Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has outlined its intention to prioritise five initial ideas to pilot under its Transform, Improve, Maximise, and Enable (TIME) digital innovation programme.
The three-year programme has an aim to save colleagues time and release more time for patient care by making use of digital technologies including AI and automation, according to the trust. As part of this, colleagues across the trust are also being trained in the use of Copilot.
The first phase of the programme is to focus on generating ideas from colleagues, developing governance and policies, and creating guidance and education for staff on the use of new technologies. An AI governance and ethics committee provides oversight on the safe use of AI across the trust, and the use of Copilot is linked with new guidance on safely navigating the technology to support day-to-day work, it explains.
Positive results have been reportedly seen from pilots including Microsoft Dragon Copilot in the emergency department of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and cardiology outpatients at Calderdale Royal Hospital, and in the use of ambient voice technology.
The next phase of the programme will see the selection of five initial ideas to be piloted, the trust shares.
The board also reports on its digital command centre, providing data dashboards on OPEL scores, incoming ambulances, FirstNet (ED/SDECs), RAIDr, and bed occupancy. OPEL site management meetings take place throughout the day on Microsoft Teams using information from these screens, it shares.
During times of high operational pressure, these meetings may be followed by a face-to-face huddle led by the clinical site matron, the board continues, drawing on information from dashboards covering transfer of care, community dashboard, no criteria 2 reside, predictive discharges, discharge lounge, TTOs/pharmacy, therapy, and Optica.
Wider trend: NHS innovation
A partnership has been launched between the DATA-CAN data research hub for cancer hosted at Leeds Teaching Hospitals and the West Midlands Secure Data Environment to support access to high quality cancer data for researchers. The partnership draws on pseudonymised patient data from patient records at major cancer centres across the UK, including on diagnosis, treatments, test results, and patient outcomes. The first dataset has been uploaded to the WM SDE, with three further datasets currently in development, Leeds Teaching shares.
Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust has outlined its plans around generative AI, ambient voice technology, automation and digital recruitment as part of its latest board meeting. The trust is launching its strategy to 2031, with headline ambitions to use digital and data routinely in improving decision making, productivity, and care delivery. Colleagues will have the technology and digital tools required to perform their role effectively, and access to the information and data necessary to make informed decisions about the services they are providing, it states.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is partnering with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to launch a health innovation sandbox, to test promising innovations in real-world NHS settings. Healthcare solutions to improve patient care and safety will be rapidly evaluated, the MHRA shares, with one of the first tools to test capable of identifying patients at high risk of complications from long-term conditions.
