UKIHMA Digital Special Interest Group

The Digital SIG aims to fulfil three primary roles –

1. Formulate a cohesive and compelling mix of Digital Health offers for advertisement on the world stage.

2. Be ready to assess and respond to tenders.

3. Engage, consult, and stimulate debate with overseas parties, expanding horizons, redefining the art of the possible in Digital Health. Feedback will further expand point 1 and enable us to be targeted in our onboarding of peer suppliers to broaden our offerings, meeting market demand which ultimately fuels point 2.

The Digital SIG is co-led by Simon Swift of Methods Analytics and Lee Francis from PatientSource, both of whom have sought and won work internationally.

Special Interest Groups are the power houses of ideas and are complementary and supportive of one another. They work in collaboration to define propositions built from the membership portfolio for proactive marketing globally as well as responding to inbound enquiries.

The framework of the Digital SIG is currently being set with the inaugural Digital SIG specific meeting due to take place in August where we will share the templates for members to formulate their propositions in a format suitable for Max to advertise across the embassies and consulates.

In parallel to this activity, Simon and Lee are engaging with the other SIG leads to define how best they interact with one another, ensuring natural interdependencies are managed and the pull through of opportunity across the board.

Do you offer education and training to international clients?

UKIHMA has historically had most success in international infrastructure and hospital management opportunities.

In addition to these, we are strengthening our ability to offer comprehensive solutions to our international clients that address not only the capital build and operating of healthcare facilities but also the establishment of clinical services staffed by highly skilled and trained professionals.

We know many of our UKIHMA members are world leaders in a range of specialist healthcare services and provide expert clinical advice on delivery models, patient pathways and guidance on clinical standards. Many also offer access to education and training for the multi-professional team which may be in the form of formal professional academic courses or more vocational education and training.

The pandemic has accelerated the development of digital solutions in offering expert advice internationally. This significantly enhances the opportunities for our members to deliver distance education and training.

We are establishing a UKIHMA Education and Training Special Interest Group (SIG) which will work closely with our other SIGs including Clinical Consultancy and Digital. As a part of this, we will be liaising with universities and other academic institutions to seek their advice and potentially partner around the broader aspects of our members offers.

Our Middle East Task Force

In progressing our new opportunity development strategy, UKIHMA is planning a range of activities over the coming months aimed at targeting the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the run up to Arab Health 2021.

We are looking for all members who are interested in working in the region to come together to form a task force focused on identifying appropriate markets, opportunities, contacts and activities.

Culminating in trade missions to Arab Health in February 2021 and the Dubai Health Authority conference in March, UKIHMA will be establishing this task force in August 2020. This group will create a marketing campaign aimed at the region, researching and developing opportunities across all SIG areas and looking to create partnerships between UK and local providers and organisations.

Events held in June / July

Through the BHI, UKIHMA members are able to access a range of events with key thought leaders providing their reflections on current issues.

The events held over the last few weeks have been wide-ranging and engaging.

UK Excellence in Digital Healthcare and its Export Potential – 23rd June 2020

Noel Gordon, Chair of NHS Digital, Chair of Healthcare UKs Advisory Board and non-executive director of NHS England, led a webinar discussion on the implications of modern digital technology for reshaping healthcare. With his leadership roles, Noel is ideally positioned to consider how the current pandemic has influenced changes within healthcare. The webinar also examined how systems will further change once the world star ts to unlock from the crisis, with an emphasis on the global export potential of healthcare services.

He highlighted the rapidity of innovation introduction within the healthcare sector, using digital technologies to solve problems and find solutions. This redesign of 21st century healthcare includes many different types of innovations that go beyond technology to create a new culture of healthcare, involving faster responses and more autonomous services.

The current response of building for scale and for resilience against an unexpected pandemic gave the opportunity of embedding and adopting new models of care into the NHS, along with the ability to pressure test these new developments.

Noel also emphasised how the world, and healthcare systems like the NHS, now understand the power that data holds. It has become clear how to use this power in acquiring predictive capabilities for not only future outbreaks, but for other important health situations and inequalities that will need addressing. When simple AI algorithms are introduced in the future, this will facilitate the movement of these capabilities into healthcare systems in a fast and efficient manner.

These capabilities will bring about improvements in outpatient visits through technological improvements, particularly with the introduction of telemedicine and tele-consultations to help with changes to the A&E service in keeping it aligned with emergencies.

In the future, it is likely that many forms of digital healthcare will emerge and be introduced into the NHS to help create more end to end solutions. As the world unlocks from the pandemic, he considers there will be an overwhelming need for collaboration between healthcare systems worldwide, particularly within health service exports, to support a ‘heal the world’ view on global recovery.

In his closing remarks he noted that, as global spending on healthcare continues to increase, this digital transformation seems a small change for such a large breakthrough. Yet we will see a drastic alteration in how healthcare systems operate, particularly when the global unlock occurs.

