The effective use of medical technology and data has great potential to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare. The public broadly supports some of the most prominent current and potential uses of technology in healthcare and often wants to see more of it.
However, this support varies depending on the technology itself, how it is applied, and user characteristics. For example, our findings suggest that women, and those most likely to have low or no income, have significantly lower support for many uses of technology in health care. These findings speak to the need to engage a broadly representative public when considering how technology is used. Without this, technology deployment could result in uneven uptake across different social groups, with knock-on effects on access and outcomes.
In the coming years, policymakers and NHS leaders will need to make meaningful public announcements about the future of technology in healthcare, not only to understand and address concerns, but also to raise awareness and build trust in new technology-enabled approaches. It will be necessary to prioritize public involvement. Again, it is important that this public engagement is inclusive and calls for the voices of those who are often excluded from public consultation.
Overall, there is public support for the use of data for purposes other than care delivery, such as service planning and research (also known as secondary use), even when the data is identifiable and used by commercial organizations. To do. However, this support is nuanced, with young people in particular appearing to be the least likely to trust organizations that provide health data for secondary use. Furthermore, the fact that many of the secondary uses of data, even if anonymized, do not support one in five people means that these people opt out of having their data used in this way. This can have a significant impact on the quality and representativeness of the dataset. .
There is still work to be done to increase confidence in the use of health data. It comes at a time of intense public scrutiny following the signing of his £330m contract to provide health services for NHS England. federated data platformIt is important to ensure that data collection, storage and use is trusted and done in a way that the public supports, while appropriately managing the necessary risks.
In recent years, governments, local authorities and public sector organizations across the UK have recognized this challenge and increased public engagement on the use of health data. For example, the NHS in England plans to: large scale engagement event In 2024 and 2025, data saves lives Strategy – A welcome development. Given the differences in attitudes between age groups identified in our research, NHS England: Massive public engagement event on the use of health data Enabling young people to participate effectively will be particularly important in the coming year, so that their voices can be heard and influence future policy.
