Heartbeat: Gathering your digital ambitions – how can tech transform your service?
March 24, 2020
Our digital journey does not end with the introduction of Unity. Across the Trust we are looking at how we can continue to embrace the benefits of new technology to transform the services we provide – whether that is a corporate service, a clinical service, or a way of making us more efficient in how carry out our day to day work.
Supporting us in our new digital programme is our informatics team who are visiting teams across the Trust to talk to you about your service and how you think technology could help.
Toby Lewis, Chief Executive, said: “We have made great strides within the Trust on developing confidence in our digital systems. Unity implementation was a big focus for us on 2019 and, as we continue to optimise our use of that system, we are also looking ahead to build a five year digital plan for the Trust. Technology in healthcare is changing all the time and we have all sorts of opportunities to look to other parts of the country, and even globally, to see how we can make changes
to bring benefits to patients, carers and colleagues. I would encourage you all to raise your ideas and share them with your group digital boards or send them to your IT business partner. Your ideas are what will make our new digital journey a success.”
Louise Brown, Digital Transformation Manager, said: “Digital ambitions are the technological solutions we plan to implement over the next few years to enable improvements in how we communicate and work, with the aim that we are able to deliver better co-ordinated care more quickly to our patients, using technology to help with better diagnosis and treatment.
“It’s a very exciting time for our organisation – the implementation of Unity has really shown how a digital solution can improve patient care. We are also seeing how artificial intelligence is making a huge difference to the way colleagues work within our imaging group.
“I’m sure many colleagues have great ideas about improving services through digital solutions and through this process we hope to help you achieve the ambitions you have for your colleagues and patients.”
Ideas are already flowing, including virtual patient consultations, new technology to help speed up how we transfer patients from one part of our Trust to another. Increased use of artificial intelligence is also of great interest and colleagues have suggested virtual chat assistance and robotics.
A team of senior clinical, operational and IT colleagues will assess all ideas, looking at benefit, safety, viability and cost as well as whether the initiative could be implemented at a wider scale. The Trust’s digital boards in each group will review ideas and feed into the Trust’s Digital Committee for investment decisions.
Talk to your informatics business partner, your line manager or feed into your group’s digital boards. You can also share your ideas through Connect.