Improving Outcomes for Patients in Community Care: Innovation at Bromley Healthcare

When it comes to innovation, have you properly considered the role of community services? With changes to integrated care happening from July, community care is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. We spoke to one of our partners, Dr Cath Jenson, Medical Director at Bromley Healthcare, about the difference they are making.

Too often overlooked, community care is now being recognised as the glue between primary and secondary care, helping provider collaboratives within the new integrated care systems to succeed.

As medical director at community provider Bromley Healthcare, I’m proud of the role we play in testing innovative solutions for integrated care and using data to drive improvement. For example, did you know we are the accelerator site for two hour response in south east London? Or that we are driving new standards for outcomes in meeting the needs of frail and complex patients outside hospital, integrating with the ‘One Bromley’ proactive care pathway and our own therapy and rehabilitation services (including bedded unit)?

Many don’t know we have specialist nurses across numerous fields – our children’s ‘hospital at home’ being another example of our innovations (shortlisted for a 2021 RCN Nursing Award in the Child Health category) aimed at keeping patients at home safely with a growing range of complex medical needs previously requiring admission. Or that we are the prime contractor for out-of-hospital diabetes care in Bromley and have recently recruited the first population health apprentice in London to develop population health initiatives for One Bromley (including Primary Care Networks).

And then there’s the services we provide outside Bromley, including special care dentistry across south east  London and health visiting in Bexley and Greenwich. In total we have over 35 services and 1,200 staff making the difference to patients in their own homes and communities.

There is a wealth of experiences and ways to make a real difference to patients in community care and to further enhance this we are now recruiting to newly established Clinical Director positions, to cement and develop our clinical leadership. Further information:

Find out more

To find out more please email Dr Cath Jenson.

Get in touch

Innovation Exchange webinar: Modernising Primary Care Telephony

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our interactive webinar “Modernising Primary Care Telephony” took place on Wednesday 2 March, 12:30-14:00.

The webinar showcased telephony innovations, highlighting the potential for modern telephony to improve communication in primary care across London.

Presented by the Health Innovation Network in collaboration with the NHS England Digital First Programme London, we looked at how updating traditional telephone systems can improve interactions with patients and support PCN development, flexible and remote working and help streamline service delivery.

This event updated primary care staff about emerging national plans around primary care telephony and built on previous work undertaken in this area through the Digital First Programme and learning from ongoing projects. The event also showcased several products on the market, helping primary care staff understand the breath and depth of functionality that can transform primary care processes.

In addition, the HIN has produced a commissioning guide on Modernising Primary Care Telephony which is now available for download from the Health Innovation Network’s website. This report was commissioned by Our Healthier South East London ICS (OHSEL)through the Digital First Programme and delivered by the Health Innovation Network, the Academic Health Science Network for South London.

You can access the event pack and running order here, and the slide deck here.

Video Running Order

Start time Topic Presenter
00:00:00 Introduction from Chair/

Health Innovation Network

 

Denis Duignan

Head of Digital Transformation & Technology

Health Innovation Network

00:04:50 Presentation:

A London region perspective around the opportunities of modern telephony in primary care.

Matt Nye

Regional Director for Digital First Programmes

NHS England (London)

00:09:57 Five 2-minute pitches*

 

Babble Ltd

Product: Babblevoice

Antoine Lever

Director

EVAD Think Healthcare

Product: Think Healthcare Solution

Mike Smyth

Think Healthcare Team Leader    

Exponential-e  

Product: UC-One

Tim Gilliatt

Public Sector Account Manager

Gamma

Product: Horizon, the modern Primary Care telephony choice

Amy Black

Business Development Executive                  

Premier Choice Group

Product: Premier Patient Line

James Gargaro

Sales Manager   

00:24:31 Presentation:

Taking an ICS wide approach to primary care telephony

Brian Stennett

NWL GP Telephony Lead, Digital First

North West London CCG

00:34:07 Four 2-minute pitches* Voice Connect Ltd

Product:  Cloud Based Patient Partner with Automated Telephony Repeat Prescriptions Review and Ordering Service

