At times, it seems that the world is full of controversy and disagreement, but often, there is more consensus than one might suppose. Politicians, healthcare leaders, clinicians and people who rely on services all agree that digital solutions could transform most aspects of the delivery of health and social care. However, the potential is not even close to being realised. A viable and equitable future landscape for these vital services hinges on our capacity to learn how to leverage the potential of all aspects of digital health.

The power of digital

Digital solutions help in two distinctive ways. They can support and streamline the processes of care delivery for us as individuals, adding value and speeding decisions, whilst allowing collaboration between those who provide and those who receive care. In addition, the ‘digital exhaust’ of the data arising from all of our interactions generates data that can be mined for previously unimaginable insights into health and disease; insights that are only discernible through power of digital analysis.

So, if digital transformation of healthcare has so much to offer, why is the progress so slow and patchy? The answer lies in the complexity of our health and social care systems and the need to learn how to manage the interface between the technical and people aspects of the change to this way of working. Complex adaptive systems, such as health and social care, cannot be directed to specific ends by diktat or incentives; solutions emerge from engagement.

Standards are the key

Neither a top down or bottom-up approach to accelerate digital transformation in healthcare have delivered at the scale and pace desired. A ‘middle -out’ approach has many advocates, with most interaction, decision-making and autonomy being managed as locally as possible, but within a framework in which some essential features are constant. Complex adaptive systems work best when they operate within simple rules.

The co-creation, maintenance, endorsement and dissemination of key standards for use in digital health solutions is an essential example. They provide the ‘rules of the road’ that can enable the bridge between effective local systems and the ability to share interoperable data that is required if both of the major benefits of digital transformation are to be realised. My care as an individual will only be optimised when all of those involved can see the information that relates to me in a framework that we all trust. The precision of the insights from big data analytics will only be delivered when data is used and encoded in a standardised way.

Join the conversation

The Professional Records Standards Body plays a leading role in making these standards a reality. Its event, aptly called ‘Navigating the Data Frontier’, which will take place on 20 June at 15Hatfields Conference Centre in London, will be an opportunity to engage in this work and to contribute to a process that is at the heart of unleashing the power of digital change.

If you haven’t already, register to be part of this event: https://theprsb.org/navigatingthedatafrontierjune2024/.

Professor Bernard Crump,
PRSB’s Clinical Advisor