AI moves fast. Power moves faster.
In the world of Artificial Intelligence, things move fast. Whether that is the pace of research, the cadence of new product releases, or the rise in people adding ‘AI expert’ to their LinkedIn titles, it can be hard for a person to keep up. And yet it is but nothing compared to the speed at which power changes hands. In the UK on the 5th of July, our government switched over the space of a few hours, signalling a striking change in direction for the nation.
In the days that have followed, Wes Streeting, our new Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, made his first announcements off the back of his party’s manifesto promises:
On the 6th he stated that he was taking the position that the NHS is broken, and some early work to resolve the junior doctors’ strike
On the 11th he appointed Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation into the state of the NHS
These build on Labour’s existing promises to focus on the NHS workforce with a longer term perspective, and to work with the private sector on addressing the backlog for care.
At this point you may have a raised eyebrow, and that is justified. Regardless of how fast technology develops and power shifts, we have seen that the mechanisms of government often slow progress down to a crawl.
I watched a recent event online where former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Conservative party leader William Hague talked about a cross-party approach to accelerate the UK commitment to AI. Whether that is massively increasing AI R&D, fostering growth by targeting UK scale-ups to challenge the behemoth tech companies that will lead the future, or leaning into the UK’s undoubted global strengths in research and investment underpinned by strong commitment to safety and regulation, the price of not doing so could be high.
Bold stuff, yet both agreed that their ability to make changes while in government were limited by the bureaucracy of change, and the constraints imposed by the treasury. Given the pace of change, it is unlikely that these things are much different now to twenty years ago.
We have a huge opportunity in front of us so what can be done to bring about change? Perhaps we should look at whether AI can be used to accelerate government itself, augmenting and automating aspects of the operations of civil service to increase efficiency and accelerate decision making and implementation? We need to look inwards as well as outwards. While, in their recent talk, Blair and Hague extolled the virtues of supporting industry to strengthen our country’s hand on the global stage, there was much less emphasis on the importance of Artificial Intelligence education to enable us to keep up with change and empower the widest possible number of people.
This is the approach we take at Curistica, delivering talks and workshops on new technologies in healthcare to shine a light on new possibilities and help you to create them. By empowering the workforce and wider population, the floor rises on our capabilities, substantially increasing the chances that we might keep up and remain competitive on the home and global stage.
When looking at thought leadership on this topic, we also have a new publication from the Health Foundation to consider. On the 26th of June they released ‘Priorities for an AI in health care strategy’, listing six priorities:
The use of AI should be shaped by the public, patients and health care staff to ensure it works for them
The NHS must focus AI development and deployment in the right areas
The NHS needs data and digital infrastructure that will enable it to capitalise on the potential of AI
The use of AI in the NHS must be underpinned by high-quality testing and evaluation
The NHS needs a clear and consistent regulatory regime for AI
The healthcare workforce must have the right skills and capabilities to capitalise on AI
I won’t be arguing against any of this. Many of the points I made in my letter to Wes Streeting asked for exactly the same things. But what I will be doing later this week is joining Wes Streeting and other senior leaders to discuss the strategic direction of AI and technology in the NHS at the Health Foundation’s event on the topic.
What do I believe needs to be the focus? We need to empower our staff, helping them make changes that matter and supporting them with team members trained and experienced in technology, AI, data and innovation. Indeed, this is something we actively support with our education and workforce support services. We need to harness the power of AI through a broad programme of education for all, whether they are patients, practitioners, or providers. We need to partner with industry and ensure we have common standards, sharing best practice to allow for acceleration of innovation.
At this current moment in time we have a rare opportunity. It’s a time where the pace of change of power exceeds that of AI, accompanied by a large parliamentary majority to get legislation passed. The party of government states that it is committed to growth and repairing an NHS in crisis. We are also in the honeymoon period where bold ideas can be shared and form the building blocks of the next five years. We have growing clarity on what is needed to make the most of the moment. We even appear to have leaders willing to actually lead. If true, it answers the biggest ask from my recent letter: we need visionary leadership to take the necessary actions, create a culture that supports change, and give us a clear reason why we might believe in our NHS again.
And this is what I will be pushing for this Thursday.
