That was the message from a University of Brighton lecturer in his keynote speech at an international nurses’ conference in Mexico.
Dr Theo Fotis, from the university’s Centre for Secure, Intelligent and Usable Systems, said, “According to the World Health Organisation, digital health technologies are promising to have a profound effect on how health services are delivered, allowing people to manage their own health more effectively, providing effective ways of diagnosing disease, monitoring the impact of policies on population health, resulting to improved accessibility, affordability and quality of health care.
“Still the introduction of these technologies comes with challenges and experiences resistance and slow adaptation.”
Dr Fotis explored the current status of existing technologies, what the future of healthcare may look like, what the challenges were, and what nurses can do to “harness the future now”.
Dr Fotis is Course Leader of the Health and Management MSc (PGCert PGDip) in the university’s School of Health Sciences and researches digital health which enhances healthcare delivery and makes medicines more personalised.
Last year he was named one of Europe’s top 50 healthcare IT leaders by the European arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the largest health IT membership organisations in the world.
He was speaking to 350 delegates from 25 countries at the 5th International Conference for PeriAnaesthesia Nurses (ICPAN) in Cancún on Mexico’s east coast. It was hosted by the International Collaboration of PeriAnaesthesia Nurses, Inc.