Digital health: A university led strategic approach to transform healthcare in Salford, UK

The digital revolution using technology and the internet is transforming society by changing the way we communicate, work and organise our lives. As we live longer and develop more long term conditions there is a great need to enable people to self-care to remain healthy, to address the growing challenge in morbidity due to long term conditions (LTCs), enable care closer to home and understand the social impact on individuals and populations. Several initiatives to introduce digital health, focussed in particular, on the telemonitoring of patients in their homes, have had varying degrees of success with both clinicians and patients. There are many reasons for this including an immature market for digital products, a multitude of competing, overlapping and differing devices and software preventing appropriate commissioning due to a lack of a coherent picture of costs and evidence. A key factor for the poor success has been the lack of understanding of the impact of such organisational and cultural change for both clinicians and patients and an assumption that ‘one size fits all’. Simply implementing technology without understanding the environment, needs of the users and potential impact on outcomes is a key learning point and critical success factor for achieving benefits and health outcomes. At present we are at the very early stages of putting ‘patients in control’ by beginning to provide personalised information and sharing experiences to enable patients to be better informed, work more efficiently and yield better health outcomes. The impact technology can have to transform health and social care for populations is potentially immense. This presentation will share the strategic approach taken by the University of Salford to work in partnership with patients/citizens, the local NHS organisations, Academic Health Sciences Network, Salford Council , and industry, using current research and expertise in digital health and social care research and innovation to enable large scale healthcare change in Salford, creating knowledge, educational opportunities health and social care benefits for the community at large and business opportunities for organisations partnering with the University in the research efforts.