Digital, data and technology
What are our overall aims by 2028?
Supporting our system’s vision for improved population health and wellbeing, our digital and data capabilities will enable seamless sharing of information; virtual support, remote monitoring and access to services for local people and patients; agile working and development for the local workforce; and the delivery of intelligence-driven insight. A single Electronic Patient Record and standardised IT systems will deliver maximum workflow and data integration, focusing on citizens and patients not health and care organisations, using “Citizen or Patient First” as our organising principle.
A culture of innovation and continuous improvement will exist within our system – this includes developing and training our workforce, creating opportunities for experimentation and learning, and fostering collaboration and communication across organisations and teams.
To deepen our understanding of and remove the barriers to digital inclusion particularly in relation to the priority groups that we wish to support, recognising that these barriers may relate to the design of digital services and programmes (lack of accessibility) and lack of awareness of what is available and the benefits.
What’s our starting point?
The Coventry and Warwickshire ICS Digital Transformation Strategy outlines how we will use digital and data to reimagine how care is delivered, make health and care services more sustainable and address rising demand. The Strategy also sets out our priorities in terms of enabling health and care services to be tailored to individual care needs, understanding and addressing access and inequality disparities, and deploying resources to deliver preventative services to support people to stay healthy and well.
A refreshed Digital Transformation Strategy and aligned Digital Transformation Plan will be published in September 2023. To inform the development of these documents, we are engaging with leaders across our system, and seeking their input to champion the Strategy and to develop collaborative ways of working to accelerate its delivery. Governance arrangements are also being refreshed as part of this work. Our system wide Digital, Data & Technology Oversight Board will play an on-going role in overseeing delivery of the Strategy.
What are some of the key links to other parts of the plan?
Population Health Management and Health Inequalities – through our PHM Roadmap we are implementing a local PHM Platform. This will detail the health and wellbeing of our population to predict and prevent those at risk of developing avoidable illness. It will support our overall PHM approach, as well as providing insights to reduce health inequalities.
Health Inequalities – we know that digital exclusion often overlaps with other forms of social exclusion and disadvantage. Our Digital Inclusion Framework will set out our priorities to ensure that digital inclusion is central to the design of future services.
Personalised Care – our Personalisation Strategy recognises that digital tools can significantly empower people and enhance their experience of care.
Improving Access to Services - Urgent and Emergency Care – our plans to improve access to urgent and emergennc care services include the continued implementation of our local Virtual Ward Plan and the use of digital tools to deliver care remotely.
What will we be focusing on in the next 2 years?
By September 2023: completing a structured strategic planning process which will deliver:
- A Digital Roadmap setting out what digital capabilities and technologies will be delivered when;
- A refreshed Digital Transformation Strategy and aligned Digital Transformation Plan setting out what system and service changes will occur, when and what the associated benefits will be;
- A 3-5 year Costed Plan setting out what resources are required and how will they be used to deliver the ICS Digital Transformation Plan;
- A new DDaT oversight Board will oversee the delivery of key digital programmes in the Digital Transformation Strategy and Plan.
By 2024: developing detailed baseline assessments and compliance plans linked to the national digital transformation framework What Good Looks Like.
By 2024: implementing a federated data platform to deliver functionality including tools to help maximise capacity, reduce waiting lists and co-ordinate care.
By March 2025: completing collaborative work with local acute, community, mental health, and ambulance providers to ensure that they meet core levels of digitisation in line NHS Long Term Plan objectives.
Ongoing: exploiting digital and data to maximise the use of local resources, such as electronic bed management and system control centres.
Ongoing: equipping our local population with digital tools, including national products such as the NHS App to help people to stay well, get well and manage their own health and wellbeing.
Ongoing: working with our local GP practices to open up digital access to personal health records for patients and citizens, online registration, appointment bookings.
Ongoing: supporting and growing the workforce to acquire and retain the right skills within the system to drive the acceleration of digital transformation.
Ongoing: managing cyber security risks and maintaining compliance with nationally mandated cyber standards to safeguard people’s private health information. As part of this work, creating an ICS-wide Security Operations Centre and Cyber-Security Centre of Excellence.
Developing a Digital Inclusion Framework which addresses: access – in order to use digital; skills – people need to have the right skills to use digital; and confidence – people need to have confidence in digital and feel safe using it.
Ongoing: ensuring widespread adoption of Digital Inclusion Impact Assessments for all existing and new digital and data initiatives.
Working with the Coventry City Council Digital Inclusion Team to deploy funding from our Health Inequalities Innovation Fund to support a project focusing on equity of access to digital technology and services.
Key Challenges
Funding – there is no central budget for digital projects, these are funded from a number of regional and local sources.
Digital, Data and Technology workforce capability and capacity – the lack of digital resources across the ICS is a challenge in terms of skills in different specialisms. This includes colleagues in user-centred design and quality assurance & testing.
Collaboration and Partnership Working – will be required amongst the workforce involved with delivering digital services across the ICS in order to deliver the Digital Transformation Strategy on time and on budget.
Key Metrics and Deliverables
75% of adult population have downloaded the NHS App by March 2024.
Increase Virtual Ward utilisation (see Improving Access to Services - Urgent and Emergency Care section).
A costed Digital Transformation Plan by September 2023 including Electronic Patient Record levelling up plans.
Full ICS collaborative record sharing by March 2024.
West Midlands wide collaborative record sharing by March 2025
Secure data environment for research by March 2025.