In today's episode of Digital Ecology, I chat with James Freed, a seasoned expert in digital health. We kick off by diving into James's eclectic career journey—starting from biochemistry and oncology, pivoting into NHS cancer services, and finally making waves in digital health.

He offers wisdom on the essence of change management and even shares a personal story about how his daughter views failure as growth.

We discuss the technology time warp in the NHS back in 2000 and how this spurred James to make a difference on a national scale. He’s been instrumental in creating the Digital Academy and has done some groundbreaking work at Health Education England.

James delves into the need for a harmonised language and priorities in healthcare, based on the quadruple aim. He also touches on the challenges of recruiting digital talent in healthcare, underscoring the importance of empowerment and continuous learning.

He points out the slow uptake of tech in healthcare compared to other sectors and champions the role of user-centered design in bridging this gap.

As we look towards the future, James talks about the growing demand for digital skills in healthcare, highlighting what this means for staff development and public funding.

We wrap up with a look at the complicated landscape of healthcare policy and why digital competence isn’t just a 'nice to have' for clinical staff—it's essential for patient safety.

Don't miss this candid conversation packed with actionable insights on digital health and change management.

In this episode Sam Shah and I converse on the topic of complexity in digital health, the tendency to tip into chaos and the fact that things are rarely just complicated.

Sam is a well known figure in digital health. In addition to his practice as a dentist, he's chief medical officer at Numan, senior adviser at Freuds, visiting lecturer at UCL and has a host of other roles besides. Sam reflects on his time at NHS England and chats about the role of central bodies in enabling adoption and spread of digital technologies.

We chat about his experience of commissioning user-centred design in redesign of urgent and emergency care services. Sam makes the case for decoupling strategy from changes in ministerial and leadership positions - the chaos that ensues from sudden shifts in strategy can result in very little getting done. We chat about the sorry state of the digital health market place and look to complexity faced by startups and medium sized companies working with the NHS. We finish up thinking about how underestimating complexity in digital technology implementation can result in chaos.

In the first of my second series of the Digital Ecology podcast I host a panel conversation about the role of simulation in healthcare professional training and how it applies to all stages of design, development and implementation of digital technologies in the NHS.

I'm joined by James Woollard, a child psychiatrist and chief clinical information officer along with Wendy Chapman and Kit Huckvale from the University of Melbourne who run an immersive simulation space.

We chat about the role of simulation in mitigating risk of harm when implementing digital health interventions and in working out unintended consequences of how a technology might work in practice. Simulation has a role in assessing complexity - taking into account the technology itself, environment, culture, people, process and how data works. We discuss real life examples of simulation in practice and the groundbreaking Validitron at the University of Melbourne - how it works with technology companies and researchers - bridging the gap between implementation and evidence generation. Simulating common scenarios can assist in exploring what could go wrong, reducing the cost of failure and improving uptake as well as the peripheral factors such as devices and connectivity.

Is it possible to innovate in the NHS? Spoiler alert - Charlotte convinced me that the answer is yes. Charlotte is an innovation dynamo - starting life as a volunteer in the NHS, she now leads on innovation for one of the largest acute NHS trusts in the country. In the final episode of the series, Charlotte shares her personal journey and how she found a niche, creating the conditions which enable innovation to flourish. I'm struck by Charlotte's personal qualities of curiosity and a phenomenal ability to nurture and network people together to facilitate positive change. 

We chat about the conditions for innovation to take root as well as some of the more technical issues of intellectual property, regulation and commercialisation. Innovation may be difficult, particularly in an NHS stretched beyond capacity, but it is possible and we need to find ways to unlock the creativity that will enable the NHS to survive and even thrive into the future. 

Listen to the end - Charlotte's most proud moment will give you spine tingles!

In this episode I chat all things user-centred design with Toby Avery, chief digital information officer at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Toby shares the story of how an idea and an experiment with design has turned into a trust wide approach to designing for the outcome with multi-disciplinary fusion teams. Toby and his team have gone as far as designing SystmOne user interfaces for clinical teams that match their workflow, resulting in high levels of satisfaction with the electronic patient record - an unusual thing to pull off in the NHS! We also discuss how you create a culture of product, recruit and retain user-centred design roles in the NHS and challenges in building a diverse workforce.

