Does the future of healthcare in the UK rely on digital services with resources available across a variety of e-channels?

The answer is probably.

It’s an area we understand well at Transform having designed, developed and delivered NHS Direct’s online symptom checker. This takes users through multi-channel triage assessments across telephony, online and mobile before recommending a suitable course of action.

In the private sector there is also a market for digital self-care with risk assessment tools, wellbeing evaluation systems and condition monitoring on sale. While in the US, healthcare providers are increasingly offering online medical consultations via VoIP, video and webchat are common.

Overall it seems the digital direction of travel is towards a better patient experience, more efficient clinical resources and business savings for organizations.

But, what are the factors that will ensure digital delivery is effective and efficient in bringing about benefits for patients, clinicians and the organisations involved?

The NHS Confederation has just released its report, ‘Remote Control: the patient-practitioner relationship in the digital age’, which identifies how technology driven self-care will impact on the doctor/patient relationship.

Three points worth considering from the report:

• It suggests that whilst there has been a level of clinical dysfunction towards embracing technology, the benefits of delivering across digital will provide clearer information audit trails, promote greater adherence to protocols and empowers the patient to challenge clinical authority.

• In addition, the NHS needs to understand how to better serve their patients – are they consumers looking for ease-of-use for handling their health complaints or are do they desire to be actively involved in their health management?

• The track record of NHS IT was characterised by immense ambition and realised through continual failure. With the government moving away from the centralised model, localized digital service delivery could meet regional needs more innovatively. But this will be tempered by limitations on funding levels and the availability of expertise to develop and deploy long term visions.

How might digital services develop?

Traditionally the healthcare relationship relies on the patient trusting the clinician to tell them what’s wrong, and how it can be put right. But as patients become more informed and more self-serving, this dynamic is being challenged.

Increasing digital services will only test the relationship further with user journeys that ‘think’ like patients in order to meet their needs and expectations.

For example, could GP assessments be replaced by intelligent triage mechanisms – fronted by suitably friendly avatars maybe?

It’s easy to get carried away with sci-fi scenarios, and we should remember that not everyone will want a virtual doctor over a real one for justifiable reasons, clinical risk or the desire for social interaction for example.

In the first instance, digital doctoring is likely to best serve populations that are motivated and compelled to engage, with growing e-intelligence and awareness bringing in the laggards over time.

However, we don’t need to only look towards leading mobile technologies to deliver change; a successful example of the long tail effect is SMS texting in sub-Saharan Africa where mobile use is high. Texts are not advanced technology, but crucially can be used to send HIV blood tests for new-born babies between hospital and parents. Through overcoming the geographical issues over handling patient information, early diagnosis and retroviral treatment is possible in a time frame that now helps to ensure children survive and reach adulthood.

So while the channel shift to digital may be rewriting the roles and relationship of practitioners and patients, outcomes like this make the case for digital doctoring, and set a good benchmark to aim for.

Image of the Intel Home Health Guide, with thanks to Intel