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Innovation Factory’s Alaa Chalabi talks using wearables to detect sleep disorders and snoring habits at WISH in Doha, Qatar last week.

Advice for hospitals: Making inroads on blockchain now, with smaller projects that don't involve patient data, can help prepare them for larger opportunities ahead.

Hospitals and health systems using IT from CommonWell member companies will be able to bilaterally exchange patient data within their EHR workflows.

There is a small market for software that combines physical and mental health data hospitals can use to better understand threats before an incident occurs.

Here’s a look at what security experts think about the controversial issue.

The UK’s HealthTech Advisory Board, created to help guide the government and look at transforming the use of technology across the NHS, will meet for the first time today, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said. Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock vowed to "sort out" the IT infrastructure of the NHS earlier this year, calling it “the world’s most frustrating place to work for its IT”, with “only 10 per cent of the challenge" being the technology.  “Ninety per cent of the challenge is the culture,” he said. The new initiative will bring together clinicians, academics and tech experts to explore and support efforts to harness innovation and reduce pressures on the system. “It will highlight where change needs to happen, where best practice isn’t being followed, and be an ideas hub for how we transform the NHS to improve patient outcomes, patient experience, and to make the lives of NHS staff easier," Hancock added. The board will be chaired by Dr Ben Goldacre, Evidence-Based Medicine DataLab Director at the University of Oxford, and members include NHS Digital Academy CEO and Director of Digital at the Salford Royal Group Rachel Dunscombe and Nicola Blackwood, Chair of the Human Tissue Authority and former Health Minister. Roger Taylor, who was appointed as Chair of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation back in June, will also be joining them, along with: Nicole Junkermann, NJF Holdings Founder Manoj Badale, Blenheim Chalcot Co-Founder David Gann, Imperial College London Professor of Innovation and Technology Management Sir Mark Walport, UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive Daniel Korski, PUBLIC CEO and Co-Founder Michelle Brennan, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies Group Chair Dan Sheldon, Well Pharmacy Head of Digital Jeni Tennison, Open Data Institute CEO Parker Moss, F-Prime and Eight Roads Entrepreneur in Residence. “To make the changes that are needed we must work together and have a common vision. We need to couple this with an agile culture where we constantly improve systems and champion the innovators," Hancock said at the Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester in September. “The culture change we need to see requires strong management and leadership. I’m determined to grow stronger leadership across the NHS. We should train more of our own, yes, and bring in more talent from the outside too who know how to inspire change.” In October, an initial digital, data and technology strategy was published by the DHSC, outlining plans to modernise the NHS IT infrastructure and introduce a clear set of open standards that all digital services and IT systems in the NHS would have to meet.  Asked how he would measure the success of innovation being embedded into the NHS at the GovTech summit in Paris last week, Hancock said: "When I'm no longer the world's largest owner of fax machines." Freedom of Information requests submitted by the UK's Royal College of Surgeons earlier this year indicated that NHS hospitals trusts in England owned more than 8,000 fax machines, and a report from DeepMind Health's independent reviewers panel from 2017 said the health service retained "the dubious title of being the world’s largest purchaser of fax machines". At the GovTech summit, Hancock added: "I want to see an improvement in the outcomes of government services and, so, I try to resist what is a pressure that all politicians come under, which is to give very fixed and specific targets, because (...) there may be even better technology that comes along that I might discover at this conference that we've never heard of before." Twitter: @1Leontina Contact the author: lpostelnicu@himss.org

Dunedin, the second largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the principal city of the Otago region, is currently making plans for a new digital hospital. The Southern District Health Board’s (DHB) Executive Director People, Culture & Technology, Mike Collins said that the new hospital will be largely paperless and will leverage technology to save time for both staff and patients. Collins is responsible for the technology infrastructure for the new hospital, which will be built on the former Cadbury factory site, and says the focus is currently on the ambulatory care block. “We are trying to implement new technologies and solutions well before the hospital opens. From a change management perspective, I want staff to be comfortable working in that digital environment before the doors open,” he added. His team is running workshops with clinicians and the community and taking a persona-based approach to designing the technology needed to enable better experiences for patients and staff. A key question asked when looking at patient journeys is whether the person really needs to go to hospital or whether they can be cared for closer to home. Webinar: How Chief Digital Officers Can Boost Digital Transformation This planning is not based solely around the DHB, but around the southern health system as a whole, and incorporates the region’s new Primary and Community Care Strategy. Dr John Adams, the new Chair of the Clinical Leadership Group – the senior clinical staff guiding the clinical direction of the New Dunedin Hospital, also emphasised the importance of an integrated approach to healthcare in the Southern region in an interview: “It’s certainly clear to me that this is not just about building a physical hospital. It’s about building on the moves that have already been made around how the hospital works, and how it relates with primary care and the whole plan of health services in the region and the South Island. The New Dunedin Hospital is going to be a really important cog in the whole of the health services in the South Island. Part of the planning will be about how the clinicians continue to develop those exciting new ways of collaborative functioning, both internally and externally.” The region has developed a digital strategy and is working with the Ministry of Health to identify key strategic goals, such as the implementation of interoperability standards. The strategy plans for the next five to six years and is in line with the South Island Alliance’s regional strategy and the Ministry’s Digital Health Strategy, which is still in draft form. A version of this article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

Within two years, 80 percent of IT leaders will be paid based on metrics that track tech’s ability to boost performance and growth.

Researchers pinpointed five main points of failure for digital transformation plans.