Healthcare in Thoughts from the Centre
A bold future for life sciences regulation: Predictions 2025
By Karen Taylor, Director, Centre for Health Solutions
Following our 2014 and 2017 Life Science and Health Care Predictions reports, ‘A bold future?’ and ‘The future awakens’, this week we launched our third predictions report, A bold future for Life Sciences Regulation: Predictions 2025. This year’s report presents an unashamedly optimistic view on what Life Sciences regulation might look like in 2025 if both life science companies and regulators were to work more collaboratively, embrace disruptive technologies, and acquire new skills and talent. We argue that this would improve not only the productivity of the regulators and industry but also provide patients with access to the latest medical innovation much sooner. We also imagine through a series of ‘portraits’ how a regulator, company and patient might behave in 2025. This week’s blog provides an overview of the four predictions presented in our future of regulation report and examples of the evidence today that enable us to predict a bold future for life sciences regulation in 2025.
The rise of e-mental health: How can digital technology build resilience?
By Dr Francesca Properzi, PhD. Research Manager, Centre for Health Solutions
Earlier this year, a team of US scientists connected the brains of three people using an interface made of electroencephalography and magnetic stimulation technologies. The new network enabled the three people to communicate by thinking, exchange ideas and successfully play a collaborative game.1 This ground-breaking experiment is yet one example of many other recent scientific advances where digital technologies are transforming our understanding of the mind. While controversial and somewhat alarming, these developments also present a unique opportunity to protect and support mental health, at a time of unprecedented technological changes.
Insights from our State of the State 2018-19 report: How health sector leaders and citizens view the outlook for NHS and social care services
By Karen Taylor, Director, Centre for Health Solutions
Last week, my public sector colleagues, together with the think tank Reform, published their seventh annual report The State of the State 2018-19: Government beyond Brexit.1 The report once again brought together Deloitte and Reform to reflect on our most pressing public sector issues. The evidence for the report includes a deep analysis of published data, a citizen survey and exclusive interviews with the people who understand the public sector’s challenges best – the people who run it. As in previous years, the NHS and social care are a central feature of the report, and I have used this week’s blog to highlight the main findings on the ‘State of the NHS and social care’.
World Alzheimer’s Day
By Mark Steedman, PhD. Manager Centre for Health Solutions
In the late 1970s, Earth, Wind & Fire released one of their biggest hits – September – with an opening line that has become an internet meme and is widely recognised around the world.
“Do you remember the 21st night of September?”
Is Artificial Intelligence the magic wand Indian health care needs?
by Pratik Avhad
India’s health care system is facing many challenges, including affordability, quality of care and access to services. India’s GDP per capita income is just $1,940, and out of pocket health care spending is almost 70 per cent, causing hardship for much of India’s population.1,2 In a systematic analysis of data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, researchers ranked India’s quality of care and access as 145th out of 195 countries.3 However, with the fourth industrial revolution unfolding at pace, Pratik Avhad, the Centre’s India-based analyst, uses this week’s blog to explore whether artificial intelligence (AI) could be the answer to India’s quality and access challenges.
Behind the times: The healthcare worker’s mobile readiness
by Mark Steedman, PhD
Our colleagues in TMT (Technology, Media & Telecommunications) recently launched the results of their Mobile Readiness for Work 2018 survey of 3,369 workers across multiple industries in the UK. They examined how workers currently use technology and identify opportunities for using mobile devices and apps to improve workers’ productivity. Included in their survey results are responses from healthcare and social workers. This week’s blog explores the responses from healthcare and social workers in more detail, including comparing the responses to some of the insights from our report Time to care: Securing a future for the hospital workforce in the UK.
Envisioning a world without blindness: New treatments for AMD
by Mark Steedman, PhD
This week’s blog is the second in a series focusing on eye health, which we are writing in advance of the launch of a global report on eye health at the November 2018 World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH). Our first blog in the series focused on glaucoma. This blog examines in more detail another leading cause of eye morbidity that affects millions of people around the world – age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
In the spotlight: How might the appointment of our new Health Secretary impact health and care?
by Karen Taylor, Director, Centre for Health Solutions
In the three weeks since the NHS celebrated its 70th birthday, much has happened. From the appointment of a new Health Secretary, Matt Hancock MP, to the unravelling of the details of the national pay award. Meanwhile, hospital activity shows no let up and concerns over staffing and other resource shortages continue to build. This week’s blog provides my take on the Health Secretary’s maiden speech and its implications for the current health care system.
Blockchain: Picking the right links for the Life Science and Health Care industries
by Amen Sanghera, Analyst, UK Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions and Rui Zhou, Consultant, Deloitte Canada
Blockchain is increasingly touted as the technology that could transform many of the challenges facing healthcare and life sciences; whether it is providing secure and interoperable electronic health records (EHR), increasing the integrity of clinical trials data or improving the transparency of life science’s supply chain operations. While, the technology itself is not revolutionary, using it in the right situation, especially where trust, consensus or immutability are essential to the operations of the Life Science and Health care industries, could be transformational.
Medtech and the Internet of Medical Things: How connected medical devices are transforming health care
by Dr. Mark Steedman, Research Manager, Centre for Health Solutions
This week, we launched our report Medtech and the Internet of Medical Things: How connected medical devices are transforming health care. Our report takes an in-depth look at how connectivity is impacting the medtech industry, the challenges and opportunities that medtech companies are facing due to the rise of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), the specific role connected medical devices are playing in the growth of the IoMT and what the future will bring for medtech and the IoMT.