Rhys Little, director at Despark UK, discusses the increasing use of technology in the healthcare industry and why it can potentially transform the way in which the sector operates.
The majority of us are living longer but more unhealthy lives. Rates of obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and dementia are rocketing, sending healthcare costs spiraling and putting our creaking healthcare system under intolerable pressure.
Earlier this year, hospitals across England struggled to cope with unprecedented levels of demand which left thousands of casualty patients waiting for hours on trolleys. In January many hospitals and ambulance services declared critical incidents, even though most operations had been stopped for the previous month.
As a result, radical plans to shake up the NHS and drastically underfunded council-run social care are centred around changing the patient-doctor relationship by limiting “face-to-face” interactions. Some of the proposals include increased use of health apps, remote monitoring devices and “virtual appointments” to bridge the colossal £22bn funding gap over the next five years....