‘There is a need for robust systems for deciding which innovations are safe and cost-effective to use'

India from years now is trying to learn for the NHS and its ways of managing healthcare within the country. Dr Mike Short CBE, Chief Scientific Adviser, DIT, in an interaction with Raelene Kambli reveals some key learnings on innovations and ways to manage health systems

What are your observations in healthcare and how did you come to be a part of it?

Healthcare has reached a tipping point where demand from population growth, ageing and economically better off population as well as new treatments continues to outstrip available resources and workforce. The answer has to be a significant increase in the use of technology and artificial intelligence to undertake the more straightforward diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation tasks in healthcare.

I have been in the health and life sciences world for all my career, initially serving the pharmaceutical industry through analytics and consulting and now covering all aspects of the field as we promote the UK’s expertise in India and other countries around the world.

What is the toughest challenge in spreading evidence-based innovation across healthcare organisations in the UK?

Firstly, we have to have robust systems for deciding which innovations are safe and cost-effective to use. We have tough regulatory bodies in the UK such as the National Institute for Clinical and Care Excellence (NICE) to do this. We then need effective networks, promotion schemes and incentives for swift adoption of innovation.

The NHS has coped with the challenges of growing demand, an ageing population and new treatments only through the constant innovation of its staff and institutions. Many of these innovations were internationally-renowned achievements of British science: stem cell transplants, the ECG, or CT scanners. Others took place as quiet, steady revolutions in practice: the introduction of cancer screening, the movement of mental healthcare into the community, or the widespread shift to day case surgery.