Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHSX will take to ensure that patients are (a) informed about and (b) engaged in the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHSX is driven by user needs, so any technology we introduce, including that related to artificial intelligence (AI), must be done with, and not for patients. We are developing a policy toolkit for responsibly applied AI in health and care, and we are working closely with public voice organisations to ensure that patients are involved and engaged.
We are also developing tools to help technology vendors comply with principle 7 of the Code of Conduct for Data-Driven Health and Care Technology: "Show what type of algorithm is being developed or deployed, the ethical examination of how the data is used, how its performance will be validated and how it will be integrated into health and care provision." In the middle of April these tools were tested with patients and we are currently refining based on the feedback we received.
We will continue to engage with patients as we work to maintain and improve public trust and patient safety.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the October 2018 policy paper, The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care, what assessment his Department has made of the level of technical fluency of leaders in the NHS; and what steps he plans to take to recruit leaders with the technical fluency needed to be a competent customer.
Answered by Matt Hancock
To fulfil our vision, we need the right skills and capability at every level of the National Health Service, social care and across the system and this needs to be driven by leaders at every level.
We want all health and care organisations to ensure leaders at board-level understand how data and technology drives their services and strategies and take responsibility for the digital maturity of their organisations. We also recognise the need to develop the new generation of digital leaders who can drive the information and technology transformation of the NHS.
We will build on Health Education England’s work to develop the capabilities of staff and leaders in health and care to be digital-ready through initiatives such as the NHS Digital Academy, which was set up in 2017 to develop strong digital leaders who are capable of delivering change so that patient care, and the way that organisations operate, can benefit from the many improvements and innovations that modern technology has to offer.
Dr Eric Topol is leading a review to assess what training and skills clinical staff will need to make the best use of artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and digital medicine.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of (a) effective and (b) up to day diagnostic equipment with 24-hour remote communication facilities in the reorganisation of microbiology laboratory services in the NHS.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
NHS Improvement is leading the transformational changes in pathology services across England, with the formation of 29 Pathology Networks serving England well underway. These networks will realise an improved quality of service, timely access to diagnostic results and access to expert clinical advice in this very diverse clinical specialty.
One of the most significant benefits of this reconfiguration will be to increase the availability of microbiology services, so vital in the diagnosis of life threatening conditions such as sepsis. Currently not all microbiology services are available 24/7 and access to state of the art equipment is variable.
The establishment of networked pathology services will allow for best practice to be deployed across trusts, not only allowing for 24/7 services and faster access to targeted treatment, but also ensuring the latest technology such as molecular genetic testing is available to more patients. To support this development, this year the Government announced £61.5 million to develop the laboratory and IT infrastructure needed to monitor and review results and systems from any point in the network.
NHS Improvement are also working closely with the Office of Life Sciences to ensure digitisation and deployment of artificial intelligence is built in to ensure maximum benefit to the National Health Service and patient outcomes as these technologies develop.
These transformational changes are being performed with the full engagement of the pathology professional bodies and working with the Department’s procurement category tower 8 to improve the purchasing power and choice of equipment to the NHS.