Paul Trayler

Sales Director     

VTSL Limited

Product: GP Cloud Voice

Rob Walton                          

CEO

X-on      

Product: Surgery Connect Desktop App

Paul Bensley

Director

Yo Telecom       

Product: Bespoke Phone System

Daniel Mills

Senior Consultant              

00:41:02 Presentation:

Advanced Telephony National Update

Nikki Hinchley

Head of GPIT Transformation, Digital Primary Care

NHS Transformation Directorate / NHS England & NHS Improvement

00:47:27 Panel discussion and Q&A session Speakers and Chair to take questions from the audience
01:16:13 Closing remarks Chair
* The Health Innovation Network and NHS England do not endorse or recommend any of the commercial innovations showcased at this Innovation Exchange event. The innovations referred to at the event are not preferred suppliers and there are other solutions that can support the challenges identified. This event is intended to inspire people as to how innovations can support health system problems, rather than endorse any specific solutions, with the sole intended purpose to be for guidance only.

Community Diagnostic Centres – Cardiology Innovation Exchange

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our “Community Diagnostic Centres – Cardiology Innovation Exchange” took place on Wednesday 1 December 2021 from 9:00- 12:00.

The NHS London Community Diagnostic Hub (CDC) Programme are working closely with clinical pathway groups in the design and development of the CDCs to ensure they are meeting the needs of patients and the health system. Health Innovation Network and UCLPartners (Academic Health Science Networks – AHSNs) are supporting the programme to advise on innovative solutions to support the CDCs, in order to improve efficiency and care for patients.

To showcase this work, all three London AHSNs (HIN, UCLP, and ICHP) hosted an Innovation Exchange Event that gave clinicians, pathway experts, system leaders and innovators an opportunity to engage and discuss the innovative solutions that can support the set-up of the CDCs.

The innovations that were presented at the event had been selected based on challenge areas identified through our structured engagement with a variety of stakeholders in the field. The current focus is on cardiology and the pathways linked to heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chest pain and valve disease.

Please note, the innovations referred to at the event are not preferred suppliers and there are other solutions that can support the challenges identified. This event was intended to inspire people as to how innovations can support health system problems, rather than endorse any specific solutions.

You can watch the recording below, access the event pack here, and access the slides here.

If you’d like to watch a specific presentation, timings can be found below;

“Transforming Cancer diagnosis through technology and AI” interactive webinar recording

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Our interactive webinar raising awareness of innovative cancer diagnostic tools and practices in cancer in South East London took place on on Wednesday 17 November, 2021.

This webinar, presented by the Health Innovation Network and the South East London Cancer Alliance, looked at how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are being used in diagnostic technology across multiple clinical areas in cancer.

We heard from Innovators and Tech companies including:

The SELCA Rapid Diagnostics Hub – The team will present their research on future practice and innovations to develop the service.

Kherion Medical Transforming cancer diagnostics through the power of deep learning, helping radiology departments become more effective and efficient, overcome resource challenges, and improve patient experience.

Odin Vision An award-winning Artificial Intelligence (AI) company founded by a team of eminent clinicians and artificial intelligence experts with the mission of creating the next generation of AI enabled applications for endoscopy.

Plus short pitches from health tech companies with solutions to improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosis, aid clinical decision-making, and lead to better health outcomes, including:

Behold – Bringing AI technologies to radiology departments in the NHS to support the accelerated diagnosis of acute, chronic and healthy patient examinations.

IBEX Empowering pathologists to make quicker and more accurate diagnosis with state-of-the-art decision-support tools.

Pinpoint – Using AI analysis of blood tests to produce a calibrated probability that a patient has cancer in one of the nine main cancer groups, covering over 98% of all urgent cancer referrals.

Skin Analytics Providing AI supported dermatology solutions in partnership with the NHS, supporting clinicians in their assessment of skin lesions.

You can watch the recording here and access the event pack here.

Effective sustainable answers to retention and recruitment challenges – The case for Open Collaborative Staff Bank

Male nurse pushing stretcher gurney bed in hospital corridor with doctors & senior female patient

Blog

The HIN works with a number of innovators which could potentially support the health and social care sector. Here we hear from one of the companies we have worked closely with. We would like to introduce Dr. Ahmed Shahrabani, doctor by trade and co-founder of Locum’s Nest – a holistic workforce solution connecting healthcare professionals to temporary work in healthcare organisations.

