A digital-first approach to patient communications

Joe and Pete explain the greater emphasis being placed on digital patient messaging across the NHS and the potential to provide a more seamless experience for patients, reduce the number of missed appointments and save the NHS money. 

This week, the Secretary of State announced the start of our journey to becoming a "digital first NHS" – here is what it means for you.

In other aspects of our lives, it's second nature to receive messages digitally. Think online bank statements, email receipts for our online shopping or text messages confirming our home deliveries have arrived. But for various reasons, the NHS has found this challenging, and we still send out millions of letters to patients each year.

/by
Designing for inclusion: What we learned at Google

Karol Kuczera and Max Marulli De Barletta reflect on their visit to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre and how inclusive technology can enable more equitable access to health, education and broader social participation.

In today’s NHS, digital tools are central to how we deliver care, share information, and empower people to manage their health. But for those facing barriers to access – whether through disability, language or low digital confidence – these tools can just as easily widen inequalities as reduce them.

/by
Mitigating the risks of domestic abuse

Emma Swift and Zuzanna Lito explain how we've updated the NHS service standard to make sure teams building online services are more aware and responsive to the risks of domestic abuse and coercive control.

The NHS service standard helps teams build and run digital services that meet users’ needs. It's designed to improve patients’ care and experience when engaging with the NHS online.

The service standard has recently undergone some small but significant updates. The new updates are designed to make sure that teams building online services are more aware of and responsive to the risks of domestic abuse and coercive control.

/by
Clinical trials changing lives: one researcher’s story

Professor Matt Sydes, Head of Data-Driven Clinical Trials at NHS England, describes how his personal and professional lives collided when a family member was affected by a rare cancer.

As a statistician and a trialist, I've been involved with researching many different diseases and conditions over the years. I’ve planned and run studies, analysed data, and interpreted and disseminated findings from clinical trials to support the development of new treatments and interventions, all to help doctors and patients make the best healthcare decisions that improve and extend lives.

/by
Making sure the NHS App works for everyone

Simon Davis explains how the NHS App team puts users at the heart of digital delivery design by considering accessibility needs at every stage of the user research process.

As the lead user researcher for the NHS App, my role is to ensure users remain at the centre of everything we do. I work with a talented team of researchers across different departments, engaging with both the public and frontline NHS staff to understand their experiences with our services.

/by
How to stay one step ahead of a cyber attack

Ryan Lee explains how our Threat Operations team use a unique network of intelligence and techniques to detect advanced cyber threats before they can cause harm – and what everyone working in the NHS should do to help.

If you worked for the NHS 10 years ago, you would have heard cyber security spoken about quite differently. It was often seen as an IT issue, lumped into conversations about software updates and internet usage. Now, cyber is rightly understood to be a patient safety issue.

As the cyber threat has become more sophisticated, so has our cyber security approach for the NHS. We have evolved significantly in recent years in response to the growing threat. My team’s specialist work in threat operations is one example of this, and just one part of our central cyber security defence approach.

/by
How to stay one step ahead of a cyber attack

Ryan Lee explains how our Threat Operations team use a unique network of intelligence and techniques to detect advanced cyber threats before they can cause harm – and what everyone working in the NHS should do to help.

If you worked for the NHS 10 years ago, you would have heard cyber security spoken about quite differently. It was often seen as an IT issue, lumped into conversations about software updates and internet usage. Now, cyber is rightly understood to be a patient safety issue.

As the cyber threat has become more sophisticated, so has our cyber security approach for the NHS. We have evolved significantly in recent years in response to the growing threat. My team’s specialist work in threat operations is one example of this, and just one part of our central cyber security defence approach.

/by
Behind the scenes publishing the new NHS website homepage

Alice Eastwood and Molly Lee explain how

As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, the role of the NHS website (www.nhs.uk) has never been more crucial. With 50 million visits each month, it’s the UK’s most trusted health platform.

/by
Behind the scenes publishing the new NHS website homepage

Alice Eastwood and Molly Lee explain how

As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, the role of the NHS website (www.nhs.uk) has never been more crucial. With 50 million visits each month, it’s the UK’s most trusted health platform.

/by
Tracing NHS data back to the source

Professor Matt Sydes explains how we’re semi-automating the data provenance process to ease the admin burden on researchers and speed up clinical trials.

A hard truth is that we need to improve the delivery of clinical trials. They are often large and time consuming for good reason. We need reliable findings and must protect against false positives and false negatives.

If patients are already expected to do well or the treatment is only expected to make a modest improvement or we need to have greater certainty of the results, the trial will need to be larger and longer. And more time inevitably means more money.

/by