In this episode Anne Cooper and I chat about the relationship between quality improvement and digital transformation. Anne tells me about her Minerva programme, building the leadership skills of women working in digital health. I first met Anne when she was chief nurse at NHS Digital and she is now a non-executive director at an ambulance NHS trust as well as the chair of Ethical Healthcare Consulting. Anne mentions a blog post during our conversation, which you can find here Speaking the Right Language – a Triple Aim for Health Informatics – anniecoops. You can find Anne on Twitter @anniecoops

In this episode I interview Tracey Watson about her research into the role of user-centred design in NHS digital transformation. With a previous role directing industry partnerships and engagement for the NHS, Tracey now leads digital transformation for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. During our conversation,Tracey shares her not so usual pre-NHS background and goes on to talk through the qualitative research she did for her NHS Digital Academy masters degree. With a distinction under her belt, Tracey has many words of wisdom about why and how we should take a design-led and user-centred approach to digital adoption in healthcare.

In this episode I continue my interview with Thomas Webb, founder and CEO of Ethical Healthcare Consulting. Thomas shares his thoughts about the current state of the electronic patient record market and why he believes we are on the cusp of some big changes. He makes the case for open source, open standards and investing in the community of people trying to accelerate this new approach to the core digital systems used within our NHS. 

The Digital Ecology podcast creates a window into the backstory of technology adoption in UK’s healthcare system. Through interviews with experts in the field, we shine a light on the inner workings of digital health and uncover a world of complexity and challenge. We are in the foothills of technology adoption, where the hype doesn’t always match the reality.

The metaphor of a digital ecology expresses how we might take an holistic approach to adoption of digital in healthcare, transforming a system borne out of an analogue era into one fit for the contemporary world. Ultimately it is about making things better for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole.

Whether you’re a startup founder, investor, healthcare professional or just curious about innovation in the NHS, this podcast has something for you.

Hosted by Dr Victoria Betton

www.victoriabetton.com

www.peopledotcom.com

In this episode I interview Thomas Webb who founded Ethical Healthcare Consulting back in 2016. Thomas shares his journey creating Ethical Healthcare, why he did it and what he has learnt along the way. His story is about finding a different way to help the NHS with digital transformation, one which aligns his company with the values and purpose of his NHS clients. Thomas makes the case that we need to spend more time focusing on the human dimensions of change if we are going to make a step change in adoption.

The Digital Ecology podcast creates a window into the backstory of technology adoption in UK’s healthcare system. Through interviews with experts in the field, we shine a light on the inner workings of digital health and uncover a world of complexity and challenge. We are in the foothills of technology adoption, where the hype doesn’t always match the reality.

The metaphor of a digital ecology expresses how we might take an holistic approach to adoption of digital in healthcare, transforming a system borne out of an analogue era into one fit for the contemporary world. Ultimately it is about making things better for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole.

Whether you’re a startup founder, investor, healthcare professional or just curious about innovation in the NHS, this podcast has something for you.

Hosted by Dr Victoria Betton

www.victoriabetton.com

www.peopledotcom.com

In this episode I interview Kathryn Church about her journey from social worker to digital strategist and find out why social justice and human factors are so important to her. Kathryn has 20 years’ experience designing and executing digital transformation strategies, digital operating models, products and solutions in companies of all types: from start-ups to global corporates across financial services, utilities telcos and now the NHS. Joining Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System as chief digital officer she found a yawning gap between expectation and reality and was shocked at the level of technical debt, cybersecurity risk and lack of investment in basic infrastructure. Despite the challenges, Kathryn is hopeful about digital adoption and believes a focus on human factors is imperative if the NHS is to make the step change it needs.

The Digital Ecology podcast creates a window into the backstory of technology adoption in UK’s healthcare system. Through interviews with experts in the field, we shine a light on the inner workings of digital health and uncover a world of complexity and challenge. We are in the foothills of technology adoption, where the hype doesn’t always match the reality.

The metaphor of a digital ecology expresses how we might take an holistic approach to adoption of digital in healthcare, transforming a system borne out of an analogue era into one fit for the contemporary world. Ultimately it is about making things better for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole.

Whether you’re a startup founder, investor, healthcare professional or just curious about innovation in the NHS, this podcast has something for you.

Hosted by Dr Victoria Betton

www.victoriabetton.com

www.peopledotcom.com