Health secretary Wes Streeting has set out three big shifts the NHS must deliver – including moving from analogue to digital. National strategy on health technology and digital is developing at pace, with a 10-Year Plan for the NHS expected to set out new priorities in the spring.

We’ve seen no shortage of initiatives, roadmaps and plans for tech and innovation in recent years – yet delivery has often lagged behind. Today, acute pressures on health and care services, demographic headwinds and trends in disease burden mean there’s an imperative to deliver at pace. Much recent attention has focused on AI and its revolutionary potential, but leveraging this depends on a range of other digital capabilities that not all NHS trusts and services have. 

So, where is the NHS on its journey to digitisation? And, given all of this, what will it take for the NHS to become a truly digital health system?   

To discuss, our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon is joined by:

Holly Krelle, Assistant Director at the Center for Healthcare Innovation & Delivery Science at New York University's Langone Medical Center.

Erik Mayer, Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare and the Royal Marsden NHS trusts, and Director of Imperial's clinical analytics unit. 

Darzi et al (2024). Independent investigation of the NHS in England.  

The Health Foundation (2025). Briefing on digital maturity in the NHS [forthcoming].  

The Health Foundation (2023). What do technology and AI mean for the future of work in health care?

Horwitz & Krelle (2023). Using rapid randomised trials to improve health care systems. Annual Review of Public Health. 

Honeyford et al (2022). Challenges and recommendations for high quality research using EHRs. Frontiers in Digital Health.

NHS Confederation (2024). Frontline digitisation: creating the conditions for a digital NHS. 

Dearing & Cox (2018). Diffusion of innovations theory, principles and practice. Health Affairs.