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Researchers in the UK will collect a range of data from five million healthy volunteers to develop diagnostic tests using AI and other cutting-edge technologies to detect and diagnose diseases earlier in a study thought to be the largest of its kind. The programme was unveiled in a new deal between the UK government and the life sciences sector, backed by more than £1.3bn of investment, announced at the beginning of December. Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, will lead the Accelerating Detection of Disease initiative, which will see experts look into how the health of a group of participants changes over time to identify common characteristics that would help them understand how and why diseases develop. “In years gone by, the idea of eliminating smallpox, managing HIV or curing Hepatitis C seemed impossible and yet we are living in an age where the risks associated with these diseases have been either eliminated or greatly reduced. “The programme announced today will set us on the path to new medical breakthroughs, innovative treatments, and longer lives, cutting down suffering in the future,” the professor wrote in a recent blog. The study will also support the delivery of the Early Diagnosis Mission, part of the UK Industrial Strategy’s AI and Data Grand Challenge. Businesses will be able to access the £79m in funding that the government is pledging for the programme through competitions managed by UK Research and Innovation. “The project will support research, early diagnosis, prevention and treatment across the major diseases, including cancer, dementia and heart disease. "This will be a ground-breaking national health programme that will develop new diagnostic tests through applying leading-edge AI and other cutting-edge technologies. It will attract additional global investment from the sector,” according to the Office for Life Sciences and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Other announcements include a commitment from global biopharmaceutical company UCB to invest £1bn in R&D in the UK over the next five years. A new £150-200m R&D facility will be built, supporting around 650 jobs, mainly in scientific research and early manufacturing. Meanwhile, Roche will also invest a further £30m in the UK, with £20m over the next three years in a precision cancer research partnership with the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester. Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

The number of people seeking health information online across EU countries nearly doubled last year, compared to figures from 2008, according to research cited in a new report from the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Health at a Glance: Europe analysis, published in November, looks at the state of health of EU citizens and the performance of health systems in the 28 EU member states, along with five candidate countries and three from the European Free Trade Association. Figures from an annual European Information and Communication Technologies survey mentioned in the report, including the responses from around 150,000 households and 200,000 individuals aged between 16-74, found that half of all EU residents sought health information online in 2017, with the number going up to around 70 per cent in the Netherlands and Finland. But the 2016 version of the survey found that only 13 per cent of EU residents made a medical appointment online, although the number went up by five per cent compared to figures from 2012. Looking at individual countries, nearly half of all Danish residents reportedly made an appointment with a health care practitioner online in 2016. Use of EHRs and ePrescribing  The Commission and the OECD’s new report also shows that the use of electronic health records has been increasing across the EU.  A 2016 survey of OECD countries, which included 15 EU member states, revealed that all or nearly all primary care practices in Estonia, Finland, Greece and the UK had implemented such a system. The situation was different in Poland and Croatia, however, where it was reported to be “much more limited”. Meanwhile, a 2018 survey from the Pharmaceutical Group of the EU found variation in the implementation of ePrescribing systems across EU countries. Although 90 per cent of prescriptions were transmitted to community pharmacies electronically in Denmark or Sweden, figures indicated that ePrescribing had not yet been implemented in Bulgaria, Malta or Poland. According to the Commission, these countries expressed an intention to implement ePrescribing at either regional or national levels during the coming years. “Digital technology offers great opportunities to deliver health services more efficiently, and the European Commission supports a digital transformation of health systems to empower citizens to have access to their health data and to promote exchange of health data among health care providers across the EU,” the report reads. "Every European citizen should have an electronic health record" In a mid-term review on the implementation of the digital single market strategy, the Commission said it would take further action in three areas: ensuring citizens’ secure access to and sharing of health data beyond borders, connecting data to drive advancements in “research, disease prevention and personalised health care”, and empowering citizens to take control of their care through digital tools. Until 20 December, the EU institution is accepting feedback on an initiative to create a recommendation for the establishment of a European EHR exchange format. "Every European citizen should have an electronic health record - and this record should be easily exchangeable across Europe. We will soon publish a recommendation on how this should happen,” Roberto Viola, Director General of DG Connect, European Commission, recently said at the EU Health Summit. Source: Health at a Glance: Europe report, published in November 2018. Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

