Thomas Webb, CEO at Ethical Healthcare, reflects on the key themes from the recent KLAS Research Global Summit. Thomas shares insights into the conversations around EPR usability, AI in healthcare, and the NHS.
Now, I think it would be fair to accuse me of some bias here as I reflect back on the recent KLAS Research Global Summit, given we’ve worked with them as their UK partner for the last five years or so. Nonetheless, I must say that this one was the best one yet.
Over the last few years, discussions about EPR usability have gone from being of niche interest for a handful of individuals to mainstream conversation. I think this is a natural process as EPRs become pretty ubiquitous, focus moves away from just functionality and towards use and optimisation.
This is a common pattern as technology spreads through society, and the same will happen with AI. This year’s Summit was heavily focused on AI, and ambient voice technology particularly. This is relatively novel technology and as such, no one was talking about optimising it. It was more about early findings relating to benefits and what optimal use cases were, at least ones that could justify the investment. This was really refreshing, and interesting. I know there is a lot of pushback about overhyping AI and it’s use in healthcare, but that really wasn’t the case at the Summit. There was cool, measured acknowledgement that this was the future, but also real pragmatism about the difficulty in making a case for investment, and indeed about the risks.
The benefits of ambient voice for clinicians are really clear, with 30% more efficiency in patient interactions and improved quality of interaction with the patient. BUT…. there was little evidence of improved productivity. Clinicians were, naturally, choosing to spend more time delivering better quality care, not choosing to see more patients. This, as new technologies often do, throws up a moral quandary. Does the NHS want to improve quality of care or efficiency of care? Now, I know that quality of care often equates to efficient care in the longer term. But I can guarantee what NHS operational and financial management will want to see, given the financial pressures on the NHS, and huge waiting lists.
The safety of AI was also a hot topic, with real world examples of things going wrong. Two healthcare providers I spoke to described how AI functionality from a major supplier had been implemented before it was ready, and had to be switched off. Of absolutely critical interest was how they only found out the algorithm was going awry because other providers in the US had noticed it. If these other providers hadn’t noticed it, the people I spoke to would have continued on assuming the algorithm was working correctly.
This is crazy isn’t it. Firstly, a major supplier released an algorithm that was prone to error. Secondly, there was little in place to audit the performance of the algorithm once deployed in the real world of care. It makes you wonder about how many other algorithms are out there that have gone off course but no one has noticed yet. There risks of AI and algorithms in healthcare have been well documented by now, but nonetheless it was shocking to hear about it first-hand.
The other thing to note was the presence from the NHS at the conference, with multiple individuals presenting and/or on panels. Because, you know what, we’re world leaders in usability. Those who have seen the graphs of how the NHS compares to international performance might be stifling a laugh at this idea, but it’s true. We’re world leaders in undertaking a national scale EPR quality improvement programme. Based on structure, data and evidence. We, as a country, are taking it really seriously, looking at our data year on year and using it to inform investment decisions. No other country on earth is doing this. So yes, we’re laggards at the moment, but I can guarantee that we won’t be for long if we continue on our current trajectory. I was really proud of NHS representatives this year, contributing to international debates about healthcare and giving such a good account of ourselves.
Lastly, I am also really proud of our digital health community in the UK. We had a mix of clinicians, CDIOs and suppliers at the Summit, and everyone was humble, willing to learn, happy to debate, and most of all…kind. It was an absolute pleasure to be in the company of these people and I’ve come away from the Summit feeling both proud of the NHS and proud of the ecosystem and people that support it day in and day out.
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Do you want to be part of a conversation about EPR usability? We’re hosting our own event – join us at our national forum for usability-first EPR transformation in November. We’re bringing together NHS leaders, clinicians, and digital teams for a one-day event focused on putting usability at the heart of NHS digital health strategy. Register your interest to be considered for an invitation. Spaces are limited.