This presentation will explore the transformative impact of AI on NHS healthcare estates, emphasising how AI can streamline operations, enhance collaboration, and facilitate the instant sharing of best practices and insights. Attendees will be introduced to innex.ai, an innovative platform developed through four years of collaborative research at the University of Cambridge and in partnership with IHEEM and various NHS Trusts. The session will highlight how AI not only optimises operations but also bolsters collaboration and provides instant access to best practices and insights. Discover how innex.ai equips EFM staff with immediate, actionable information, fostering enhanced decision-making and promoting a culture of knowledge sharing among peers.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is planning a once-in-a-generation scheme to build a new hospital as part of the Government’s New Hospitals Programme. The Trust’s new hospital programme, Building the Leeds Way, highlights how digital infrastructure and technologies can be effectively implemented into new and retained estates.

There are several key issues that are impacting the estates and facilities profession when implementing digital technologies. Whilst the selection and integration of individual products that make up the overall solution is extremely important, gaining Trust staff buy-in and adoption is critical in implementing any solution. Recognising the solution should be co-developed with the estates and facilities (instead of being dictated by the digital team), and that any new build is likely to form part of a much wider estate portfolio (the new elements typically represent less than 20% of the overall estate) enables constructive discussions around how the wider Trust portfolio must be modernised and digitalised.

Whilst Hospital 2.0 standards align to the industry vision of creating a flexible digital hospital, ensuring where possible the needs of the current estate are considered in the design and implementation of data standards and digital technologies for new buildings are paramount. The timeline for when the new hospitals will be available is uncertain, so waiting for the new facilities to address challenges of today does not align to the Trust’s ambitions and wider roadmaps. Phasing the implementation of standards and solutions across the estate so that most of the change has already been experienced by staff ahead of habiting the new hospital enables smooth transition.

It is noted that the implementation of digital change into the existing estate may not entirely be possible, due to either physical constraints of the building or the ability to add capacity to existing infrastructure, but generally change can occur. Where it may not be blue sky change, roadmaps can be created and followed that narrows the gap for both technology and staff technical competence between the current state and digital utopia.

Panellists in this session are:

Carl-Magnus von Behr, CEO - inex.ai

Magnus Leask, Director - Hoare Lea

Laura Harrop, Project Manager - Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust

Doing things differently at GOSH

Historically, healthcare estates have faced entrenched barriers to incorporating digital technologies. These include poor WIFI, out-of-date systems and insufficient funding.

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is a world-leading children’s hospital, committed to pioneering breakthroughs in cancer care and treatment with the help of digital technologies. The GOSH redevelopment team are in the process of building a new Children’s Cancer Centre (CCC), which will use digital tools and methods to further transform children’s cancer care. These include:

Bedside digital accessibility – enabling patient connectivity with the outside world

An integrated Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system, streamlining the patient pathway

A new digital hospital school, leveraging first-class connectively to minimise gaps in education and feelings of isolation

Digital apps – using augmented reality (AR) to help children plan their patient journey, reducing anxiety pre-arrival and whilst on site

Digital wayfinding – using AR to aid patients’ journeys throughout the estate.

New digital diagnostic facilities – improved diagnostics, less invasive procedures and reduced length of stay.

While hugely beneficial to patients, implementing digital technologies can present estates and facilities management (EFM) professionals with several challenges:

Understanding and use – Many healthcare professionals do not have a technical background, and may not feel comfortable using digital technologies – let alone leading on their implementation, maintaining them and explaining them to others

Implementation in a live care setting – This places additional pressure on EFM teams to get new technologies up and running and staff members educated on their use

This presentation explains how GOSH is overcoming these challenges by:

Developing in-depth training – All EFM professionals are continually trained on digital tools and are themselves training other healthcare team members, helping to embed knowledge; and

Planning – EFM teams implement digital technology in a live care setting, creating a seamless transition from the existing estate into new facilities

Developing digital innovation in healthcare - the missing link
Digital innovation has fundamentally transformed the landscape of healthcare, ushering in an era of enhanced patient care and well-being.
Understanding the importance of innovation and the principles driving the adoption of digital health solutions is key to solving the health problems of the 21st century and the factors influencing accessibility and equity nationally, as well as on a global scale.

The skills to analyse prevailing market trends and capital investments can be taught and are particularly relevant to digital health initiatives. By more effectively articulating the value of their ideas, technical innovators can more easily attract suitable potential investors to increase the likelihood and timing of ‘new tech’ becoming reality.
From telemedicine and electronic health records to AI-driven diagnostics and wearable devices, technological innovation in healthcare collectively contributes to a more proactive, patient-centric, and interconnected healthcare ecosystem. The intersection of technology and healthcare continues to drive groundbreaking solutions, promising advancements in preventive care, timely interventions, and overall improvements in health outcomes.
We present a new educational initiative from the award-winning Digital Health Academy which aims to :
• Encourage critical reflection on the limitations and potential adverse consequences associated with technology in healthcare
• Empower innovators to craft compelling arguments to support their novel healthcare technology
• Foster proficiency in the creation of business models to support their ideas.

By exploring likely trajectories of novel healthcare solutions and considering developing care models alongside transformative technologies, innovators and collaborators across medical and technological disciplines can guide this evolution towards more rapid and effective outcomes. By fostering and pooling collaborative problem-solving skills, novel ideas and new applications of established technology can be more quickly harnessed and navigated from concept to market viability.

Panellists for this session are:

Rachelle Mcdade, Director of Healthcare Planning- Currie & Brown

Denise Cafarelli Dees, Royal London Hospital

Digitalisation of the NHS Estate is a key priority for NHS England.  During this session, the adoption and integration of digital technology solutions will be explored alongside how these solutions can accelerate transformation, add value, optimise space, and improve the overall patient and staff experience.  

The session will highlight NHS England’s plan and status to shift to digitally enabled technology.  A case study example will demonstrate activity to date and opportunities available for wider geographical spread across the NHS Estate.  In addition, an update will be provided on the development of an NHS estates digital maturity matrix which will enable organisations to map their path to smarter buildings and interoperable data. 

Panellists in this session are:

Kay Mulcahy, Associate Director of Estates Operations (Hard and Soft FM)- NHSE

Sarah Thomas, Digital Director- New Hospitals Programme

The Care is Care Australasian industry collaborative study brought together a wide range of organisations who deliver health care, advocate for health care users and advise on the planning and delivery of health care facilities.

The Care is Care study group set out to learn from virtual care leaders from North America to Europe and the UK to see how these leaders and innovators are scaling virtual and digital healthcare service delivery to address the health 'burning platform' of meeting growing demand with a workforce supply challenge.

After a global tour of 24 virtual health programs across 6 countries, one of the most powerful lessons learned was the approach these leaders applied to integrating digital technology at the front line of care delivery in any setting and supporting the exploration of future innovations through an adaptive innovation framework and facility planning.

This session will outline these key lessons learned and how others might apply an adaptive innovation framework to support testing and prototyping of new ideas to improve clinical outcomes and the experiences of care for patients and staff, and support human-centred design. The presenter will also outline how these valuable insights are now being applied to client projects to deliver health projects with impact.

This presentation will explore the critical role of lighting in healthcare settings, reviewing new evidence of the impact of smart lighting solutions on healthcare outcomes, staff engagement and energy use in acute and residential healthcare settings.  We will look at the science behind the hype and real-world examples of smart lighting installations in the UK and around the world that are harnessing the power of AI and new sensor and lighting technologies to improve sleep, mood, and medication use while meeting environmental and financial targets.

Technology enabled care:

Evidence data

Improve response rates

Efficiency savings

Reduction in the number of falls