Digital transformation is not reaching the patients yet – this is the key result of an international comparative study published by German foundation Bertelsmann Stiftung towards the end of November. In the study, Germany scores low and ranks 16th out of 17 countries surveyed worldwide regarding the digitization of their healthcare systems. Estonia, Canada, Denmark, Israel and Spain are in the first ranks of the comparison. The study finds that one of the major barriers to digital health adoption in Germany is the lack of a national coordination agency. “Politicians have in the past delegated the responsibility for digital transformation to self-government in health care," says Thomas Kostera, study director and health expert of the foundation. "The protagonists have been blocking each other for a long time and it has not yet been possible to bring all those responsible behind a common goal." Webinar: Patient Engagement: Transforming the Patient Experience with Innovative Digital Services Recently, health policy has strengthened its leadership role and some advancements, such as the introduction of telemedicine for remote treatment, have been made. The Bertelsmann Stiftung recommends politicians engage citizens, doctors and other health professionals to encourage digital health adoption. Users, such as patients and physicians, should be actively involved in developing sub-strategies and digital applications and processes, to ensure benefits become visible at an early stage. Study unveils great uncertainty about opportunities and risks of digital health care The Bertelsmann recommendation is underlined by the results of a representative survey by Nuance Communications among more than 2,000 people in Germany. This survey shows, that there is great uncertainty regarding risks and opportunities of digital health among citizens; only 26 percent of respondents feel sufficiently informed. A total of 77 percent of respondents said that they did not have enough digital literacy in the health sector or were unable to assess whether there was any need to catch up. "In Germany, there was no campaign that has extensively informed about the use of digital technologies in health care; the discussion remains in industry and expert circles. The good news is, that the population shows a high willingness to deal with digitalisation – which is essential to reach the government’s target of electronic health records for everyone by 2021," says Martin Eberhart, general manager of Nuance Healthcare for the  DACH region. More than 70 percent of citizens are willing to actively seek a higher digital literacy for their health care, as they expect much better chances of recovery from a digital healthcare system and more time for doctor-patient communication. They demand to be actively informed on digital health by their doctors, health insurance or through reliable education services. Jörg Studzinski, director research and advisory services at HIMSS Analytics Europe, demands a broad discussion as well as education and awareness campaigns. “Patients elsewhere have noticeably more opportunities to actively and informedly look after their own health care through digital technologies. Therefore politics, associations, health care institutions, the medical profession and technology providers must work together to increase transparency, understanding and speed. "The fact that many citizens do not feel sufficiently informed reflects our experience in hospitals. Even in health care facilities, there is still no comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and risks of digital health," he said. With the commissioning of the telematics infrastructure, an important step has been taken towards a forward-looking healthcare system. Around 225,000 doctors, dentists, hospitals, psychotherapists and other health care professionals will be securely networked in the future. Armin Scheuer is a digital health expert and consultant, and a former HIMSS Vice President.

Two healthcare leaders from Germany offer best practices for assessing privacy and security posture – not just for EU legal requirements, but because it's the right thing to do.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says shedding the legacy paper-based devices will improve privacy and security concerns, and enable better data sharing.  

A global investigation has found that unsafe medical devices have caused 1.7 million injuries globally and almost 83,000 deaths in the last 12 years. According to The Implant Files, a year-long investigation of the manufacturers of devices by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), unsafe medical devices have been allowed into global markets as a result of poor regulatory systems, a lack of transparency and insufficiently strict rules on testing.   Some of these medical devices that have caused “adverse incidents” include pacemakers, contraceptives, artificial hips and breast implants grafted into patients’ bodies.  The investigation found some devices did not complete patient trials. The report stated that some pacemakers, for example, were implanted even though their manufacturers knew of problems; other devices were approved without proper regulatory procedures.  In the report, ICIJ referenced a case in the US, where 27-year-old Charlissa Dawn Boyce’s family filed a lawsuit after an an implantable defibrillator, which was later recalled by St. Jude Medical for battery problems, didn’t shock her heart back into beating and resulted in her death. It found that nearly 350,000 of the defibrillators were used on patients globally before the recall occurred in 2016. Another example of a faulty medical device is in India, where 44-year-old Vijay Vojhala suffers from difficulty walking, vision problems and irregular heart rhythms, which he claimed was a result of his Johnson & Johnson replacement hip. More than half a million patients globally got these replacement hips before they were taken off the market. Webinar: Optimizing Medical Device Safety: A Closed Loop Processy Findings "underline the need for drastic regulatory changes" Oxford University Clinical Epidemiologist Carl Heneghan told the Australian Financial Review it was unacceptable to keep maintaining this system. The findings have raised questions over how much scrutiny devices actually undergo in the global industry before being used on patients and if regulators pick up and act on findings fast. According to The Guardian, the Royal College of Surgeons President Professor Derek Alderson said the number of incidents involving flawed devices is enough to “underline the need for drastic regulatory changes”, in addition to the introduction of mandatory national registries for implantable devices. “In contrast to drugs, many surgical innovations are introduced without clinical trial data or centrally held evidence,” he said. “This is a risk to patient safety and public confidence.” According to the Australian Financial Review, US trade group for medical device manufacturers AdvaMed recommended that medical devices should be assessed differently to pharmaceuticals as implants are harder to randomise during clinical trials than drugs.  "To suggest that human trial mandates would end future harm misleads both the patient and the public into falsely thinking that all adverse events can be erased through such trials," AdvaMed Head of Technology and Regulatory Affairs Janet Trunzo said.   Trunzo also spoke against industry businesses that claimed to have problems reaching patients after recalls. "High-risk medical devices, especially life-sustaining implants, have specific tracking procedures in place to ensure companies can quickly notify patients and providers of any significant issues," Trunzo added. Responding to questions from the ICIJ, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mentioned that patient remains a cornerstone of its regulatory commitment and that it is working towards the creation of a program that scans clinical information and other data to identify problems quickly. It also recently introduced a new goal to be "consistently first among the world's regulatory agencies to identify and act upon safety signals related to medical devices". The ICIJ identified The Implant Files as the “first-ever global examination of the medical device industry and its overseers.” To run the investigation, ICIJ journalists, along with 250 reporters and data specialists across 58 media organisations in 36 countries teamed up to assess device incident reports, analyse health records, and run patient interviews.  Originally published on Healthcare IT News Australia.

