DM1805

Dm OPINION: HEALTHCARE
Live long and prosper
Eva Weber, senior manager at ABBYY, describes how digital data can
transform healthcare
After an NHS winter crisis when
doctors and nurses were busy
caring for patients and
ambulances queuing at hospital gates, it
seems almost frivolous to be talking
about documentation. It's a fairly safe bet
that doctors and nurses on the wards
tonight won't be thinking about the
"paperless NHS", digital health plans and
documentation conversion; rather, they'll
be occupied with much more pressing
questions of life and death.
No-one would deny that accurate,
comprehensive and up-to-date
documentation is an important factor in
health outcomes, but less often do we
consider the wider strategic importance
of document and data management to
the NHS. And the fact is that information
management is an absolutely critical
factor in the future of healthcare
provision services, not only in the UK but
around the world.
PUTTING DATA AT THE HEART OF
THE NHS
This year marks the 70th anniversary of
the NHS. This is longer than the average
life expectancy of 66 years for UK men
when the service was launched in 1948.
Today, men can expect to live to 77 and
women to over 80 years old. This not only
highlights the overall success of the
health service, but also explains the
enormous challenges of an ageing
population that is putting such a strain on
the NHS today.
With GP services and hospitals
overstretched - during the winter time
often almost to breaking point - the NHS
is exploring new, more efficient ways of
delivering care and clinical advice. Data
and documentation is a central part of its
ambition of delivering innovative new
services, including digital technologies
such as personal 'mHealth' applications or
implementation of big data and the latest
analytics technologies. Most recently, the
potential of artificial intelligence (AI)
technologies is being explored to
automate processes and help doctors and
nurses make more informed decisions.
The challenge for the NHS (and other
healthcare providers around the world) is
that as care delivery becomes more
complex, and in many cases distributed
among several providers, they must
somehow streamline an enormous
amount of paper-based business
processes. One obvious example is
through the introduction of electronic
health records.
Healthcare providers have to manage
enormous volumes of traditional
documentation such as clinical
examination forms, patient surveys,
prescriptions, and many more. All this is
further complicated by a complex web of
different healthcare providers, each using
different documentation standards and
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@DMMagAndAwards
May/June 2018
www.document-manager.com