Understanding the Process Automation Landscape for Primary Care

NHS England’s London Digital First team are currently driving the digitisation of primary care through several workstreams, with one key focus area being the potential of automation to yield service efficiencies.

In recent years, a number of tools aiming to improve primary care efficiency through automation have begun to emerge. These tools mainly focus on harnessing automation to provide actionable business intelligence and support clinical decision making. However, the realised benefits and limitations of these systems have thus far not been well documented or understood.

The Digital First team approached the Health Innovation Network to support their workstream by producing practical guidance on how these tools could improve clinical and administrative effectiveness within general practice. 

This report aims to provide practical guidance for primary care commissioners, administrators and clinical professionals on automation. This includes detailing the current perceived needs to be addressed by automation across London, the current capabilities of products on the market and their application and potential utility within various primary care processes.

The report includes insights and learning from health and care experts, automation solution providers and early adopters of the technology from across the UK.

Key topics covered by the report include:

• Overview of process automation and its capabilities within a primary care setting
• Opportunities for process automation in primary care (including case study examples)
• Review of the primary care automation market and relevant commercial solutions
• Practical recommendations and considerations for procurement and implementation