‘The adoption and scaling of innovation within the healthcare system cannot happen successfully unless patients trust that their personal data is being handled with the degree of care and security it warrants’

The Data Saves Lives strategy references the development of a ‘standard for public engagement that sets out best practice for engaging appropriately with the public and staff about data’, to be followed by any organisation using NHS data. This is a step in the right direction in terms of building the public’s trust around the use of their health data, but does it go far enough?

Patient involvement in digital transformation will also allow for the easier adoption of technologies into the system at the point of care. Even tech-savvy patients are sometimes reluctant to replace traditional care with digitally enabled interventions. As patients are rarely exposed to the robust evidence bases behind these technologies, digital therapeutics have traditionally not been valued in the same way that conventional care is. Being prescribed an app in place of a medicine or therapy can feel uncaring, distanced and dismissive. The loss of human contact is a real, negative outcome for many patients, and their involvement in the development of technologies will help mitigate fears that this reduction in human contact could translate to a reduction in the quality of their care. We cannot underestimate the importance of human connection, which can be therapeutic and is often an underestimated aspect of a patient’s recovery.

The DHSC’s new Plan for Digital Health and Social Care notes that the need for an acceleration of the adoption of proven technology is key for digital transformation. These new technologies should meet the NHS requirements for interoperability, usability, clinical safety, cyber security and sustainability.  However, questions still arise about what the NHS requirements for patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) will be, and whether the above requirements will hold any more weight if they have been informed by PPIE.

Digital technologies will not proliferate if they deepen health inequalities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds struggled to engage with home schooling due to a lack of access to technology or the internet. Digital transformation must happen with those most disenfranchised at the forefront.

The health system supports and impacts the health of every single person in the UK. It is therefore crucial that an environment where everyone’s needs are considered is established. Fully involving patients from disadvantaged backgrounds will help uncover the ways in which technology can best serve these populations.

Finally, digital technologies can empower patients to take health into their own hands. We know that the government has set an ambitious target for the roll-out of so-called virtual wards. When planning preventative, follow-on or home-based healthcare, patient involvement can help the NHS to understand which treatments can feasibly work beyond the hospital walls, and for which types of patients.

At Boehringer Ingelheim, we are committed to a patient-centric approach to health. Patients are included on the board for designing our clinical trials, which has ensured that our data branches across diverse communities.

Supporting patients and clinicians to engage fully with digital transformation is an important pillar of our work. It is only by taking a serious approach to public engagement that the system will achieve sustainable digital transformation, and a wealth of evidenced-based resources are needed. Boehringer Ingelheim’s evidence-based guide, How to involve and engage patients in digital health tech innovation, outlines practical and achievable steps.

‘A technology that depends on an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that uses patient data to predict adverse events will not go far if patients refuse to participate over fears their data will not be handled safely’

It is grounded in academically derived principles of best patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) provided by our partners at the University of Plymouth and was built on multi-stakeholder engagement with our partners at the AHSN (Academic Health Science Networks) and others. This is the first methodological approach to undertaking PPIE but we hope it is not the last and we will continue to support its further development.

If you would like to discuss the application of the guide in either your innovation or healthcare setting, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. BI’s partnership-led efforts are focused on supporting the system to see patients as the central drivers of the digital health revolution.

To find out more about our work supporting digital transformation, you can read the Innovator’s Guide to the NHS: Navigating the barriers to digital health, and its follow-on publication How to involve and engage patients in digital health tech innovation – An Evidence Based Guide. The Guide will also be available as a continued professional development module on the ORCHA Digital Health Academy, which supports all health and care workers in the UK to access free digital health-related educational content.