My Co-Founder, Dr Nicholas Andreou, and I worked together as first year doctors at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, South London, where we experienced first-hand the inefficiencies and problems that poor staffing created for us, our colleagues and, more importantly, our patients. We stood back from front-line medicine in 2016 and started Locum’s Nest, which has already saved the NHS £80 million by seamlessly filling vacant shifts, avoiding added admin and agency fees.

Our vision is to increase transparency, collaboration and improve care, through our intuitive mobile and web multi-product platform used by healthcare professionals and NHS management teams. Our mission was clear from the get-go: to remove barriers to workforce mobility across the NHS, which has led us to pioneer the formation of digital collaborative workforce banks across the country, enabling cross-covering of shifts across an ever-growing number of NHS Trusts.

With an existing significant workforce deficit, it is increasingly important in the context of the current pandemic to have the right workforce with the right skills in place to help deliver the best quality care to patients and maintain the service. As witnessed during the last six months, it is clear that technology has a vital role to play in this area.

However, owing to the way healthcare professionals are deployed – which can feel outdated and not aligned with levels of demand and patient needs – there are many factors which need to be addressed in order to help retain and recruit NHS staff.

Collaborative Staff Banks: Making the best use of our workforce with clever technology

We firmly believe in flexible and collaborative working and are continuously working on creative ways to support NHS organisations to work in a more transparent manner and increase engagement of their workforce.

After merging the Royal Surrey and Ashford & St Peter’s NHS FT contingent pool of workers in 2016, the two Trusts doubled their effective workforce of doctors overnight. The resulting workforce climate was exactly what we wanted to create, enabling absolute NHS workforce mobility and improving patient continuity of care.

This grassroot project, enabling clinicians to cross-cover vacant shifts is now known as The Digital Collaborative Bank (DCB) and has expanded to eight acute NHS Trusts, namely: Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The DCB, spanning across 150 miles, now counts over 5,000 clinicians across all grades and specialties, covering thousands of shifts each month, positively contributing to continuity of patient care and saving millions on agency costs.

There’s never been a better time to end silo working and embrace collaboration

By working openly and collaboratively, the group’s fill rate (amount of vacant shifts covered by clinicians) was consistently 5-10 per cent higher than the average Trust working independently, reaching a record-breaking 91 per cent shift fill rate across all eight Trusts at the height of the pandemic.

Despite these positive results, the NHS as a whole has not yet agreed to operate cohesively as one employer. Instead, hospitals up and down the country unfortunately continue to compete and work in silos. Over the decades this has often proved counter-productive, with organisations blocking available clinicians from offering their services to other organisations by ring-fencing their contingent workforce.

After years of working with Trusts’ leaders, conducting academic research, plus collating data and testimonials from leaders in technology, workforce and clinical services within the NHS, we produced our Workforce Report exploring the consequences of ring-fencing our contingent workforce vs breaking down freedom-of-movement barriers. This report makes a strong ethical, financial and practical case for an open bank approach as a key strategy in tackling our health service’s workforce challenges across four key aspects:

  • staff morale;
  • patient care;
  • financials; and
  • governance.

To support healthcare organisations even further, the team has created an entire library of content with plenty of resources dedicated to the creation of collaborative staff bank.

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Event: Empowering Patients to Self-Manage

Brought to you by our Innovation theme.

Are you a Health and Social Care professional interested in learning more about digital solutions to support patients to self-manage or a company with a digital self-management solution that would like to pitch your idea? Then look no further and join us on Thursday 21 May.

What you will get

This interactive Webinar will bring together Social Care, Primary Care, Trusts, CCGs and innovators to explore solutions for empowering patients to self-manage their long-term conditions, mental health and wellbeing using digital solutions.

We will begin with a presentation from James Woollard of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust on the potential for self management platforms to support patients. Chris Gumble from NHS South West London CCG will share their experiences with the Diabetes Decathlon project and the collaboration with Sweatcoin, an exercise incentivisation app. Charlotte Lee, the Director of Big Health UK will present lessons learnt whilst rolling out the digital self-care platform Sleepio across the NHS.

Join key stakeholders from NHS providers and commissioners to learn about digital self-management solutions including:

  • education for specific health conditions;
  • peer-led courses;
  • online self-management tools;
  • telephone support and telehealth; and
  • self-monitoring of medication and symptoms using digital technology.

Ten leading companies will each present a short pitch at the event on how their solutions can help patients manage their conditions and play a more active role in their own healthcare decisions.

How to sign up

Health and Social Care professionals, contact Karla Richards, Project Manager for the Innovation Theme to secure your place.

Are you a company that would like to pitch?* Contact Karla Richards, Project Manager for the Innovation Theme for further details on how to be selected.

*please note the deadline for pitch submissions is 6 May.

Self-management could help ease the high demand on GPs

Self-management could help ease the high demand on GPs

To help ease the high demand on GPs across south London, self-management is a priority in the NHS 10-Year Plan and focuses on key areas like diabetes prevention and management, cardiovascular, asthma and respiratory conditions, maternity and parenting support and online therapies for common mental health conditions.

Individuals need support to build the skills and confidence necessary for effective self-management of longstanding conditions, and health professionals need to be aware of and trained on the available supportive tools, taking account of any inequalities and accessibility barriers their patients may face.

Research presented by Self Management UK[1] shows that, on average, people living with a heath condition spend just three hours per year with their healthcare team—the rest of their time is spent self-managing these conditions. NHS organisations need to work closely with local authorities and other partners to provide the support and guidance to help south Londoners self-manage properly.

There are many interventions available to help support the self-management of common conditions, some of which are:

  • education for specific health conditions;
  • peer-led courses;
  • online self-management tools;
  • telephone support and telehealth; and
  • self-monitoring of medication and symptoms using digital technology.

How can innovation help? 

You can help respond to our local needs by addressing the following challenge statements:

  1. How might we maximise digital solutions to support self-management of health risks and chronic conditions?
  2. How can digital solutions emphasise patient responsibility and, acting in conjunction with the provider community, move beyond education, enabling individuals to actively identify challenges and solve problems associated with their illness?
  3. What are the barriers to public awareness and successful patient uptake of these self-management solutions?

We’d love to collaborate with you on these challenges. Please get in touch with Karla Richards karla.richards@nhs.net if you have a digital solution for health and care self-management, including for long-term conditions, mental health, heart disease, COPD etc.

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How technology can improve the delivery of social care services

 

How technology can improve the delivery of social care services

With a growing population of older and disabled adults, London’s demand for care is placing the social care system under huge strain. Further to this, London Councils estimates that boroughs across the city have experienced a combined loss of more than £4 billion in core funding since 2010 (a reduction of around 63%). We need to think differently about how and where services are delivered, utilising digital solutions to maximise the workforce and care provided.

Health and social care systems are critical to maintaining the physical and mental wellbeing of Londoners. We need a digital revolution in adult social care, starting with exploring how social care services could be delivered digitally. Technology has the potential to help free up staff time by enabling users to access services digitally, thereby improving their independence, efficiency and wellbeing and reducing the need for in-person care visits simply for reassurance. Where this type of digital solution has been implemented, service users report that it helps to increase their digital literacy and independence and reduces their social isolation. It has also led to more flexible working for social care staff.

On Friday 13 March 2020 at St Thomas’ Hospital we hosted an Innovation Exchange event on the ‘Digital Revolution in Social Care’. The event brought together our members and key stakeholders in this field to discuss and showcase the most cutting-edge digital innovations to both inspire and practically help our industry partners to shape the future of social care delivery.

If you are interested in learning more about this innovation challenge please email Lesley.soden@nhs.net or if you missed the event you can see a glimpse of what you missed below.

