Brian Roberts: Head of the TRE Service for England & Programme Head at NHS Digital

Following our interview series Healthcare Voices On Smart Technology Opportunities where we ask leading healthcare professionals to share their expert predictions, we introduce Brian Roberts.

Head of the TRE (Trusted Research Environment) for England in its inaugural year of service and Programme Head at NHS Digital, Brian is currently leading improvements to NHS Digital’s clinical governance arrangements for data production. He has extensive experience in developing and delivering national transformation programmes and digital services in the UK. Here’s what he has to say about technology adoption in healthcare.

How is technology solving historic challenges within your department?

Working for a tech and data organization, you'd expect that we, by course, use the latest technologies to deliver digital and data services for Health and Care across England, and in so many ways as the COVID crisis has demonstrated, we've used technology to great effect to support the NHS at a time of crisis. Be that to better connect Health, Care and most importantly patients and the public who use our services; or to support a more intelligent health system that can use the power of Health and Care data, processed and accessed by safe means; we’re an enabler helping local and national H&C leaders to reimagine how their services are developed and improved. There's no doubt that the technology exists to overcome many historic challenges felt in Health and Care. The trick is to target them, use them correctly, take clinicians, caregivers, and the public with us on the journey - all to do what we all desire from a modern NHS: improve outcomes and do no harm.

What's preventing technology from being more widely adopted?

There's no one answer to this, there are a number of factors at play - some in place for very good reason - meaning the pace of change isn't as quick as some would like. Certainly, legislative and regulatory arrangements around tech and data in the H&C space must at all times balance the need to innovate and advise care research and provision, with the legitimate needs to ensure clinical safety, great information governance, and security. Likewise, there's a balance to be struck for those adopting new technologies - the health and care workforce - to ensure they positively help them do their H&C jobs and maybe even enhance their experiences; without bombarding them with the next 'shiny thing' that is sometimes poorly deployed and can unintentionally actually get in the way of the day job. It's key to take H&C workforces on a tech and data journey to ensure great adoption - much like the best tech companies do in people's private lives. And most of all I'd say adoption only really happens when the tech is distinctly the answer to a business/service problem in H&C... instead of starting with the tech then looking for the problem. If we always start with the end-user, understand their needs, then bring the best tech as part of the solution then we're off to a good start.

Is there a specific argument you keep hearing from those who are late adopters?

Not as such. Some, for a number of reasons, are definitely 'wait and see', possibly because the case for change has not been made strong and tangible enough in their world; because the timing isn't right; or simply because they have a number of pressing business or service needs to address and a given tech may just be a solution to one - so competing for space and attention. There may still be some technophobia out there, but in this day and age with tech so synonymous in people’s lives I think that's diminishing somewhat, and of course, we have a growing number of millennials and after who are digital-first. So rather than put late adopters in a category, the key for me is to understand really well their service needs and problems, where they are on tech and data maturity, and what's the best set of steps for them to take to move forward.

Is tech healthcare replacing or fostering social interaction?

A big question, I'd posit some of both. There are cases where one could become too reliant on IT over social interaction. But by the same token, some tech and data solutions open up new opportunities to interact by helping those in charge of health and care services to reimagine how services are designed and developed - making new connections they may not have had on more traditional care pathways. It would also be great to see health and care tech start to bring patients and the public closer to their care and care records so that self-managed care brought greater dialogue with traditional care providers.

Looking back, what do you think are the issues that were hard to manage 10 years ago that have been successfully solved by technology today?

There's still more room for improvement, but I do think we've made great strides in the last 10 years in connecting health and care via digitalization and interoperability, and once one considers the potential value of data in improving health and care [of course with all the correct controls around clinical safety and IG in place], such digitalization and interop is, in effect, the price of admission to start making big advances in health and care provision via an intelligent health system.

What breakthrough technology do you think will be changing the NHS in the next 5-10 years?

I think we're moving from the age of digitalization to the data age, and in some ways, you can view data as a technology in itself, in that harnessed, kept safe, well-curated, and then used in say advanced analytics will be the key tool in an intelligent health system with huge advances in the sector very likely - with a large part of how we provide health and care reimagined.

Brian Roberts

Programme Head at NHS Digital