Prescription for prevention: A digitally enabled model of primary care

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This is a supplementary paper that is intended to be read alongside Prescription for prevention, which outlines the overarching framework for a modern, preventative primary care system.

Better technology can open up more capacity for clinicians, enable earlier intervention in the progression of illnesses, and monitor patients more effectively to avoid preventable decline.

But in order to achieve this ambition, there are less ‘cutting edge’ but equally critical interventions to be made. Without the core infrastructure, more nascent innovations are impossible to implement. This paper outlines the steps needed to create the conditions for a technologically sophisticated primary care system while getting the basics right.

Conducting effective population health management requires changing the data controllership over primary care data, while simultaneously boosting analytical capacity within Integrated Care Systems. All the while, hardware is still clunky and difficult to use across primary care. The paper makes the case for a minimum viable digital standard for technology, complemented by an audit of current hardware and software to accurately understand what investment is needed to meet that standard. Decisive action is also needed to ensure interoperable IT systems.

With these foundations in place, technological innovation should become a permanent feature of the primary care system. While maximising the value of sandboxes, there needs to be a substantial boosting of regulatory capacity to enable them to proactively monitor the market and ensure innovations are adopted as quickly as possible.