Author: Seb Burrell, Strategic Innovation Consultant, Trustmarque
Note: This article was first published on Holyrood in collaboration with Trustmarque and has been adapted as part of our Digital Health and Care Scotland event promotion.
The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, with technology increasingly critical in improving patient care. The NHS faces the challenge of managing vast amounts of sensitive patient data while striving to leverage cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance services and outcomes. The breadth of technology needed in AI is more than just the tools themselves. You need visibility, transparency, control and coordination to ensure that AI is used responsibly at scale. This article explores one approach, which is a secure on-premises AI approach to unlock new possibilities for patient care in the NHS.
The NHS must adhere to stringent regulations, for example the Scottish Government Records Management: Health & Social Care Code of Practice 2020 and the NHS Scotland Information Security Policy, to manage sensitive patient data securely. These regulations mandate strict confidentiality protocols, staff data protection training, and compliance with security standards. The Data Protection Act 2018 also grants patients’ rights regarding their personal information, including access, rectification, and objection to processing.
Traditional data management approaches are time-consuming and resource-intensive, making innovation and improvement in patient care challenging. The increasing volume and complexity of patient data further complicate these efforts.
Now, let’s explore how we can address these pain points using advanced technological solutions.
The combination of watsonx, Fusion HCI, and Predatar creates a powerful synergy that addresses the unique challenges of deploying AI in healthcare. watsonx provides AI capabilities, Fusion HCI offers robust and secure on-premises infrastructure, and Predatar ensures cyber resilience and data protection. This integrated approach enables IT and Digital Transformation teams to confidently leverage AI for patient care while maintaining the highest data security and privacy standards.
Trustmarque’s AI Centre of Excellence is a comprehensive program designed to guide organisations through the intricacies of AI implementation, ensuring responsible and ethical adoption of AI technologies. At the core of the CoE is a structured engagement that includes AI envisioning workshops, technology and data sessions, AI ethics and governance discussions, and security protocols. This methodical approach helps organisations define their AI vision, mission, and objectives while addressing data readiness, AI model lifecycle management, and regulatory compliance. Trustmarque partners closely with IBM, leveraging advanced AI platforms like watsonx to deliver cutting-edge solutions. This collaboration emphasises the importance of explainable and transparent AI, fostering trust and accountability. By combining IBM’s technological prowess with Trustmarque’s strategic framework, the AI CoE aims to align AI initiatives with business goals, mitigate implementation risks, and ensure adherence to the highest governance and ethical practices standards.
IBM watsonx has been successfully implemented in various healthcare settings, demonstrating its potential to improve patient care and operational efficiency. For example, the NHS has leveraged watsonx’s GenAI capabilities to automate SMS reminders, which reduced missed appointments by 6%, freeing up valuable clinic time. In another case, AI analytics enabled operational efficiencies and led to the care of over 700 extra patients weekly without additional staff, easing the care backlog.
IBM watsonx is an advanced AI and data platform designed to help organisations unlock the full potential of their data. It offers a suite of tools and capabilities, including:
IBM is committed to developing and using AI responsibly, which is crucial in healthcare. Their focus on explainable AI (XAI) can help build trust with users and regulators. This commitment to responsible AI is essential for ensuring that AI systems are used ethically and transparently, mainly when dealing with sensitive patient data.
While cloud-based AI solutions offer scalability and flexibility, on-premises deployment provides several advantages for organisations like the NHS that handle sensitive data:
The Fusion HCI stack provides a robust and secure foundation for running watsonx on-premises. This hyper-converge infrastructure solution offers several benefits:
Predatar is a SaaS cyber resilience tool that complements watsonx by providing advanced recovery assurance. Its key features include:
By deploying watsonx on-premises with Fusion HCI and Predatar, the NHS can leverage AI to improve patient care while ensuring data security and privacy. Here are some specific use cases:
Deploying IBM watsonx on-premises with Fusion HCI and Predatar offers a secure and robust solution to leverage AI for enhanced patient care. This approach addresses the challenges of data security and privacy challenges while enabling innovative applications of AI to improve efficiency, personalise care, and ultimately, deliver better patient outcomes. By adopting this solution, the NHS can:
These solutions combined are our suggested approach to unlocking AI’s full potential. They can transform the NHS’ patient care, maximising the benefits for patients and healthcare professionals.