Hi there, Richard here. Today I'm speaking to Martin Bell who is an independent
consultant in healthcare IT. I'm at Leeds Digital Festival and right now I'm in
Leeds Kirtgate Market. Hello, I'm Martin Bell, I'm here with Richard. We are taking a
break from the Leeds Digital Festival which goes on all this week and we are
currently in Leeds Kirtgate Market. This is a world-first selfie for me. It's
also a world-first coffee cast. We've had the coffee and now we're going to do the
cast. So we hope you enjoy what comes up next. So Martin, I'm really interested in
a technology called blockchain and the potential that has to facilitate the
sharing of patient records. So blockchain is a really interesting technology,
it basically is an inscrutable way of protecting information, allowing the
audit trail of patient data that's been accessed to not be changed. So that means
that if somebody accesses patient data without authority, there's no way that
that audit world can be deleted. Now, is that important for patients? It's important for
patients to know their data is secure, it's important for clinicians to know
that by sharing information across different healthcare settings, between
health and social care, and between clinicians and patients, that that
information is secure and that any logs that are taken, any audits and records
are made, are secure than they are now. It's worth bearing in mind however, a lot
of information at the moment is kept on paper. There's absolutely no audit log
for that in terms of how patients or how we know who has looked at that
information. So it's really important that we don't stop the sharing of data or
hold back the sharing of data until that robust blockchain is in place, but it's
something we should be working towards. What else can facilitate and enable
the sharing of medical records? So blockchain's there and it's
upcoming, what can we do right now? So blockchain is important technically, but
probably meaningless to lots of people in the wider world. It's certainly
important for developers, it's important for app developers, for systems
developers to use that technology. But in terms of enabling wider access to
patient records, we need to hook up clinicians and patients, we need to hook
up different systems, we need to ensure the interoperability agenda, like the
one being pursued by NHS Digital at the moment, is strong and at the forefront of
contracts and commissioning, and it's also important that we address the cultural
issues. There's lots of cultural reasons why information isn't shared, whether that's
patient sharing it, whether it's clinicians feeling comfortable sharing it,
whether it's different sectors, for example health and social care, sharing
information between them. So it's important to build trust, it's important that
there is credibility between those different sectors. Very good. So my
final question then, would you have any advice for startups looking to solve
problems within the digital health sector? I think there's a few nuggets of
information for startups, for scale-ups, for digital entrepreneurs in that
health and social care space. The first one would be don't be held back by what
you see as the big public sector, there are ways to engage with the public
sector, with the market, to get your technology in and get it used. Secondly,
that you can build technically your foundations on technologies like
blockchain, on interoperability standards like FIRE, that we need you to fit in to
the health and social care systems of tomorrow. And the third thing is don't
try doing it in technical isolation. Get out there, talk to commissions, talk to
social services, talk to nurses, talk to doctors, talk to patients about what they
want, about what they need, about what the problems are they need addressed.
Thank you very much Matty. Thank you.