The urgency for digital innovation in urgent and emergency care

The desperate need for digital innovation in urgent and emergency care – sparking connections and inspiring innovations

Written by Lesley Soden, Programme Director, Innovation Theme, Health Innovation Network

This winter has once again been a record-breaking one for A&E departments across the country —but not in a good way. Programme Director of Innovation, Lesley Soden, reflects on how technology, and not targets, needs to be the centre of the discussion to really support health and care providers delivering urgent care.

According to data and analysis published in the Health Service Journal earlier this month, overall type-one performance in emergency and urgent care units—the turnaround time for treating the most critical patients in A&E—has fallen nearly 11 percentage points since December 2018, while some individual trusts have experienced a year-on-year slide of between 20 and 30 per cent.

But how can anyone be surprised when in London alone, A&Es saw over 25,000 more patients in December 2019 than they did in December 2018.[1] Service expectations and pressures grow higher, while clinical staff continue to be spread thinner.

But instead of joining in the discussion on whether the targets need to change, I want to talk to you about the impact that existing technology could have on the urgent and emergency care system. Last October, at Health Innovation Network (HIN), we partnered with the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme to host an Innovation Exchange event to debate exactly the question I believe is the most important to answer – how can technology help? At the event, we brought together key stakeholders from the urgent and emergency care sector in London and creators of some of the latest innovations tackling ever-growing issues with the wait times and overall efficiency  The event sought to achieve two things; firstly, to share a deeper understanding of vital NHS needs with the health tech innovators, and secondly, to start the conversation about how digital innovations that are already transforming other areas of healthcare might be able to help.

An honest discussion

Determined not to present an idealistic view of transformation, we started the day discussing the complexities of digital innovation. There are 32 CCGs across London, each with different systems, providers, patient pathways and data flows. This lack of cohesion across the board can result in real challenges for the introduction of new innovations, particularly digital ones. For example, a product may fit into one hospital easily, but be incompatible with another. Similarly, a product may require or generate specific data that we don’t have a standard process for sharing across multiple settings. These challenges are best appreciated when you look at urgent and emergency care. It is here that speed and effectiveness can make the difference in highly pressurised life or death situations.

It was eye-opening to hear about the level of activity that the London Ambulance Service (LAS) experiences. LAS handle approximately 5,000 emergency calls every day in London and has approximately 6,000 staff, 65 per cent of them front line staff responding to emergencies. On average, the LAS responds to all Category 1 calls (the most serious of emergency calls) within 6 mins 28 seconds. In these often-chaotic situations, bandwidth, hardware and human factors such as the staff’s experience of the technology, are all integral to a successful A&E handover.

Where technology is already helping

Stuart Crichton, Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) at the LAS, described one of the challenges they experienced when implementing the use of iPads. The issue lay with ensuring that paramedics remembered their most up-to-date passwords. As we all do on occasion, staff kept forgetting their login details or couldn’t access their most up-to-date credentials (a password reminder was sent to an email address they couldn’t easily access). To resolve this issue, LAS removed the need for usernames and passwords, opting instead for using fingerprint recognition, the same type of technology many people use day-to-day with smart phones and tablets. Stuart described this as an exciting breakthrough, and a simple solution the LAS believes will have a positive impact in crucial life and death situations.

Dr. Gabriel Jones, Consultant of Emergency Medicine at St George’s NHS Foundation Trust, described the lightbulb moment he had when looking around the waiting room one day and noticing that almost all the patients who were waiting were using their smart phones. In the UK, 78 per cent of adults now have a smartphone. Dr. Jones recognised this as an opportunity to try something new. They designed a digital solution and set up a pilot, known at the hospital as ED Check-in, that enables patients to input information to a secure mobile website via their smart phones while they wait. A doctor can then access that information instantly, and it follows the patients through their hospital journey, keeping clinicians informed at each stage. Sometimes, clinicians with an entrepreneurial nature can design the best solutions to challenges within their health services, which is why it’s so important that they’re included in conversations around digital innovation.

