Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has shared a series of digital updates, including priorities and areas of focus under its annual plan 2026/27 and proposals for a refresh of the trust digital strategy.
Looking ahead to the next five years, priority areas for consideration under the digital strategy refresh include delivering high quality care through quality improvement, innovation and research; collaborating with partners; ensuring a culture that supports colleagues to thrive, learn and deliver the best care possible; improving quality of life and experience of care; and tackling health inequalities by identifying and supporting those most at risk of poor health outcomes.
The trust voices plans to work on patient enablement via NHS App integration and wearable tech to enable remote monitoring, EPR optimisation and patient pathway optimisation underpinned by digital technology, the Single Patient Record to provide a joined-up view of the patient record across multiple care settings, and data-driven decision making using population health management and local, regional, and national data platforms.
Digital infrastructure to support a digital-first model, and the use of AI and automation such as AVT and robotic process automation, AI triaging, and AI coding, are also elements to be incorporated into the digital strategy’s development. In line with NHS medium term plans, Oxford Health shares its ambitions to pilot integration between Rio/Virtual Assistant and the NHS App for appointments and documents for mental health services with roll-out subject to future funding, to use ereferrals for GPs to refer in to services and Advice and Guidance for clinicians to provide advice to external organisations. The trust similarly looks to the pilot of integration between Truecolours and NHS Notify for contact with patients via email or text, remote consultations with Adastra, and further roll-out of electronic prescribing including a pilot in mental health outpatients.
Innovations in digital and remote monitoring like LifeYear for health failure will be trialled, and a pilot of AVT with SmartNotes integrated into Rio starting in April, to summarise transcription back into progress notes in Rio, is also on the trust’s agenda. Current work on the Federated Data Platform is focusing on working with the Connected Care Platform around population health, it shares, with more to be done also on the Thames Valley & Surrey Shard Care Record.
In its board assurance framework, the trust highlights that investments are being made in external-facing networking to identify the latest developments in AI and other technologies, and to ensure it remains up-to-date with NHS-wide and system-wide opportunities with the NHS App and Shared Care Record. “RiO optimisation is progressing well and a recent survey found that our clinicians are experiencing improvements compared to the predecessor system,” it continues. “There are a number of AI enabled trials underway including triage, admin and ambient voice technology. The single sign on element of the ESR manager self-service programme has been widely welcomed. Developing our digital strategy is the key step to ensure our capabilities match our ambitions for the future.”
Wider trend: Strategy and digital developments in health and care
HTN was joined for a deep dive into AI strategy, implementation, adoption, and opportunities by Neill Crump, group associate director of innovation & partnerships at The Dudley Group and Sandwell and West Birmingham, and Pip Hodgson, group digital transformation specialist at University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) and Northamptonshire (UHN). Our panel discussed their organisation’s approaches to AI and AI strategy, best practices in AI strategy development, Ambient Voice Technology and successful implementation, and the opportunities likely to be ahead with the next wave of AI.
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