Since opening its doors to the first patients in September this year, the New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki, Finland is using a unique combination of art and play, recognised as key elements for a “healing environment", and the latest technologies available to support the children that it provides services for and their parents. With a total budget of €183m, €40m from the state of Finland, another €40m from the hospital district of Helsinki and Uusimaa, and €38m raised by a Foundation created for the new facility, the hospital is cultivating a culture of innovation – and the HIMSS Insights team went to find out how.  In an interview published in the first issue of the new global Insights eBook series, Professor Pekka Lahdenne, Head of Digital and Innovative Services at the hospital, who specialises in Paediatrics, explained that an “efficient ICT infrastructure was a priority for future development of a modern hospital”. Webinar: Patient Engagement: Transforming the Patient Experience with Innovative Digital Services “A lot of effort was invested in ensuring that the ICT platform would provide capabilities for future developments,” Professor Lahdenne said.  The full interview can be read here. A site visit at the hospital will be organised during the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European conference taking place in Helsinki, Finland, on 11-13 June. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

NHSmail national outage caused by “software issue” The national NHS email service managed by Accenture suffered a "severity 1" outage midday on 1 December, caused by a “software issue in the supplier’s internal infrastructure”, which meant that NHS staff were unable to access their accounts. All users had their access restored by 8pm, and accounts locked out after multiple login attempts were unlocked by 10.30pm the same day. The NHSmail service is approved by the Department of Health and Social Care for sharing patient-identifiable and sensitive information. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused and worked to resolve the issue as soon as possible, which was caused by an internal issue with the supplier’s software. Thank you to the teams today [1 December] who have worked hard to resolve this,” NHS Digital said in a statement. In November 2016, a software configuration error saw an NHSmail local administrator accidentally email all NHS staff in England after creating a new distribution list intended to include only employees within one Commissioning Support Unit. Around 500 million emails that needed to be processed were sent in only 75 minutes, as staff used the “reply to all” function asking to be removed from the list. The incident resulted in “significant service delays for the majority of the day” at the time, according to a report presented to the NHS Digital board. Webinar: What Innovation Means to Healthcare and Why it Matters Today NHS staff investigated for illegally accessing medical records of Sir Alex Ferguson The Sunday Times has reported that two doctors and a senior hospital consultant were being investigated and “at least” two nurses questioned for accessing former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s medical records. Ferguson was admitted to the Salford Royal Hospital in May this year after suffering a brain haemorrhage. In a statement provided to the paper, Dr Chris Brookes, Northern Care Alliance NHS Group Chief Medical Officer, said an investigation was underway “to determine if the individuals have accessed a patient’s record electronically without a clinical requirement or authorisation”. Last week, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection watchdog, fined a former trainee secretary at a GP surgery in Norfolk for unlawfully accessing 231 patient records without a valid reason to do so. “People whose job allows them access to confidential and often sensitive information have been placed in a position of trust, and with that trust comes added responsibility,” said Mike Shaw, the ICO’s Criminal Investigation Group Manager. “Data protection law exists for a reason and curiosity or boredom is no excuse for failing to respect people’s legal right to privacy. Just because you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should.” New pilot moves the NHS further away from paper prescriptions Eight GP practices in England are piloting a new functionality that could, once fully rolled out, see more than 95 per cent of prescriptions be processed through the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). The digital system currently allows GP surgeries to send prescriptions to a dispenser (such as a pharmacy) nominated by the patient. But if the new pilot, which will be extended to other practices in 2019, proves successful, the improvement will allow prescriptions for all patients to be sent using the EPS, according to NHS Digital. “In an NHS where thousands of GP surgeries already enjoy the benefits of electronic prescriptions, it can’t be right that there are occasions when archaic paper prescriptions still have to be used,” Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this year. Bupa extends partnership with Babylon Bupa’s existing and new SME customers in the UK with two or more employees will be given access to the Babylon app starting from January next year, the company said last week, after announcing that it would roll out the service to its corporate customers back in June. “Our business customers often say it’s hard to find the time to look after their health, this is even more apparent for employees or owners of a small company,” said Mark Allan, Bupa UK Insurance Commercial Director. “We’re always looking for ways to make access to quality healthcare easier and more convenient – extending our work with Babylon is a key part of this." Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

