UK government announces £13m fund to digitalise healthcare

Recently, the government announced it will be investing £13 million into advancing research into the field of artificial intelligence (AI) within healthcare.

Ministers hope the new fund will help hospitals improve outcomes for patients, make treatments more effective, and reduce recovery times. 22 projects across the UK will be supported by the fund, such as semi-autonomous surgical robotics for tumour removal and predictive health analysis.

AI is just one of the new technologies being deployed at healthcare organisations around the country to improve the quality of care and ease the workload pressures on staff. 

Charbel Rizkallah, sr. director, healthcare offering management at Honeywell Sensing & Safety Technologies welcomes the investment and comments on the potential of new technologies in healthcare, “Innovation and the adoption of digital technologies are essential to tackling current healthcare challenges and transforming the way this vital service is delivered. It is essential for the Government to work closely with both tech developers and healthcare providers to ensure the needs of staff and patients are being met.

“For example, using sensing technology, data sharing and other capabilities including artificial intelligence and machine learning, one care provider can see a larger pool of patients because they don’t need to be physically located in the same place, helping make healthcare data more widely available anywhere in a hospital. This data can then be fed into other medtech solutions like bed management systems and integrated nurse call systems, and collectively these technologies can help increase the bandwidth of nurses and caregivers, while also increasing quality of care in the process.”

“Ultimately, technology has the potential to reduce the amount of time patients spend in the hospital and prevent unnecessary readmissions, as well as benefit staff workflows. The healthcare landscape is constantly evolving, and with more healthcare worker strikes lined up for later this year and the consistently high staff turnover rate, it is essential for technology companies and medtech entities to work together to help digitalise the industry.”