08 December 2006
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to transform radically the delivery of healthcare and address future health challenges, such as an ageing population and an increase in chronic diseases. Whether they actually do so will depend on the design and implementation processes sufficiently accounting for the users' needs, and the provision of adequate support and training after their introduction.
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Responses to the call for evidence
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The Royal Society established a working group in May 2005 to look at developments in ICTs and their potential impacts on, and implications for, health and healthcare over the next 10-15 years. The working group included experts in range of subjects including computing, economics, engineering, information systems, medicine, nursing and social science.
An open call for evidence was issued in May and a range of organisations and individuals submitted written evidence by September 2005. Three workshops were held with scientific and technological experts, healthcare professionals and patient groups' representatives to ensure the working group was aware of the views of the various stakeholders concerned with healthcare information and communication technologies.
The report makes recommendations relating to:
Written evidence
The organisations and individuals who submitted written evidence between May and September 2005 are listed below, with links to this evidence.
The call for evidence noted that we intended to make evidence received publicly available unless the author concerned asked us not to. For practical reasons we have excluded material that has already been published elsewhere. The submissions represent the views of their authors and not necessarily the views of the Royal Society.
Organisations who responded to the call for evidence
Individuals who responded to the call for evidence
Additional evidence
The organisations and individuals below submitted evidence on particular issues in response to requests from working group members.
Organisations who submitted additional evidence
Individuals who submitted additional evidence
Organisations and individuals who met with members of the working group
Evidence gathering workshops
The stakeholder workshops were an important part of the study. They helped to identify potential new information and communication technologies with applications in health and healthcare and provided an opportunity to discuss the drivers and barriers for the development of relevant new ICTs, along with the strengths and weaknesses of specific ICTs.
Healthcare professionals and patient groups representatives workshops
OPM (Office for Public Management Ltd, an independent, not-for-profit public interest company) was commissioned by the Royal Society to run two workshops and conduct a number of telephone interviews to provide patients, their representatives and healthcare professionals with an opportunity to contribute their views on future issues in healthcare and how the developments in ICT in the next 10 15 years might impact on healthcare.
Healthcare professionals
- 12 attended the healthcare professional workshop (1 November 2005)
- 17 telephone interviews were carried out with healthcare professionals.
Patient support groups
- 9 attended the patient group workshop (4 November 2005)
- 16 telephone interviews were carried out with patient support professionals.
Working group members attended the workshop and a report of the interviews and workshops informed the study.
Science & technology evidence gathering workshop
More than 20 individuals from academia, industry and funding bodies attended the workshop along with eight members of the digital health working group on 24 October 2006. Full details of the attendees are given in the workshop report.