Rewired Retro-ed: What’s hot and what’s not

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And that’s a wrap. The posters have been put in their cardboard tubes and the games and gimmicks packaged away until the next conference. Two days of the latest in Digital Heatlh #Rewired2024 is over and Birmingham NEC can devote itself to the next trade fair. And I have a lot to think about.

You couldn’t attend? Not to worry, I’ve got the scoop. Here’s the latest in the Digital Health world:

Hot

  1. Digital Decision Support Tools (DDST)

    The flavour of the month seems to be DDSTs - online programs that ask algorithmic questions whilst incorporating and adhering to guidelines. For clinicians it is the multi-click equivalent of going through the WordArt flowcharts on the consulting room walls. Big hitters like ICE and VAR Healthcare are all implementing their own systems and have purported success. But some queries from my end as to decision fatigue if a computer’s making you jump through hoops.

  2. Remote Patient Monitoring

    With a push to save on NHS appointments and in-person contacts, remote patient monitoring is increasingly en trend. Nifty image transferring software like Isla Health and Accurx are trying to bridge the virtual gap between patient and clinician.

  3. Innovation

    Buzzword of the moment (second only to AI). Heartening to see that all improvements are welcomed with NHS Innovation’s platform open to small innovators as well as large. However, I wonder whether innovation is the new ‘resilience’ and rather a replacement term for wholescale improvement in working conditions in the NHS.

  4. AI

    No tech conference today would be complete without AI making it into the three most mentioned topics. AI our saviour, miracle and possible paperclip-apocalypse frenemy. Lots of talks, lots of promises, AI is (quite literally with its chatbots) the talk of the town.

What’s not:

  1. Primary Care

    Pilot projects galore being implemented in Secondary Care but less in Primary Care. C’mon guys! With the largest volume of NHS activity occurring in primary care (1) companies miss out on a huge potential market. But it’s reassuring that companies like Isla Health and Better are hoping that 2024 is the year of the GP. Hope that’s not just lip service…

  2. Informed consent

    Data, data everywhere, but unanswered questions as to who gets to use it and whether patients fully realise what their information can be used for. Data may be anonymised, but can then be incorporated into many weird and wonderful algorithms looking at health predictions and risk. I wonder if patients truly know what is happening to their data. But then again, its no worse than what Google or Meta are doing…

  3. The Working Reality

    I love the positivity of med tech, I truly do. EPRS, DDST and AI all promise a revolution in terms of efficiency and if it’s true, kudos. However, we haven’t yet done away with doctors in the NHS (getting there though!) and for all the miracle solutions offered by the many companies at Rewired, I wonder whether the actual fundamentals of the crisis in the NHS (lack of nurtured, respected workforce, complex patients with health and social issues etc) are being ignored in favour of a neat, digitised UI.

So that’s my take on it. Fascinating talks, great achievements and food for thought from Digital Heatlh Rewired 2024.

(1) https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/NHS-activity-nutshell

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