… to create positive change, it’s imperative that today’s innovators understand the complications as well so they can deliver the most appropriate digital solutions

At the event, we were lucky enough to have guest speaker Eileen Sutton, Head of Urgent and Emergency Care at the Healthy London Partnership (HLP) and London Regional Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) Lead at NHS England. Eileen is a District Nurse by background and has a range of experience across the IUC system. She identified the need to reduce the number of people turning up at A&E with conditions or illnesses that could be treated at home, by a community pharmacist or other care professionals, and the need to improve patient flow to reduce the time spent waiting to be treated upon arriving at A&E as some of the greatest challenges. We know that NHS expert staff are the only ones who really understand the high complexity and nuance of these situations, but in order to create positive change, it’s imperative that today’s innovators understand the complications as well so they can deliver the most appropriate digital solutions.

Working with the DigtialHealth.London Accelerator Programme, we were able to identify 11 companies that offer solutions to these two main challenges. We held a rigorous and open application process for innovators to attend this event, during which they had the opportunity to pitch their innovations to London NHS commissioners, trusts and other NHS expert staff.

The companies selected to present were:

To demonstrate the real-world application of the innovations, we created some fictional scenarios in which the innovators present could help to reduce A&E attendance and improve patient flow.

Scenario one: Reducing A&E attendance challenge

We discussed Ahmed, a frequent visitor to his A&E for a number of minor ailments that could be managed by a pharmacy or primary care. At his next visit, he is referred to the Health Navigator solution and assigned a Health Coach, with whom he speaks weekly. He now rarely visits A&E and has joined local classes.

And Claire, who is worried that she has a UTI. We offer her a virtual and confidential consultation via Q Doctor with a doctor at a local urgent care centre instead. The doctor refers her to the local pharmacy to use the Dip-IO test from Healthy.io, which tests positive and the pharmacist then prescribes antibiotics.

And then Bob who calls 111. He is re-directed to the MedicSpot station at his local pharmacy, where he is given a remote consultation with a virtual doctor, who takes his blood pressure checks for other vital signs.

All three patients are given the care they needed in a timely and effective manner, without the need for ambulance or a prolonged wait in A&E.

Scenario two: Improving patient flow and reducing waiting times challenge 

For our next challenge, we talked about Mary, who has multiple complex co-morbidities and goes to her local A&E when she experiences tingling in her legs. In the reception area, there are tablets with the eConsult triage system. Mary checks in using a tablet, by answering a few brief clinical questions about her symptoms. The system automatically triages Mary by her clinical symptoms within five minutes of her arrival.

While Mary is in the waiting area, she also inputs her symptoms, medication and medical history into the MedCircuit app, which helps save the doctor time and uses Mary’s wait more efficiently.

Mary sees the A&E doctor, but the light isn’t working in one of the consultation rooms. She uses the MediShout app to report this logistical issue, which links to the estates helpdesk and reports it immediately. She receives a notification that it will be fixed in two hours.

The doctor runs a full blood count test using Horiba’s Microsemi CRP device, which gives test results in four minutes. Mary is transferred to the x-ray department using the Infinity ePortering system to request a porter, saving critical time for herself and the doctors.

The A&E department also uses CEMBooks, which allows the consultant managing Mary’s case to plan her care and predict the demand for inpatient beds if this is required.

Mary deteriorates rapidly and requires a transfer to a specialist hospital. During her transfer in the ambulance, the MediVue platform provides real-time data taken from her monitor and active correspondence between the transferring doctor and the receiving hospital.

When she arrives at the specialist hospital, staff are prepared to smoothly transfer her to the appropriate unit, having already been informed of her history and symptoms.

These may be fictional scenarios, but they represent just a fraction of the real-life attendances to emergency care that technology could be helping make safer, more efficient and a better experience for both staff and patients. And most significantly, whilst time and efficiency were intended benefits of the digital solutions presented at the event, the focus of our discussions were about patient outcomes and supporting staff to deliver. Maybe if we changed the focus from targets to technology nationally too, we’d get to a clearer solution more quickly.

About the author

Lesley Soden
Programme Director – Innovation Theme, Health Innovation Network

Lesley has led the HIN’s Innovation Exchange function since 2017. She has over 20 years’ experience in the NHS and public sector working in senior business/strategy and programme management roles. Her roles have included work with transformation, contracts and commercial, programme delivery, business development/ planning, bid writing and clinical service re-design, all delivered in collaboration with a variety of partnerships. She is interested in new ways of working and maximising technology to improve patient care.

