Health tech adoption: a buyer's market

It’s always good to hear different perspectives and learn something new. It’s even better when you can apply that learning to an existing client challenge and that’s exactly what happened when we attended this year’s GIANT Health event earlier this month.

GIANT Health is a must-attend innovation and technology event and a key part of our annual agency training programme. Given the pace of health tech adoption across the NHS this year and the flurry of related briefs we’ve received, it felt more relevant than ever to listen to experts talk about the successes, pitfalls and learnings of navigating this fast-moving industry.

There were many interesting sessions, but one that stood out to us was chaired by Jon Wilks from UK HealthGateway, who provided practical tips for health tech start-ups and companies looking to engage with the NHS. Our key takeaways from his session are:

1. Workforce efficiency is key right now. With the added strain on the NHS due to COVID-19, any service that helps improve workforce efficiency, be it payroll systems, educational activities, task management or training platforms will be of interest to the NHS

2. Service re-design at pace is possible. As evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the NHS response, when we put our minds to service re-design, we can do it well. Solutions that help to forecast and determine future demand strategy planning will be of interest

3. Long-term care improvements will ultimately save money. How we look after people with long-term conditions is of critical importance to the NHS due to the cost savings it can have. Solutions for monitoring, assessing, analysing, providing clinical insight and diagnostics for long-term conditions will remain important

4. Understand the rules of engagement. The UK is a sophisticated and mature market. It's one of the top three global hubs for start-ups, after the US and China, and solution providers need to understand the rules of engagement to be successful:

• Outcome and value data drive purchasing decisions

• UK data that is analysed and independently verified is powerful

• Undertaking market research to understand the NHS and where you expect your product to be used helps determine the value of your solution

• Don't sell to the NHS. Make it easy for the NHS to buy from you

This final point about making it easy for the NHS to buy from you particularly resonated with us, as one of the key questions we’ve been asked to solve in briefs this year, is how can we help clients increase adoption of their solution? From telemedicine in care homes and NHS workforce management to artificial intelligence and online therapy platforms, our learnings from GIANT Health reminded us to always consider the world from the buyer’s perspective in our responses.

If you have a health tech solution you’d like our support with, please contact [email protected]