Frank Hester’s alleged comments are a stark reminder of the need to tackle racism and misogyny in the NHS and health technology industry
Two weeks ago, the Guardian reported that in 2019, Frank Hester, chief executive of the Phoenix Partnership, and the conservative party’s biggest donor, said that: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on TV, and you just want to hate all black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”1 Subsequent reports have shown that Hester made further derogatory remarks about Indian and Malaysian people and what he called “Asian corners.” 2 The reported comments are indicative of a wider problem of racism and discrimination in the NHS and digital health that must be challenged.
The Phoenix Partnership is a healthcare technology firm that has won more than £400m of NHS and prison contracts.1 The company’s clinical systems are used in more than 7800 NHS organisa
Controversial big data analytics firm Palantir has been awarded the £0.5 billion contract to create an NHS patient data platform, pending ministerial approval, according to health news website Digital Health.
How to harness, regulate and safely enable the use of generative AI in healthcare were central themes of this year's HLTH conference in Las Vegas this week. Jon Hoeksma reports for Digital Health News The annual US gathering of investors, VCs, and start-ups spans using digital technology to rethink delivery of all aspects of the vast US healthcare system, from supply chains, reimbursement, remote care, employee mental health, leadership, and equity. But time and again it was generative AI that was cited as the biggest technological disruptor. Dozens of AI start-ups from across the globe were present at the HLTH show, ranging from AI for medical search and knowledge tools, disease specific models like the UK's Skin Analytics, patient engagement tools, tools to extract meaning from unstructured medical notes like another UK start-up Pangeaea, and even an AI start-up dedicated to penis health. We may be approaching peak AI in health hype. AI and machine learning has been widely
Digital Health Intelligence's latest snapshot report dissects the £68m opportunity in the NHS electronic bed and capacity management systems market segment. Digital Health News exclusively reported that NHS England was moving forward plans for a £68 million programme of investment in eBCMS as part of a series of measures to tackle spiralling waiting lists, now exceeding 7.5m. The snapshot report details how investment will be focused on the 15 trusts that are the worst performers on A&E waits and transfers, and divided into three categories. Trusts targeted for new systems, those targetted for optimisation of current ones; and finally hybrid approaches. The aim is to start to deliver initial improvements by the end of 2023-24 financial year. Funding is over three years. The snapshot report analyses the 15 trusts targeted for investment, including for the first time details of their NHS England Digital Maturity Assessment score and current systems used. The report details th
A new snapshot survey of Integrated Care System digital leaders has identified Shared Health and Care Records as their highest digital priority, followed by health provider digitisation. When asked to rank the highest local digital priority the top score was given to 'levelling up lower digital maturity organisations' with second spot given to 'convergence on acute EPRs across the ICS'. When asked what the impact of deep cuts to budgets will have on local ICS digital plans, 25% of respondents said it would have a big impact and 69% said it would have a significant impact. Asked about digital leadership appointed locally, an impressive 69% said that they had appointed a chief digital information officer; while half had appointed a CCIO; but none had yet appointed a CNIO. The small-scale survey suggests there may be a serious under-representation of nursing digital leaders within ICSs. The survey was undertaken by Digital Health on behalf of the ICS Digital Council, a