This week, the PRSB team caught up with colleagues and had the pleasure of making new acquaintances from across the healthcare sector, at this year’s HETT Show. PRSB were present in a packed exhibition hall and had representatives speaking about the role of standards in healthcare, while continuing to spread awareness of the #CareAboutMe campaign.

The event saw a range of high-profile speakers sharing their thoughts on the role of digital solutions in healthcare, including the challenges and benefits of deploying them across different settings. Attendees had the opportunity to join a variety of sessions on the following themes:

• Culture & Implementation
• Digitally Empowered Patients
• Digital Maturity
• Infrastructure & Data Architecture
• Integration & Interoperability

On the first day, the Professional Lead for our diabetes standards, Iain Cranston, shared his perspectives on if and how personal health technology fosters long-term patient engagement. Iain agreed that a paradigm shift in the management of diabetes has been experienced within the last decade, with 80% of diabetes patients now using monitoring devices to manage their condition. However, he suggested that there is a need to figure out how we could use digital data in the most effective way, and what data is deemed as useful in our clinical caregiving.

Later, Charlie McCay, our Non-executive Director for Technology, took part in a panel session on industry standard data architecture and infrastructure for the NHS, where he implored that, although technology has changed and progressed, we still need to have standards governing what information is required to be shared across health and social care settings. Charlie highlighted that the operational elements, such as people and processes, must be consistent in order to achieve interoperability across systems.

On day two, PRSB Chair, Professor Maureen Baker CBE, participated in a session on the evolution of patient safety in the digital era. When asked about the greatest advancement in this area, Maureen praised the benefits of electronic prescribing in general practice. However, there is still a need to make sure that we are able to recognise and pick up any errors in a timely fashion, through compliance with the NHS standards and performing hazard assessments. Talking about the role of data in patient safety, she expressed her concern for using it as a tool to blame, rather than taking lessons and applying them for the future. Sharing her final thoughts, Maureen emphasised the importance of standards in ensuring patient safety.

Maureen was also joined by Gemma Dakin, Project Manager on the Patient Safety and Experience Team at the Health Innovation Network in South London, who highlighted that patient safety can be further improved by making digital tools inclusive to a wider population in the UK and training healthcare staff to support patients who are less digitally savvy. Her team has recently published a report on assessing the impact of digital health inequalities.