Can YOU change the #NHS? Or is it doomed to be privatised?

Lots has happened over the last two weeks. All which has made me believe that we can use technology to change the now fading #NHS. But why this sudden change of heart? Isn't the NHS doomed to be privatised? Maybe not. Maybe it can change.

Maybe it's after going to #NHS18Expo...

Maybe it's to do with the NHS seeming to be able to change...

• What with the government / NHS u - turn on treatments for Type2Diabetes.
• The new findings by Direct. Which backs up why we started this petition in the first place.
• And the Deputy Labour leader saying he has reversed his Type 2 Diabetes with diet.
• And him going on a mission about it.

As he says...

“My experience of escaping Type 2 diabetes has given me a new mission to help others to get healthy. We can’t afford to keep going as we are. The challenge is huge, but generations will suffer if we fall to get a grip on the obesity crisis that threatens to engulf us.”

And he is right. Without the right people and the right technology, the future will health of a generation is at stake.

Technically all our health’s. Which is why I went to UK Health Camp. Follow them on Twitter here.

Me at UK Health Camp.

It was interesting to be at the Digital UK Health Camp event last weekend. A after two hectic days at the #NHS18Expo. And I got to meet with some great people who are looking to change the way we treat health with technology. Not in just bringing the best out of what we already have. Which is a mission in itself for the NHS. But also for creating new ideas to tackle things like #Type2Diabetes.

I was very lucky to be able to pitch at the event.

And have my session chosen to be part of the conference. (Top Left) And so I got to have some of the attendee’s great brains ask me questions around how I reversed my own #Type2Diabetes diagnosis and discuss my future plans.

Thanks everyone who came to my session... From the session we found some key points.

All which I want to bring into the thinking. Around an app or mobile device that I might build for the Afro Caribbean population in Manchester that have the condition.

As you know you are up to 6 times more likely to have it if non-white. And black people get the condition much earlier than white people. On average 10 years early. And do digital really is an opportunity for us to utilize with this population.

But will a digital intervention work for Type 2 Diabetes?

We didn’t know in the end. But we weren’t all Type 2 Diabetes sufferers so that isn’t surprising. But the group came up with some wonderful points to think about.

Here is @hadleybeeman #ukhc18 galvanising the troops together for @MattHancock @ukhealthcamp

However, with all the will in the world. One of the main feelings that came out of the session was that the NHS might not be the best place for an app like this. As their is too much red tape and too much politics.

Perhaps I would have to build it first and prove the idea. (Which with no funding is easier said than done…)

So this gets me to my main point. My main concern not just for my Type 2 Diabetes app. But for apps in general with the NHS.

Will digital ever be allowed by the NHS?

That’s my main concern. Not will people like using apps. This is already well established. And not will people use apps for healthcare – again this is well established. In fact, the NHS has a whole arm that is trying to get more digital.

I met a lot of the people working on this mission at NHS18Expo.

What worries me (especially after going to the NHS expo and engaging with 100’s of doctors) is will the NHS be ready to change?

Will doctors really recommend apps? They aren’t doing so at the moment. But perhaps this is changing due to pressure from outside of the NHS. Like Apple’s new move into healthcare.

As @Apple released the #AppleWatchSeries4 which includes new technology. Which could allow people with #Type1diabetes greater control.

One of the biggest features is its ability to synchronise with #OneDrop’s newest Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meter.

And don’t get me started on what Google is doing in health tech (hardware) and what Amazon is planning from afar in health care delivery and data.

We should all really be afraid if we want the NHS to survive theses challenges. To do so - like Tom Watson – the NHS needs to change rapidly.

Will the change from politicians?

As the new health minister comes from his last post as technology minister and so he brings a culture with him. Proven by two things. One his great speech that he gave at the Expo and two the speech he gave at Babylon. The company that created the GP by hand app I have blogged about before.

What was interesting is what Minister for Health MP Matt Hancock said. As he said:

‘With the NHS we have one of the greatest assets we could possibly have to bring forward more cutting-edge improvements and developments than we have ever seen before.

‘We’ve got amazing universities, we’ve got an amazing private health tech start-up ecosystem and we have an amazing healthcare system in the NHS. The three of those, supported by government, are going to work together to harness the very best technology on the planet, the very best minds on the planet, the very best clinicians on the planet to serve our people but also to build this country into the best health tech nation on earth.’

The speech he gave at the Expo had a similar feel.

As he started:

All around us, a new generation of technology is changing all of our lives. From the mundane but useful, like the ubiquity of satnavs that stop family arguments and warn us of traffic jams, to the profound and extraordinary, like the ability of genomics to design drugs for each individual."

"I started my working life in a tech business…. And I’ve spent most of my Ministerial career driving the proper use of digital technology. From transformation of parts of government technology, to promoting the use of technology across the economy, to legislating to protect us from the new risks it brings, to child safety and privacy.

Now I intend to bring that knowledge and experience, and frankly my unsurpassable enthusiasm for tech to Britain’s health and social care system."

Now this is the kind of thing I love to hear.

But perhaps we have to be wary. As he said himself later on. There are a number of obstacles to this wonder time of tech revolution especially in the NHS. As he put it

“We must harness the power of peoples’ innovation - in a full spectrum from the most mundane to the most exciting. From basic IT to advanced AI."

And here’s how we’re going to do it, in six parts (you can read the whole speech here…)

First: Talk to each other

Second: Buy the right stuff

Third: Health Tech and the cutting edge

Fourth: Backing the #NHS to succeed

Fifth: A new skill set

Sixth: Culture change

And it is this last one – that I want to talk about.

Culture change:

As Matt says:

“In all my experience of digital transformation it’s no different. Only 10% of the challenge is the tech. 90% of the challenge is the culture.”

And this is KEY.

It’s the people on the ground. And what incentives they have...

The real people who stop things or green light things.

Who want to work on changing the present or keeping hold of the past. Those who have been selected as risk managers rather than entrepreneurs.

The real thing I can see more and more. And more painfully as I move from tech, to health, to future tech and back again. Is the fundamental mental difference between doctors and physicians and the new start up tech companies looking to help.

Don’t get me wrong. The NHS should be wary of opening it’s doors to entrepreneurs. And perhaps especially to companies without a social interest or charter. But sadly in the end – software might eat the world but culture eats software for breakfast.

The 5th industrial revolution is going to be around the evolution of self. I just wonder whether it will be the devolution of health as well.