Valtech @ NHS Expo 2016 – Exciting times, with a Ticking Clock

setembro 12, 2016

Last week Valtech were delighted to attend the NHS' Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester. Over a packed couple of days we saw some fascinating discussions, debates, and demos, all aimed at supporting the NHS achieve its 5-year Forward View (and beyond!) through meaningful innovation. 

Across keynotes speeches from the likes of the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt and Chief Executive of NHS England Simon Stevens, as well as panel sessions hosted by, among others, National Medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh, a few key themes emerged. Namely, that digital services and data hold the key to delivering the Five Year Forward View, and that time is running out to achieve its ambitious targets.

Valtech has a long-standing relationship with the NHS, going back to our work on NHS PROMS with the HSCIC, now NHS Digital. Since then we have designed and built an digital Alpha for NHS 111, provided design and technical consultation for NHS Choices, and most recently have helped kick off improvements to My NHS. It was therefore interesting to note that in his keynote speech Jeremy Hunt announced that NHS.uk will bring together online self-diagnosis (the next iteration of 111 digital), a revamped NHS Choices, local performance data via My NHS, better access to digital health records, and appointment bookings. Having been recently involved in many of these elements, it was pleasing to see Valtech making a difference at the heart of the NHS.

We were also privileged to be able to present our most recent NHS project with the My NHS team, during which in just 2 weeks we brought together stakeholders across hospital, mental health, dental and cancer care to bring user-centric design and better data science to this keystone service. By validating user needs and articulating the power of the possible in NHS data we have helped My NHS kick off a new programme of improvements which will continue into 2017 and beyond. 

As Agile and Lean UX digital experts, we believe that we are ideally-placed to help the NHS achieve its Five Year Forward View. With our strong track record of delivery across many of the key digital services at the NHS, and our proven ability to execute on meaningful, people-centric innovation in a short space of time for minimal investment, we are looking forward to discussing further with NHS Digital leadership what we can do to help meet their goals by 2020.

So all that remains to be said is thank you to the NHS for hosting such a fantastic event, and to all those who helped make it happen. We look forward to seeing where we are in another 12 months. Despite all the challenges our healthcare system faces, the future is undoubtedly bright.