The NHS in 2030: a vision of a people-powered, knowledge-powered health system
Author(s)
BLAND Jessica
Publisher(s):
NESTA
Publication year:
2015
This report explores four big ways that knowledge power and people power will affect the NHS in 2030 and the wider health system, through precision medicine, new forms of health data, people–powered health, and the use of behavioural insights. Section 1, in particular, concentrates on where new kinds of medical information about individuals will come from, as well as how it is interpreted in stratified care. Section 2 moves onto people managing their own health information and new digital platforms for supporting patient–led research and care. Section 3 looks at the possibility of a social movement for health: people being trusted to have a more active role in their own health and to look after others, supported by the NHS, as well as people supporting health services. Section 4 explores how insights into human behaviours can help redesign health services, products and treatments in a way that reflects better how people live their lives and make choices. This is followed by a summary of how these developments will change the function of the NHS. The final sections focus on the challenges involved in getting to the best version of this future and ideas for how these changes can be supported today. Concentrating on the widest gaps between these ideas and current policy, the conclusion includes four proposals that would support new functions in the health system. These are: developing digital platforms and widely agreed protocols for developing new kinds of health knowledge; creating prototypes for health data sharing that concentrate on understanding emerging attitudes to digital privacy; establishing an institution that supports and evaluates people powered health research; and creating a central institution to set standards and mandate processes that will maximise the clinical and research value of large genomic and other data sets as they become available. (Edited publisher abstract)
