How the NHS is Future-Proofing Healthcare with AI
Healthcare is arguably the most vital area where AI is making significant strides – and now England’s National Health Service (NHS) is embracing its potential.
The findings of Lord Darzi’s 2024 investigation into the NHS sheds light on the well known matter of the NHS being in a “critical condition,” grappling with appointment accessibility issues, mounting waiting lists, staff demoralisation and lagging cancer research.
However this time, AI is proposed as a solution, in a 10 Year Health Plan for England presents a pathway to either incrementally adjust a failing system or embark on a comprehensive transformation of the NHS – summarised as “reform or die.”
“This is a time for radical change – major surgery, not sticking plasters,” writes UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in the report.
“The measures in this plan are radical and urgent. It won’t be easy, but the prize will be worth it.
“This is a plan that will take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and renew it so it serves generations to come.”
Engaging with AI for a new healthcare model
The authors conducted extensive outreach over the past eight months, receiving insights from staff, the public and 250,000 contributions on the Change.NHS website.
The result is a vision for a health model leveraging AI and data, centred on universality, free access, need-based treatment and public funding.
From utilising AI, the NHS aims to harness the genomics revolution and solidify its status as the world’s most AI-enabled healthcare system.
The transformation depends on relocating care from hospitals to communities, advancing from analog to digital systems and shifting focus from treating illness to prevention.
With this change, the NHS will implement reforms including a new operating structure, transparency measures and an innovative workforce alignment strategy.
Revamping procurement with AI
This pathway laid out for the NHS also emphasises tech-driven procurement.
The NHS plans to transition from being what the report described as a “20th century technological laggard” to a forward-thinking 21st-century leader.
The strategy involves using the NHS’s unique advantages – advanced data, procurement leverage and universal access – to become the most digitally accessible health system globally.
This includes optimising digital procurement and establishing a national formulary for medicines.
The report cites South Korea’s AI-enabled hospitals as a model, with aspirations to replicate these advancements in England’s hospitals, particularly in staff management and supply optimisation through automation.
Technology-driven procurement strategies
The NHS also seeks to overhaul its procurement strategies, moving away from outdated practices that focus on price rather than value and outcomes.
This shaking off of the past is likened to abandoning fixed telephone line investments in the mobile phone era by the report.
Beginning next year, a standardised value-based procurement guidance will be introduced for devices and digital tools, following national-level purchases distributed via an internal marketplace.
This aims to unlock the potential of the UK’s HealthTech and MedTech sectors.
The system will expand NICE’s appraisal process to include select devices and digital technologies, focusing on urgent needs and financial sustainability – such as digital therapies for youth mental health services.
Towards AI-powered healthcare systems
The report says that the ultimate goal is establishing the NHS as the “most AI-enabled health system in the world,” with AI integrated into clinical operations.
“Our aim is to be in the driving seat of the biggest industrial revolution since the 19th century as we harness technology to create a new model of care in the NHS.”
Identifying five transformative technologies – data, AI, genomics, wearables and robotics – the NHS will work to individualise care, bolster outcomes, enhance productivity and stimulate economic progress.
AI is already envisioned as a trusted assistant to healthcare providers, assisting in decision-making processes.
As a result, over the next three years, the organisation will also revamp educational curricula to prepare a future-ready workforce.
