Digital Health Rewired 2024 is just around the corner, and we at Access HSC (Health Support and Care) are thrilled to be attending the event. We’ll be looking to raise awareness of health and social care challenges and offer our thoughts and solutions for how integrated, collaborative, and holistic person-centred care is the forward step needed to reshape the UK healthcare landscape.

Hot Topics on the Agenda

Access’ Director of Group Product and Engineering, Alan Payne, will be co-leading discussions on the topic of Digital Equity and Inclusion from 9:15am on Wednesday 13th March, highlighting the potential and the challenges of digital health services, and the importance of integrating care systems to improve outcomes for individuals across different healthcare settings.

Integration is a big focus for others attending the event as well. The Integrated Care stage will see more than half a dozen speakers from various ICBs and trusts all discussing cutting-edge methods and innovations for embedding integration into health and social care, covering everything from patient strategies and population health, to digitisation, convergence, and shared care records.

Preventative care will also be a focus area this year, emphasising the importance of deploying digital strategies to aid in the early detection of chronic diseases, harnessing the power of AI to address the elective care backlog, using remote care models to help patients manage existing health conditions, and utilising digital tools to improve clinical correspondence workflow.

Spotlight on Virtual Health

Remote care models and virtual wards are key talking points for our partners North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) this year, speaking alongside Digital Care, Health Innovation Network, and Bradford Teaching Hospitals. These organisations will be discussing their own personal learnings from virtual wards respectively, touching upon the various ICBs spearheading this whole-system approach, and focusing on how virtual wards can help unify providers and alleviate pressures across the health and social care system. The session will take place on Tuesday 12th March from 11:15 am.

NELFT’s Chief Digital Information Officer, Umesh Gadhvi, will be speaking, promoting the success of NELFT’s virtual wards programme and revealing how Access’s own integrated solutions are helping the Trust to streamline patient flow, speed up patient referrals and hospital discharge, reduce staff pressures, and deliver high-quality, joined-up care.

“Virtual wards are increasingly being used by the NHS to provide care to patients where they live, whether in a care setting or at home,” comments Gadhvi.

“Our digital front door can help keep people out of hospital, discharge patients early, reduce clinical time and give patients autonomy and choice.

“The Trust has developed an ambitious digital strategy which has been designed with our patients, and our virtual wards digital pathway enables patient choice of care. The design allows patients to use digital options to access and receive their healthcare. Virtual wards is a key digital offering to allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital, therefore supporting hospital avoidance.” To address winter pressures, NHS England set out to have “76% of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of entering the Emergency Department by March 2024”. That date has arrived, and we look forward to hearing from event speakers on how much of a part virtual wards and remote patient monitoring have played in helping the NHS meet this target, as well as gaining valuable insights into how the national drive for 50,000 virtual wards has affected patient care overall.

Exploring New Paradigms

“Digital Health Rewired is a fantastic opportunity to network; to get an insider glimpse into the latest innovations and health trends and discover new ways of thinking to improve our approach to healthcare. While there will always be new challenges to overcome, change and innovation do not happen in a vacuum. To make a long-lasting impact, there needs to be a proactive effort from each of us to keep learning, collaborating, and striving to deliver the best standard of care possible” – Katherine Tattershall, Divisional Marketing Manager, The Access Group

We’ll be spreading this message from our own stand across the two days, showcasing how Access is empowering health and care providers to support and make a difference in the lives of those needing care. We’ll be on stand C20, come and visit us and let our team talk you through what we have in store. We look forward to seeing you!