Yorkshire healthcare businesses showcase digital innovation in Leeds

THE third of aql’s Digital Leader salons centred around innovations in digital health – a challenging concept to any who have been involved with the NHS system.

aql are the Yorkshire regional champions of the Digital Leaders initiative, tasked with bringing together innovative companies within different niches of the digital sector.

The evening event, hosted at aql’s head office in Leeds, showcased three great Yorkshire businesses, from the large to the small, all intending to change the way the health system operates – no mean feat.

Dr Adam Beaumont of aql was there to introduce Kath Lancaster, an independent nurse consultant, who developed the Lancaster Model of treatment, and was championing HAPI.

HAPI (Health Awareness, Prevention and Intervention) was born out of a government directive calling on the profession to promote a revitalised service.

The system works by assessing children at all stages of their lives.

Ms Lancaster said: “The government directive given in 2012 is still not being followed nationally. Reduction in budgets is obviously a massive problem in the NHS, services have to deliver with a limited pot of money.”

HAPI, a web-based application gets children and parents involved in an online health assessment, which then alerts nurses to any individual or familial problems.

So far it has been rolled out to around 54,000 people, and has been used by Buckinghamshire NHS.

Second up was Victoria Betton of mHabitat, part of the NHS and hosted by Leeds NHS trust “supporting innovation along the digital innovation pathway.”

Ms Betton launched mHabitat with a graduate trainee two years ago. She said: “Everyone has an idea for an app – there are so many digital tools, marrying up clinical drive and passion with technological advancement.”

She admitted that a lot of technology was being developed but never gaining traction within the health sector.

She continued: “Context is everything. Digital technology is just an enabler, you shouldn’t start developing the technology side without identifying that there is an actual problem that needs solving.”

She also said there were growing communities online where patients could support one another, which should be encouraged.

“People need space and time to innovate. That is one of the biggest barriers in our work – competing pressures on staff mean that they are running to stand still,” she said.

“From a distance the NHS is a big whale, but up close it is a shoal of tiny fish, which makes it difficult for clinical staff to innovate.”

Last but not least, Stephen Wilcock, the managing director of Egton, an IT infrastructure firm part of Leeds-based EMIS group. A £445m-turnover business, it employs 1,600 staff in the healthcare cente.

Mr Wilcock said that the company handles 40m patient records, and intends to develop “joined up healthcare” across the NHS and healthcare industry.

Egton itself turns over £24m and is developing GP website solutions to engage with patients and pull in information from NHS health choices. He envisioned a healthcare system where appointments were changed and made electronically, repeat prescriptions could be processed on iPads and information was shared between GPs, specialists and accident and emergency staff with the click of a button.

Mr Wilcock finished: “We can’t forget that the digital healthcare sector is people as well as technology driven. Part of being a digital leader is not only heading a digital business, but making sure you have innovative staff with innovative ideas.”

aql Digital Leaders events will be held monthly, bringing together niches of the digital sector to discuss their work and problems within the industry.