The Power of Data lies beneath the Surface
We build mobile and desktop applications that connect networks of people within the NHS. On the face of it this can sound like marginal innovation. But then many new services can appear that way. Uber is just a taxi service you call from a mobile app, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and eBay are real world services that moved online and Deliveroo merely modernised take-aways.
Much of the power of these services is derived from the rich data sets associated with the users and structured data that define the product or service and its context. These businesses capture vast quantities of these data sets and their inter-relationships and unlock huge value for their users in the process.
The NHS is a different type of organisation. It doesn’t work in a structured, predefined way and the demands that are placed on its staff are unpredictable. We can take lessons from how supply and demand are balanced in a retail environment using the power of data, or how Amazon has automated fulfilment centres so that massive volumes of orders can be supported. But this is an organically managed, decentralised organisation where responsibility can be assumed or assigned and management can be both proactive and reactive.
Our belief is that there is a lot of scope to improve productivity within the NHS with access to more data. Much more valuable data can be captured on actual patient pathways and the delivery of care. Data needs to be collected in a manner that is effortless for already overworked staff and can adapt quickly to a vast range of care services. There is valuable data associated with our users (members of staff), with resources, current care services and patients.
We’re getting into a much better position to work out how we improve productivity and outcomes as we collect more data. We’re looking to capture staff attributes and we are working out how we keep them up to date. We’re sourcing relevant data from clinical and administrative systems and surfacing it when it is needed. We’ll help evolve individual communications so that they become more structured, meaningful, consumable and can be classified and easily referenced. This is the beginning of building data that will power the networks – specialists that work across locations, cases that are treated across specialisms, on-duty teams, nursing communities and emergency departments. Our application benefits from being informed by more of this data, enabling data to be shared more effectively with those who need it at the point of care.
We’d love to find more organisations and individuals who we can collaborate with to move this forward faster. If that sounds like you – please get in touch.
