by Sharon Ann Holgate
E&T
November 8 2010 online, and in the Nov 2010 print edition
As the NHS faces a funding gap of £6 bn a year by 2015, E&T looks at the new technologies for better and less costly medical treatment of the UK’s increasingly infirm and ageing population.
If we’re honest, going to the doctor is up there with having teeth filled, completing our tax return, and other tasks that we know we must do, but would rather not. So it will probably be a relief to learn that emerging technologies could spell an end to at least some hospital and GP appointments, of which there are about 300 million in the UK each year (and 40 per cent of those, according to some sources, are unnecessary) while at the same time potentially cutting waiting lists and saving healthcare services money.
One evolving area is software that can carry out online patient interviewing prior to a visit to the GP. ‘Computer-patient interviewing will develop over the next few years, and should make consultations more efficient,’ says Ray Jones, Professor of Health Informatics at Plymouth University. ‘If the interview makes it clear what is needed, the GP might not need to see the patient at all, or might be able to carry out the consultation via telephone or Skype. Also a lot of research shows patients are happier revealing embarrassing things to a computer than to their GP.’
Jones also sees the Internet being used more for both self-care (see ‘DIY Healthcare’ boxout, p25) and for remote group consultations, as in current US projects where clinicians run websites for groups of diabetics. ‘Where you get clinicians involved, you could probably see a reduction in the number of face-to-face consultations, which in remote areas would have major implications for global warming by saving a lot of travel,’ he says.
No therapist required
New computer-based solutions are also being explored for mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, which when combined form the most common mental disorder in Britain affecting almost 9 per cent of the population. ‘The size of the problem of depression and anxiety is far greater than could be effectively treated with therapists,’ says psychologist Dr David Purves, who has designed the ‘Blues Begone’ computer software package to help address this issue.