-19 vaccination uptake rates?
The vaccine hesitancy rate in Great Britain has reduced overall during 2021 and has plateaued at 4%. Note: Vaccine hesitancy includes those who have been offered a vaccine but declined the offer; are very or fairly unlikely to have the vaccine if offered; are neither likely nor unlikely to have the vaccine if offered; don’t […]
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NHS waiting lists – 3 key elements to consider
The worsening NHS waiting lists is a hot topic, from a patient outcome perspective as well as operationally and financially for the NHS, and of course politically. The following are 3 key elements to consider when starting to understand the issue and identifying potential solutions: Overall number The waiting list is currently 5.6m, a 32% […]
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Can learning together make health AI solutions better?
I was recently reading an article about Vertical Farming – crops are grown indoors in a ‘stack’ under controlled environmental conditions (i.e. lighting) and using no soil. (If you want to read the book that bought it to the mainstream, and I have just started to read it, check out The Vertical Farm: Feeding the […]
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Digital make up and more inclusive digital health interactions
L’Oréal Paris has developed a collection of digital makeup that can be ‘worn’ by users during video calls. Positioned as enabling users to express themselves and be confident, there is a variety of filters that can be applied when using video calling platforms. This made me think about digital health interactions (for example, virtual consultations […]
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Snap Scan. Interesting. Can we make it easier for users to capture and get information in health too?
Snap recently announced an upgrade to it’s ‘Scan’ feature. Now, I don’t personally use Snap, but according to Verge, the upgrade make it a whole lot more useful. Apart from the more obvious use for shopping which many rivals do as well (i.e. point camera at an item of clothing and it helping you discover […]
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Standalone health apps are dead. Long live ecosystems!
Most health apps fail According to the 2021 Digital Health Trends report by IQVIA, 83% of apps are installed less than 5,000 times and make up only 1% of total downloads. Of apps that were removed from the app stores, 51% has less than 100 downloads. Why do health apps fail? As neatly summarised by […]
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We really need to rehaul how technology is paid for in the NHS
Continuing on my Disney theme, the recent news that Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the streaming of the ‘Black Widow’ movie caught my attention and reminded me of an important issue related to digital health in the NHS – how technology is paid for. So, what happened? Disney streamed the new movie at the […]
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Time to rethink how we gather feedback in the NHS?
I have been reading the book ‘If Disney ran your hospital – 9 ½ things you would do differently’. It’s a different and interesting take on how to put patient experience at the centre, written by someone who has experience working both within the US hospital system as well as at Disney. While patient ‘loyalty’ […]
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