The UK's Academy of Medical Sciences has published a report outlining a set of principles to guide the development, evaluation and use of data-driven technologies in healthcare, through a project partly funded by a grant from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The new framework is based on a series of workshops involving patients, healthcare professionals, the broader public, and discussions with key stakeholder groups, including NHS regulators and digital health companies. It argues that data-driven technologies should be designed and used for health and care to: Support clearly defined purposes upholding the social values of the NHS and benefiting the system, individuals or society Respect and protect the privacy, rights and choices of patients and the public Include them as active and meaningful partners Maintain trustworthiness in the responsible and effective stewardship of patient data Incorporate evaluation and regulation mechanisms to build understanding, confidence and trust in these technologies, and guide their deployment in the NHS. Webinar: AI: Evaluating Opportunities for Healthcare Providers To make this a reality, however, experts warn that improvements to the digital capabilities of the NHS, an integrated data infrastructure and a radical cultural shift are required, while further analysis is needed to understand their use in social care, given that the "experience of accessing and using social care data in the UK is very limited". “The Academy report builds on what the patients and the public have told us matters most to them," said Professor Carol Dezateux, associate director of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the national institute for data science in health, and one of the experts consulted for the project. "By putting the public’s expectations at the centre of the use of data-driven technologies, the NHS, scientists, researchers and developers will be able to work together to deliver maximum health benefits for all, while keeping public trust," Professor Dezateux added. A draft of the academy's report was shared with the Department of Health and Social Care during the preparation of the initial code of conduct for AI and other data-driven healthcare technologies released in September this year. Meanwhile, NHS Digital announced today that it was joining a new initiative called the UK Health Data Research Alliance, along with HDR UK, aiming to "mobilise the UK's health data for science and innovation". “This new alliance brings together the unique data assets across the NHS, and allows access to them by the research community in a safe, secure and ethical framework. From this will flow new treatments and insights which will transform outcomes for patients,” said health minister Lord O’Shaughnessy. Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

Thirteen NHS trusts in England providing a mixture of acute, mental health and community services will receive a share of £16m to speed up implementation of e-prescribing. Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt announced back in February that £78m would be made available to help trusts move away from paper prescriptions, after a study found that an estimated 237 million medication errors occur in the NHS in England every year. "This is a large number, but 72 per cent have little/ no potential for harm. It is likely that many errors are picked up before they reach the patient, but we do not know how many," researchers from the York, Manchester and Sheffield universities wrote in the analysis. A Short Life Working Group established in September 2017 found that electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems were some of the "most challenging digital health systems to implement in provider organisations". Figures from November 2017 indicated that 35 per cent of acute trusts and less than 12 per cent of mental health organisations had rolled out an ePMA system. Webinar: How Chief Digital Officers Can Boost Digital Transformation “There is evidence that electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems will improve safety for patients, reducing the risk of harm and ensuring high quality efficient patient care which is as safe as possible,” said Andrew Davies, NHS Improvement Director of Hospital Pharmacy. The thirteen trusts to receive the funding are: Bolton NHS Foundation Trust (£1.02m) The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (£750,000) Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (£1.6m) Humber NHS Foundation Trust (£300,000) Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (£940,000) Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (£820,000) University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (£2.19m) Barts Health NHS Trust (£1.7m) East London NHS Foundation Trust (£740,000) East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (£1.45m)   Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (£1.17m) Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (£1.62m) East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (£1.7m). Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org