Following the Prime Minister's speech setting out ambitious plans to transform outcomes for people with chronic diseases (May 21), our President wrote a letter to The Times on the potential of technology to benefit patients.
Sir,
The prime minister’s speech on the potential of technology to benefit patients was heartening (“May plans NHS data revolution to fight cancer”, May 21). But for us to see the real benefits of these advances in future health and wellbeing we must create an NHS capable of leading the “fourth industrial revolution”, not lagging behind. This means getting the basics right and creating an NHS that embraces research and can deal with, and benefit from, patient data and new technologies to enhance the doctor/patient relationship, not replace it. The NHS must also be adequately resourced to collaborate effectively with industry, academia and regulators within the UK and globally.
We must not only set targets for the number of lives saved, we must do everything we can to ensure that we use data and technology so that lives are spent longer in good mental and physical health.
Professor Sir Robert Lechler
President, Academy of Medical Sciences
This letter was in The Times on Tuesday 22 May
See here for our President's response to the PM's speech