World Economic Series: Rebooting the Economy launch by Lord Mayor of London – 25th June 2020

This event marked the first in a series of virtual breakfast webinars, the World Economic Series, which offers insight into worldwide responses to the current pandemic. The series’ launch in late June 2020 hosted the largest gathering of Ambassadors outside of the State Opening of Parliament.

Her Majesty’s Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps Alistair Harrison CMG CVO, and the Rt Hon Lord Mayor of London Alderman William Russell were introduced by the chair, the Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell, to set the context for the series. The overriding theme of the inaugural meeting was clear: build back better.

Despite the UK economy experiencing the largest GDP contraction since 1979, the Lord Mayor expressed optimism with regard to opportunities for the UK to strengthen its economy beyond its position pre pandemic.

Important themes arising from the event covered the need for global collaboration and economic diplomacy to combat uncertainty and the challenging crisis. Her Majesty’s Marshal Alistair Harrison emphasised the value of economic diplomacy and highlighted the need for change within both financial institutions and professional services.

The discussion turned towards opportunities that may arise due to the current crisis as the new normal will not reflect the world known only four months ago. The current pandemic has affected every corner of the world, resulting in worldwide collaboration which must be maintained long term to aid global economic recovery.

Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, also offered her insight, focused on the need for green growth to increase international economic resilience, particularly job creation for sectors that support environmental policies.

The aim of the World Economic Series is to explore an international context for public policy discussion surrounding responses to the current crisis, and to prevent the constrictive tendencies of a solely national analysis. The conclusion from this first event lies in recognising past mistakes and using this information to kick-start the rebooting of the world economy.

World Economic Series: Rebooting the Economy, Japanese Ambassador – 1st July 2020

The Ambassador of Japan, His Excellency Mr Yasumasa Nagamine, led the second instalment of the World Economic Series: Rebooting the World Economy, supported by Mr Naoki Ota, technology advisor to the Japanese Government.

The event was attended by more than 300 participants worldwide.

Main points from Mr Nagamine included Japan’s rapid response to the pandemic, and the measures taken that resulted in minimal deaths and infections, with heavy emphasis on contact tracing. Japan’s economic response to the pandemic was also considered, particularly fluctuations in the country’s IMF forecasts and supplementary budgets for emergency support for individuals and a recovery programme for sectors.

The importance of free trade was highlighted in this discussion, with Mr Nagamine concluding by reinforcing the need for international co-operation as a tool to reboot the world economy.

Mr Ota discussed data ownership and privacy concerns surrounding today’s digital technologies in Japan. Japan’s Super Cities concept that will boost growth through the use of digital technologies may only go ahead if Japanese citizens have data ownership, to eliminate privacy concerns.

The importance of contact tracing was reemphasised, especially to aid issues surrounding society and the economy, not just within the healthcare sector. This type of digital technology transformation is prevalent in Japan, with increased numbers of digital projects and services being introduced, slowly allowing Japan to return to its new normal. This entails virtual meetings and international visits, and the importance of a partnership between Japan and the UK in the future.

The discussion was followed by a Q&A session covering topics ranging from free trade vs domestic supply and healthcare supplies, to 5G and green technologies and infrastructure in other countries, concluding with the consensus that cooperation and relationships between societies will be a valuable factor in resolving issues such as the current crisis.The Ambassador of Japan, His Excellency Mr Yasumasa Nagamine, led the second instalment of the World Economic Series: Rebooting the World Economy, supported by Mr Naoki Ota, technology advisor to the Japanese Government.

The event was attended by more than 300 participants worldwide.

Main points from Mr Nagamine included Japan’s rapid response to the pandemic, and the measures taken that resulted in minimal deaths and infections, with heavy emphasis on contact tracing. Japan’s economic response to the pandemic was also considered, particularly fluctuations in the country’s IMF forecasts and supplementary budgets for emergency support for individuals and a recovery programme for sectors.

The importance of free trade was highlighted in this discussion, with Mr Nagamine concluding by reinforcing the need for international co-operation as a tool to reboot the world economy.

Mr Ota discussed data ownership and privacy concerns surrounding today’s digital technologies in Japan. Japan’s Super Cities concept that will boost growth through the use of digital technologies may only go ahead if Japanese citizens have data ownership, to eliminate privacy concerns.

The importance of contact tracing was reemphasised, especially to aid issues surrounding society and the economy, not just within the healthcare sector. This type of digital technology transformation is prevalent in Japan, with increased numbers of digital projects and services being introduced, slowly allowing Japan to return to its new normal. This entails virtual meetings and international visits, and the importance of a partnership between Japan and the UK in the future.

The discussion was followed by a Q&A session covering topics ranging from free trade vs domestic supply and healthcare supplies, to 5G and green technologies and infrastructure in other countries, concluding with the consensus that cooperation and relationships between societies will be a valuable factor in resolving issues such as the current crisis.