-Andrena Logue
Health care organisations are gearing up to define and start delivering new integrated models of care, which will result in a blurring of the traditional divisions between primary and secondary care, and where patients are assessed for treatment.
Technology investment will form the critical first layer of this new infrastructure, and enable health care trusts to start contributing to a cross-disciplinary setting. In contrast, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have already adopted a vertical integrated approach to health care delivery, but all three regions are in the process of identifying how to further enhance their healthcare models, with ICT assuming a comparatively higher profile over their existing deployment levels.
Secondary care in England has not experienced any enforced reconfiguration in the way that its peers have across primary care. Nevertheless, secondary care has grabbed most of the headlines, with each of its sub-sectors challenged in their own right. Acute trusts in particular must work to protect their position, and many are in the midst of wide-scale transformational programmes, which will increasingly see ICT investment underpin both their clinical and corporate operations.
While mental health trusts seek parity with acute care, ambulance trusts are being aligned to work more effectively with other trusts and care providers, and hence need to ensure that vehicles are kitted out to act as local intelligent hubs. As opportunities for ICT suppliers open up, and healthcare organisations seek to diminish risk, it remains the suppliers responsibility to evidence the contexts around which technologies such as XaaS can support scaled operational efficiency, while delivering cost savings.
(The author is a research director at Kable.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views of Channel Times or any of the websites managed or operated by Trivone Digital Services)