A focus on AI: Niki Trigoni, CTO & Co-founder of Navenio, shares their technology predictions for 2022.
Technological Advancements for Healthcare
Although the last 22 months have been challenging, we have witnessed some fantastic advancements in technology. While there are significant challenges that our hospitals and the NHS must face in 2022, they will be different from the fight our front-line workers fought during the peak of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations.
The fight this time focuses on addressing the backlog caused by the pandemic with many waiting for tests and scans still. The UK government’s budget announcement to spend £5.9 billion on the NHS in England will attempt to do just this, as well as buying equipment that hospital teams desperately need. and investing in IT. This is good news, and with an increase in appetite for automation and digitisation within healthcare over the course of the pandemic so far, we expect this to continue.
Focus on AI
On top of funding announced for the NHS, the government has also noticed the impact technology has had and the role it has played during the pandemic. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in particular have witnessed impressive growth, and it is this type of success that has led to further financial backing by the government.
Initiatives like the NHSX’s Artificial Intelligence in Health and Social Care Award are more proof that 2022 looks to see more advancements in AI. The Award aims to solve both clinical and operational challenges across the NHS through the utilisation and increased testing of AI. It aims to speed up processes for the most promising AI technologies so that hospitals and their staff can benefit from its use in their day-to-day tasks and operations.
Indoor-location technology is one way to streamline workflows and make teams more efficient throughout hospital buildings. Understanding where people are and enabling ‘right person, right place, right time’ processes has helped to solve challenges presented by the pandemic. Understanding data and how people use the buildings they work in opens up huge opportunities to provide better patient care through more efficient means.
Thriving During the Winter Months
The winter presents hospitals and their teams with challenges. Even before the pandemic the colder months saw increased admissions, mainly by the elderly and vulnerable who are more at risk of becoming unwell. Now with concerns around the new COVID variant, the NHS which is already on red alert for increased COVID-19 admissions, whilst attempting to juggle the huge backlog of patients waiting for basic tests and scans, has another serious worry.
If this worry becomes a reality, hospitals up and down the country, as well as GP and emergency services are likely to see increased pressures on the services they offer. They will vitally need technology that will help them to perform their jobs to the best of their ability as well as efficiently and quickly. Smart technology will ultimately help teams to increase their capacity at a time where tensions are high, planning for an increase in COVID patients as well as patients without the virus.
Just as they did this year, technology companies and entrepreneurs are sure to tackle challenges posed by winter and the COVID-19 pandemic head on. The success of AI will likely continue especially with the increased investment in initiatives, and I look forward to seeing what 2022 brings and how technology will inevitably be leveraged during the difficult months ahead.