Invitation to pitch: digital workforce transformation showcase

Invitation to pitch: digital workforce transformation showcase

We all know that the NHS is facing increasing demands on its services. Alongside the challenges of recruiting and retaining clinical professionals, there is a role for technology as a driver of productivity within the clinical workforce.

Working in collaboration with NHS England, and NHS Improvement, the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is running a showcase event for HR Directors exploring how technology can help NHS staff and employers to improve workforce productivity, recruitment and retention.

We are looking for ten companies to present their innovations, and in particular, innovations that are already being used by NHS employers and that meet workforce challenges including:

  • Recruitment / time to hire
  • HR transactional tasks / HR productivity
  • Workforce capacity management / clinical workforce productivity
  • Retention
  • Staff wellbeing (physical and mental health)

If selected, you will give a three-minute pitch to the audience on how they could adopt your innovation(s) in their organisations. You will also participate in our “world café” session to discuss your solution in more detail. We aim to help you generate warm leads by curating a receptive audience for workforce innovations.

We are looking for innovations that are already well-developed – this is not an event for innovations at the idea stage.

Please apply to take part by downloading and completing this short form and returning it to geraldine.murphy8@nhs.net by 5pm on Friday 10 May.

Event details

  • Date and time: Tuesday 11 June, 17:00 – 20:30
  • Venue: DAC Beachcroft, Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, EC4N 8AF

Agenda

  • 16:30-17:00 Registration
  • 17:00- 17:05 Welcome
  • 17:05-17:15 Clinical Productivity – Andy Howlett, Clinical Productivity Operations Director, NHS England / Improvement
  • 17:15-17:25  Can technology and artificial intelligence help to improve workforce productivity and create a more agile workforce? What can be done now? – Lesley Soden, Head of Innovation, Health Innovation Network
  • 17:25-17:35 NHS Trust Case Study: Lessons from transforming our medical workforce – Alfredo Thompson, HR Director, North Middlesex Hospitals NHS Trust; Dr Frances Evans, Medical Director, North Middlesex Hospitals NHS Trust
  • 17:35-17:50 Q&A
  • 17:50-18:20 Company pitches
  • 18:20-18:30 Close – Lesley Soden, Head of Innovation, Health Innovation Network
  • 18:30-20:00 Refreshments and networking

 

Top Tips for innovators

Top Tips for Innovators

Got a great innovation that could radicalise the health care system but overwhelmed by the complexity of the NHS? Lesley Soden, Head of Innovation gives her top tips on how to build relationships with NHS and local authority contacts so you can get your innovation successfully implemented.

With Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock’s increased focus on the advancements of digital and technological solutions for the NHS, the market for health innovations is booming. Whilst it is an exciting time for health tech, for innovators themselves it makes for a crowded marketplace. In addition to the competition you face, you are also expected to navigate the complex landscape of the NHS.

Getting your innovation adopted in the NHS sphere can feel like opening a sticky door that requires the hinges to be oiled continuously. At the Health Innovation Network, we are approached by about 3-4 innovators every week looking for advice and support with getting their innovation bought by the NHS. Whilst every innovation requires different proof-points, we have learnt a number of lessons through our experience of improving the take-up of the Innovation and Technology Payment products across South London, and developed some key steps that all innovators can follow to increase their chances of getting their innovation, product or service adopted.

Target the right people

Having an engagement plan to target the right people at the right time, will stop you wasting yours. For example, if the innovation helps with managing referrals more effectively then a General Manager or Operational Director will be your target audience. If your innovation addresses a patient safety issue, then the Medical Director of Director of Nursing will be the decision-maker you need to approach. Work out which part of the system your innovation will save them money and then work out who is in charge of spending for that department.

Tip: if your innovation has the potential to save money for an NHS provider don’t target commissioners. Also, Trusts often have transformation teams who could help with getting your innovation adopted if there is evidence that it will improve patient care.

