Digital maturity assessments in the UK
By Dan Prescott, VP - EPR Transformation, UK and Middle East, Nordic Global
Cloud infrastructure is now widely recognised as a fundamental facet of modernising health and care systems to improve clinical outcomes in the U.K. The U.K government’s Cloud First Policy of 2013 enabled considerable progress within cloud adoption throughout the National Health Service (NHS), which was further expedited by the rollout of services like Microsoft 365 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, more work with the cloud can and should be done.
Recent research suggests that 15-21% of NHS acute trusts are using cloud hosting for most or all their technology resources. With around 80% of remaining trusts still deciding to make the move, there are clearly significant opportunities to capitalise on this approach. In particular, integrated care systems (ICSs) manage the convergence and/or integration of digital transformation across care settings. With government targets set to scale up digital maturity across the NHS by 2025, now is an opportune time for system leaders to consider the organization’s cloud strategy.
Recognising that no two healthcare providers will be starting from the same position, even within a single ICS, it’s important to address the myth that there’s only one way to achieve cloud-enabled success. Whilst it’s helpful to take a cloud-first approach, especially at the point of procuring and implementing an electronic patient record system (EPR), the most important consideration is how to deliver a longitudinal strategy that meets the needs of the individual system.
For example, an ICS that has a high digital maturity assessment score would only really need a cloud ‘health check’ to determine how to maximise its investment. Whereas a digitally young ICS would benefit from a full review of all operational systems across providers. Such an ICS would also need a clear data migration strategy that would include insight into the varying costs of different cloud migration approaches and suppliers (such as Azure, AWS, and Google).
Therefore, the challenge for ICSs is to create an overall strategy that will help combine and potentially update existing cloud approaches whilst making it work for trusts yet to start on the journey. All the while, this allows for capitalising on the cost benefits of having economies of scale – something the NHS has not always been able to achieve in the past.
To help with this, it’s important to consider the most agile and flexible method for transitioning to cloud services, one that can be tailored to different needs whilst also supporting a network of different providers. The solution is to focus on the configuration of the required cloud environments rather than trying to replicate a data centre-type service in a cloud environment.
By taking an innovative approach with the aim to create the most favourable long-term environment, a mix of cloud suppliers can be used for different requirements to match the varying levels of maturity amongst healthcare providers. This strategy also avoids single vendor lock-in, which can prove costly for healthcare systems. Data migration can also be sped up to unprecedented levels – moving data across in just months compared to years.
Government initiatives, like the Cloud First policy and NHS Cloud Strategy, have clearly enabled the modernisation of infrastructure in recent years. This relates to a wider trend as other international environments also prioritize cloud. In the U.S., the Federal Cloud Smart strategy helps all government missions benefit from cloud acceleration. In the European Union, the European Commission adopted a Cloud Strategy, emphasizing the priority to modernise infrastructure across all industries. Other countries and regions have set up similar policies to establish cloud as a key thread for all modernisation efforts.
NHS trusts across the U.K. that have taken a proactive, enterprise-wide move to the cloud have reaped benefits. However, a ‘cloud now’ approach is equally beneficial to the ‘cloud first’ approach. It can effectively be introduced iteratively. And now is an opportune time for ICSs given their role in digital transformation and the varying levels of maturity across systems. It can also be helpful because it enables leaders to configure environments that take advantage of the economies of scale.
To harness the power of cloud, decision-makers need technical and functional insights and best practices. Yet this isn’t always possible, with IT teams stretched so thinly and not always having the right skill sets in-house. Healthcare leaders may choose to partner with a strategic advisor that can help bridge the gap. With expert guidance and support, organizations across the U.K. can successfully modernise healthcare data infrastructure through the cloud.
