Healthcare in Thoughts from the Centre
The future unmasked: In 2025, healthcare is integrated, digital-first, and patient-centred
By Karen Taylor, Samrina Bhatti and Krissie Ferris, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
This is week three in our staggered launch of our predictions report ‘The future unmasked: Predicting the future of healthcare and life sciences in 2025’. This week, we have released predictions five and six: ‘Care is designed around people not place’ and ‘Medtech and the IOMT are crucial drivers of value-based care’. This week’s blog explores these two predictions.
The future unmasked: how healthcare professionals will work differently in 2025
By Karen Taylor, Samrina Bhatti and Krissie Ferris, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
Last week, we published the first two of our ten predictions in our report, ‘The future unmasked: Predicting the future of healthcare and life sciences in 2025’. This week, we launch predictions three and four, ‘Clinicians are empowered by new diagnostic and treatment paradigms’ and ‘The who, what and where of work re-architected’. This week’s blog provides an overview of predictions three and four.
The future unmasked: healthy ageing and better public health
By Karen Taylor, Samrina Bhatti and Krissie Ferris, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
Over the past few months we have been developing ten predictions for our report, ‘The future unmasked: Predicting the future of healthcare and life sciences in 2025’. The predictions are brought to life through a number of ‘portraits’ imagining what the experience of individuals might look like in 2025, together with examples of the evidence available today to predict tomorrow. We also consider the key constraints that will need to be overcome to realise our view of the future and look at the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on shaping each prediction. This week, we have launched the first two of our ten predictions: ‘From health(care) to healthy ageing’, and ‘Better public health drives better productivity’. This week’s blog provides a short history of the evolution of our predictions reports and selected highlights from our first two predictions.
State of the State 2020: what are the priorities for health and social care?
By Karen Taylor, Director, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
This week, Deloitte together with Reform published their ninth annual report on the ‘State of the State: Government in the pandemic and beyond’, reflecting on the insights provided by extensive new research into the issues facing government and public services across the UK.1 This year, the focus is on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on both the public sector and its citizens. At the heart of the research is an exclusive public survey conducted between August and September 2020, which offers insights into perceptions of public services and public spending during and beyond COVID-19, as well as a public perspective on the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. To mark the publication of this seminal research, this blog provides a deep dive into the findings relevant to health and social care.
Vaccines like it (very) cold – how to build a resilient COVID-19 vaccine supply chain
By Maria João Cruz, PhD, Research Analyst, Centre for Health Solutions, and Jose M. Suárez, Manager, Life Sciences Advisory
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 1.1 million lives and infected over 45 million people worldwide, numbers that continue to increase.1 Alongside its devastating human impact, the pandemic has exerted unrelenting pressure on pharma and healthcare supply chains. COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of our medical supply chains, and highlighted their global inter-dependencies and vulnerability to shock. We have also experienced major challenges in the medical equipment supply chain, including manufacturing, transport and distribution of testing kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), and ventilators. However, these challenges pale in comparison to the huge task ahead of us in getting life-saving COVID-19 vaccines to people around the world, in record time, to halt the spread of this virus. Importantly, this will have to be done while maintaining production, distribution and administration of other life-saving therapies, including the seasonal flu shots, and other essential medicinal products.
How COVID-19 has exposed the need to improve digital inclusion
By Krissie Ferris, Research Analyst, Centre for Health Solutions
In February 2020, our report Realising digital-first primary care highlighted the limited progress in achieving the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition for all patients to have access to online primary care services by 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed this irreversibly. In a matter of weeks, healthcare teams moved most of their non-emergency, face-to-face consultations online in an effort to maintain access while keeping themselves and their patients safe. What these past nine months have also shown is the impact of the digital divide on those who are unable to access or use online services and digital technologies. The groups disproportionately affected by the divide are vulnerable people, low-income groups, the elderly and the more marginalised communities in our society. Importantly, those with the greatest health needs are also the most at risk of being disadvantaged by digital exclusion.1 In a world where healthcare is fast becoming ‘digital by default’, this blog explores how to reduce the digital divide and the risk of exacerbating health inequalities.
Word Mental Health Day: how digital technologies can help meet rising demand for mental health services
By Krissie Ferris, Research Analyst, Centre for Health Solutions
Last Saturday, the 10th of October, was the WHO’s annual World Mental Health Day (WMHD) whose aim is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilise efforts in support of mental health.1 This year’s theme is ‘good mental health for all’, which seems fitting since all of us need to be aware of our own mental health and wellbeing, especially this year with all of us being affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, for those experiencing challenges to their mental health, awareness is unlikely to be enough, and tackling poor mental health will generally require some form of mental health intervention. Throughout the pandemic, however, primary care mental health services (like many other healthcare services) have had to adopt new ways of working to provide access to care in the face of lockdowns and social distancing measures. This has driven a wider adoption of technology–enabled ways of working, and changed fundamentally the face of primary care mental health support. This blog reflects on what has changed, and the opportunities for digital mental health care moving forwards.
Diversity and inclusion in clinical trials – an imperative, especially in times of COVID-19
By Maria João Cruz, PhD, Research Analyst, Centre for Health Solutions
Clinical trials provide the necessary evidence to prove safety and efficacy of new treatments and medical products. Given that the responses to a specific medication may differ among population subgroups depending on factors such as age, sex, genetic profile and ethnicity, clinical trials need to reflect the demographic diversity of the population that a pharma product is intended to serve.1,2 Last August the Centre published a blog on the importance of inclusion and diversity in clinical trials and why it should be a research priority. At the time, we highlighted the initiatives being launched by regulatory bodies to improve diversity in clinical research but noted that, while there have been some improvements, pharma companies were still struggling to enrol participants from diverse demographic groups, particularly women, racial and ethnic minorities, and the elderly.3
Wake me up when September ends: my reflections on the search for a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, in honour of World Alzheimer’s Month
By Dr Francesca Properzi, PhD. Research Manager, Centre for Health Solutions
Since 2012, September has been celebrated as World Alzheimer’s Month, and this year’s theme is 'Let's talk about dementia'. This is clearly much needed, especially as one person is diagnosed with dementia every three seconds.1 As a neuroscientist, I spent more than 10 years leading a research lab dedicated to finding new approaches for diagnosing and treating neurodegenerative diseases at the Italian Institute of Health in Rome. I also had first-hand experience of the disease, as I had originally accepted that position and left my job in London, to take care of my father, who was himself fighting dementia. Those years have shaped me greatly both personally and professionally and, as September coincides with my last month at the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions, I am delighted to use this blog to provide my reflections on the challenges presented by Alzheimer’s disease and to consider what more needs to be done to expedite progress in identifying treatments and ultimately a cure.
World Patient Safety Day: Speak up for health worker safety
By Samrina Bhatti, MRPharmS, PGDipGPP, Manager, and Karen Taylor, Director, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
There is a universally accepted mantra in healthcare that no one should be harmed as a result of the treatment and care they receive. In May 2019, the seventy-second World Health Assembly adopted a resolution, ‘Global action on patient safety’ and endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day (WPSD), to be observed annually on 17 September. The origin of WPSD is based on the fundamental principle of medicine – ‘First, do no harm’. Today, the global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the huge challenges facing health workers, including the heightened risks to their physical and mental health, and associated risk of patient harm. The WHO has therefore selected as the theme for the second WPSD, ‘Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety, under the slogan ‘Safe health workers, Safe patients’; and a call to action, ‘Speak up for health worker safety!’.1 This week’s blog celebrates WPSD by exploring how the safety of health workers, is a priority for patient safety.