Tailor your message

In general, all NHS Trusts or Clinical Commissioning Groups will have the same system pressures as everyone else. These could be A&E waiting times, or the increasing demand caused by more patients having more complex conditions. However, individual decision-makers will have different priorities that concern them on a daily basis. To make sure your message is getting heard you should tailor it to the specific pressures or problems that your innovation could help them with.  For example, the Director of Nursing will probably be concerned with their nursing vacancies and agency costs, or patient safety while the Director of Finance and Performance’s priority is more likely to be addressing long waiting lists, or meeting their savings target.

Tip: trust board reports and Clinical Commissioning Group board reports are all published via their website; by scanning these board papers you can identify their specific issues and make it clear that your innovation solves their problems.

Get clinician approval first

Don’t even think about approaching any director or commissioner if you don’t have sufficient clinician buy-in. After all, they are the people who will be using your innovation on day-to-day and will need to be convinced of its value if you want it to get implemented properly. Approach the clinical teams to highlight the clinical and patient benefits of your innovation, and test their interest, before trying to get it bought for their hospital.

Tip: you are more likely to have an impact with this audience if you show that you’ve done some research. Do the testing, build up an evidence-base and then make your approach.

Learn about procurement

Don’t underestimate the potential for procurement processes to slow down or even stall getting your innovation into the NHS. Procurement is often a lengthy process in trusts, (for very good reason given it is taxpayer money that is being spent) the complexities of which need to be understood and respected.

Tip: engage with procurement teams to understand the process for buying your innovation, so you can don’t delay getting the sign-off for your innovation being adopted.

Refine your pitch

Contrary to popular belief, products generally aren’t so good they sell themselves. I hear 2-3 pitches a week from individuals with a health innovation and the majority of them fall down at the same hurdles. Firstly, don’t start your pitch with the generalist tabloid problems with the NHS. An NHS manager hearing for the third time that week that the NHS has no money and national targets are consistently not being met they will disengage. Instead, touch upon the challenge that your innovation will solve and then give detail on how your innovation is the solution. And the devil is in the detail. All too often pitches include vague statements about an innovation rather than actual detail. The best pitches are those that give overview of the innovation, clinical evidence, quantify return on investment and give an example of past or current implementation within the NHS. Spell out the real benefits using robust data and evidence, but don’t promise you can solve all their problems if you don’t have the proof.

Tip: return on investment is extremely important to highlight early on in your pitch. For example, one company recently included the fact that a different maternity unit had commissioned their online platform because it would save them money on public liability insurance. This type of evidence is impressive, clear and makes it easy to forecast the exact numbers by which your product will make them clear savings. This will always grab people’s attention.

Show how your innovation works

This sounds simple – and it is. People don’t just want to hear about how a product works, they want to see it and even try it out where possible. If it’s a medical device, make sure you bring it with you. Or if it’s a digital solution, do a short demo to help people to visualise your innovation.

Tip: have a quick pitch on your product ready and ensure that it clearly explains how your product works. Practise a 60 second pitch for meeting potential customers on an ad-hoc basis at networking events.

Be persistent, but polite

It’s unlikely that the first email you send will result in a bulk order of your product. It’s probably unlikely it will even result in a meeting. But that doesn’t mean you should stop knocking on doors. ‘No replies’ are not the same as rejection. And rejection can sometimes be ‘not now’ rather than a straight ‘no’. If you believe your product can transform the health care system for the better, then there’s a good chance you can convince someone else of that too.

Tip: don’t assume the worst in people when they don’t respond. Your target audience are busy and overwhelmed by pitches. Maintaining your professionalism and manners at all times will always go further to getting an answer than aggressive chasing.

As I said, getting your innovation adopted in the NHS can feel like opening a sticky door that requires the hinges to be oiled continuously. If you take a hammer to it, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to repair the damage caused to relationships in the future.

Lesley Soden is the Head of Innovation within the Health Innovation Network. She has over 20 years experience in the NHS and public sector. She has worked in senior business and strategy roles in mental health and community NHS Trusts involving programme management, business development, bid writing and service re-design, all delivered in collaborations with a variety of public and private health partners.

For more information on how we work with innovators, visit our Innovation Exchange page or read about our funding opportunities here.