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When it comes to achieving digital transformation, one of the primary barriers holding back organizations is the lack of suitable skills within their workforce. With the potential for digital transformation in healthcare so great, and the progress so slow, a recent report for the U.K. National Health Service by digital health pioneer Dr Eric Topol is timely indeed.
The paper aims to assess how new technologies are likely to influence the roles and functions of clinical staff, and their support, over the next two decades. What new skills will be required? How will curricula and education need to change to meet this demand?
With 1.2 million employees, which puts it in the top 5 biggest employers in the world, implementing change is no small undertaking, but one that is crucial if the service is to move with the times.
“In a fast changing healthcare environment, with a growing and aging population, the task of ensuring that the workforce has the skills, knowledge and time to care is essential to future proofing the NHS and its ability to meet patients’ needs,” Topol says.
Workforce of the future
The report proposes three core principles by which Topol believes the NHS’s workforce strategy should be guided in the future:
- Patient empowerment – with new tools enabling patients to take a more active involvement in their own care.
- Driven by evidence – with any introduction of new technology driven by evidence rather than hype or the latest trends so that stakeholders can trust it.
- Saving time – healthcare is a notoriously time-pressed environment, and so the adoption of technology should strive to return time to professionals to deliver better care.
The need to change is underpinned by the fact that despite the workforce growing to its largest ever, the NHS still struggles to keep up with the demands placed on it by the growing and aging U.K. population. The education of this workforce will be crucial if any kind of successful digital transformation is to be seen.
“The education and training of the existing workforce, along with the preparation of an appropriate pipeline of talented future staff, will be key to the success of any programme of change designed to empower staff to take advantage of the advances in technology to improve service delivery,” Topol says.
Whilst there have been some projects, such as the NHS Digital Academy, already created, these programs target a tiny proportion of the overall workforce. One of the core challenges identified in the report is the time required to train. Workers at all levels report increasing levels of stress as they struggle to cope with the growing expectations of both the public and their managers. Factoring in the requisite time to both learn new skills, and to integrate their new skills into current practice in a heavily target-driven culture is a hurdle that cannot be over-estimated.
As with other industries, Topol suggests that in addition to upskilling medical staff (ok, he says clinicians only, but I hope he means all medical staff!), there will be a need to create a number of new professional groups, including medical software engineers and digital medicine specialists.
He suggests that new methods of training, such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), will play a key role in the delivery of training and development, whilst technologies such as augmented reality could also play a role.
Making the vision reality
The report is the first publication of a wider-reaching review being conducted by Topol, and it acts as a call for evidence from practitioners working in the field, either of healthcare or education.
The review aims to examine the specific workforce needs across three main themes: genomics; digital medicine; and AI and robotics. Topol has convened expert panels in each area and has solicited evidence in these areas to inform a second report that will published in early 2019.
“While it’s hard to predict the future, we know artificial intelligence, digital medicine and genomics will have an enormous impact on improving efficiency and precision in healthcare,” Topol says. “This review will focus on the extraordinary opportunities to leverage these technologies for the healthcare workforce and power a sustainable and vibrant NHS.”
The NHS doesn’t have a great track record in transferring the recommendations of reviews and white papers into actual practice, so whilst the aim of the Topol review is to be commended, time will tell how successfully it proves to be in driving change.