Digital tech to drive health and social care innovation

The expansion of a ‘world-leading’ data and analytics platform will help improve collaboration and innovation across Scotland’s health and social care system.

Seer is a platform that allows staff to access and analyse data easily, helping clinicians, teams and boards in decision-making around patient care and the planning of resources. Areas in which it is currently used include cancer intelligence, the monitoring of blood stocks and the flu vaccination programme. 

Seer 2 is the next phase, which utilises cloud technology and will give the health and social care workforce access to a more advanced version, increasing opportunities to access new tools and technologies with greater flexibility. These features have already been used to create new dashboards to help manage capacity during winter.

Speaking at the Digital Health and Care Scotland Conference 2024, Health Secretary Neil Gray also confirmed the Scottish Government will provide an update on Scotland’s first Data Strategy this spring - with an updated Delivery Plan for the Digital Health and Care Strategy to be published in April.

Mr Gray said:

“NHS Scotland is growing opportunities to use digital and technology-driven services to enhance health and social care.

“Better use of data and digital technology is critical to how we drive improvements in healthcare and is a key part of our plans to reform services. Through enhancing our use of technology, we can unlock opportunities for collaboration across health boards and other organisations, and it is therefore vital that this includes maximisation of digital and far better, and far faster, use of data.

“It’s great to see how world leading Seer 2 is enabling us to support collaboration and innovation across government and the NHS, providing near real time intelligence to support decision making, build new insights and enable better outcomes. This platform is just one of the ways we are embracing tech to help us as we face challenges ahead in funding pressures, inequalities and workforce.”

Mr Gray was also at Boroughloch Medical Practice, which has a long history of embracing technology, where Dr Abhayaratna demonstrated an online consultation and workflow system that helps GP practices manage patient caseloads through operational change and digital triage. This makes it easier for people to talk to their own doctor or other healthcare professional and helps GP practices to prioritise and deliver care through message, phone and video.

Dr Abhayaratna said:

“We’ve been making digital access available to patients since October 2019, with around 80% of patients making requests of the practice online. The system supports us in making the best use of our multi-disciplinary team’s skills, to ensure each patient gets the best care for their needs.

“This has resulted in a balanced workload for our staff and has enhanced the overall efficiency of the practice. