2 days at Digital Health Rewired last week and this is my reflection “Change will never be this slow again” The constraints within the NHS are painfully obvious, staff shortages, lack of funding, resistance to change on the ground, and yet... It was nice to hear of the projects breaking through despite this, and see start-ups like Daye have their foot in the door. Paving the way for the private sector to craft well rounded patient care pathways. In between all of the ERP, interoperability and AI talks, there were rumblings of human centered design, with several discussion on starting with the problem/need (not the solution), user research, patient engagement, co-design and being more agile. I’m really excited to see the next release of the NHS app, with increased functionality for patients to document their health in their own words, get vaccine records and better manage their health, it feels like a step in the right direction. But the talk that stood out for me the most was on genomics and precision medicine. Genomics England has a goal to make tests for approx 200 diseases routine for newborn babies by 2035. Already a pilot scheme has helped families detect rare diseases like eye cancer and get early interventions to prevent life changing conditions. This is truly preventative care. Imagine if this was expanded to chronic conditions like Endometriosis or MS. Laura Valis and Jenna Cusworth-Bolger talked of service design and the project outcomes - I can’t wait to see this develop over time. Lastly it was great to see familiar faces as I wondered the vast lanes of exhibits - Victoria Betton and Ayesha Rahim representing the Equity Charter, Dr Lia A. speaking and introducing me to Monika Swiatek both from the Needy Network, and Angela Maragna introducing me to Sam Menter both from One HealthTech, all great networks full of purpose and design thinking. #ServiceDesign #UX #NHS #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #B33Design
