Health and Care Act 2022 takes force The changes to the health and care system embodied in the Health and Care Act 2022 came into effect today (1 July 2022). The changes mean the various bodies that operate under the NHS England banner can be merged formally and that integrated care systems can start work on a statutory basis. They also mean some procedural changes. For example, some assessment requirements in the 2014 act have been changed to make hospital discharge easier (DHSC guidance). NHS England marked the moment with a press release flagging some of the public health initiatives being undertaken by ICSs.

‘A plan for digital health and social care’ published  The Department of Health and Social Care has published its latest digital strategy for healthcare. As billed ahead of its publication, ‘A plan for digital health and social care’ doesn’t lay out a grand new vision, but instead pulls together aspirations and targets set for health tech over the past few years. These include a shift to cloud computing, electronic patient records in every hospital by 2025, the development of the ‘basic’ shared care records in place at integrated care systems, a big expansion of virtual wards and remote monitoring, and new services for patients delivered through the NHS App.   The plan will be funded by the £2 billion allocated to health tech in last year’s Budget. Launching the plan at the Policy Exchange think-tank, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said: “This agenda matters more than it did when the pandemic began. I am determined to use the power of technology and the skills, leadership and culture that underpin it, to drive a new era of digital transformation.” Digitalhealth.net has a round-up of reaction from the big NHS lobby groups and tech bodies, most of whom have welcomed the plan, but noted that the challenge will lie in executing it.

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change calls for technology to ‘revive’ the NHS  Tony Blair was the New Labour prime minister who came to power in 1997 and then promised to raise health spending to European levels. Following the launch of his NHS Plan reforms in 2000, the health service published a strategy, 21st Century IT, to create a national data spine, digitise hospitals, roll out telemonitoring, and provide phone and online services for patients through what became the National Programme for IT. Twenty-years after that strategy, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has published a report arguing that the NHS still needs to “truly harness the technologies we have at our disposal – and those of tomorrow.”   The report urges the government to “commit to a long-term approach that puts data and technology at the heart of transformation” – and invests to accelerate the timescale over which this can be done. It also argues that while the basics covered by this week's digital plan are necessary, they will be insufficient to create a more predictive, preventative, personalised, and participatory health and care service. It says there needs to be more focus on AI, automation, and research within a reform model that works with users. The report is part of a Blair initiative calling for a new kind of politics in the UK.

Portsmouth trials lung cancer AI via Sectra Amplifier Service Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust is trialing an AI application to support the detection of lung cancer on chest x-rays. The AI has been provided by the trust’s PACS provider, Sectra, through the Sectra Amplifier Service, which is designed to make it easier for hospitals to trail, procure and deploy AI for radiology, breast and pathology imaging (UK Tech News). Trust PACS manager Mark Gardner said the deployment had been as easy as asking Sectra to set up the trial, which saved significant resources. The findings from Portsmouth will be shared with partner hospitals in the SWASH imaging consortium.

Northern Care Alliance to deploy WinPath Enterprise LIMS The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust is working with CliniSys to deploy a single laboratory information system across its pathology services. The trust was formed last October when Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust formally merged with The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and it will use the LIMS to support harmonised working practices at its laboratories. This will make it easier for the new, single pathology team to share resources and expertise and deliver a faster testing service for GPs, hospitals and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation trust, which is part of a shared pathology service. The new LIMS will be hosted by CliniSys in the cloud to align with the trust’s cloud strategy (CliniSys news release).

Sectra signs digital pathology deal with two trusts Two trusts in the East of England have signed a digital pathology agreement with Sectra, digitalhealth.net has reported. East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust and West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust will move away from glass slides and microscopes and their pathologists will read high-resolution images instead. The move will support collaboration and remote working, as the images can be accessed from almost anywhere. The two trusts have opted to use the digital pathology module of Sectra One Cloud, a cloud-based solution built on the Microsoft Azure architecture that is fully managed by Sectra.

Health IT news: Genomics England opens Diverse Data initiative; trust opens command centre, new handover platform enters market Genomics England is looking to run genomic sequencing projects for under-served communities and to address gaps in its data sets. It is running a Diverse Data Initiative to minimise potential inequalities in genomic medicine, and has opened a call for expressions of interest. North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has launched an integrated co-ordination centre to track patients through each stage of their hospital journey, using a system called OPTICA to capture real-time activity data (Health Tech Newspaper, industry news in brief). A new handover solution has entered the market. Start-up Careful claims many hospitals are still relying on paper, sticky notes, and app messages (Health Tech World).