Researchers at ORCHA and the University of Warwick have identified that digital health products such as health apps could make a substantial contribution to tackling NHS urgent care pressures, by keeping patients out of hospital in the first place.
Both the NHS Confederation and Secretary of State for Health, Steve Barclay, have said that tackling preventable admissions should be a key strand of a new approach to urgent and emergency care – and that up to 20% of hospital admissions are avoidable with the right care in place.
The research team created a budget impact model which examined long-term conditions, acknowledging that these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to NHS pressures. Even so, they found that digital health tools, if deployed across primary care, could reduce pressure on the NHS and prevent annual attendances in:
By removing these pressures, each year the NHS could gain 106,000 surgical procedures in secondary care and the avoided GP appointments are the equivalent of recruiting 590 more GPs – a good move towards the target 5,000 more needed.
These avoided attendances would save the NHS around £553m annually.
Dr Simon Leigh, research director at ORCHA, said:
“Our budget impact model has shown how so much more can be achieved by innovative thinking. Because we simply can’t go on assuming that if we keep doing the same thing, something different will happen (Einstein’s definition of insanity). Digital health products can be used by thousands of people at the same time. No doctor could achieve this, especially when the number of doctors we have is decreasing in the first place.”
Along with these big-picture statistics, ORCHA’s new report, Reducing urgent care pressures with digital health, offers illustrations to show how individual digital health products can be deployed as strategic preventative measures.
Commenting on the report, founding CEO of ORCHA, Liz Ashall-Payne, who presented to the House of Commons Select Committee on digital health last month, said:
“Low complexity digital health tools which require no interoperability with NHS systems can be used extremely effectively in preventative care. Our research team has shown how much of an impact this could make. At ORCHA we are clinicians and allied health professionals first and foremost, and everything we do is grounded in evidence. We hope that our new report will help health policy makers recognise the game-changing potential digital health offers the NHS.”
As Steve Brine MP, and Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, observes “The NHS is one of the most important subjects around at the moment.”
Digital health can help address NHS pressures, including those seen in urgent and elective care, and so we are especially proud and encouraged that ORCHA was invited as a Witness to speak at the Health and Social Care Select Committee, as it looked to assess the progress made to achieve a digitally enabled health system across the NHS.
ORCHA was invited, together with Diabetes UK and Cystic Fibrosis Trust, to discuss the steps that will help the NHS to accelerate its digital transformation.
Our thoughts on this subject include:
The majority of people in the UK agree that it was vital we all look at new ways to manage our health, including using high-quality digital health apps. 62% of people in the UK agree with this, of which 41% strongly agree.
Amongst people who have used a health app, satisfaction is very high. Overall, 85% of people who have used a health app are satisfied with it, with 36% of those being very satisfied.
But, although there is advocacy amongst the majority for digital health to support their mental health, when asked, the public does have concerns that should be addressed. These include clinical efficacy, data security and financial.
These concerns are well placed. ORCHA has assessed 23,000 health apps against 350+ criteria across Clinical/Professional Assurance, Data & Privacy, and Usability & Accessibility. Only 20% meet quality thresholds.
The NHS is a heavily governed sector; we expect policy and process, to assure that the right decisions are being made for patient safety. The controlled stages of assessment, education and distribution have long been in place for medicine.
Digital health technologies bring significant benefit, but can also bring risk. A product not fit for purpose can affect a person’s physical or mental health, arising from the operation of the product itself, such as inaccurate diagnosis, unsafe treatment delivery, or incorrect guidance.
Key take aways:
Considering this, as discussed today, we recommend that the committee considers:
To watch the discussion: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/83689477-cb0e-4812-bce4-523a42acd8ee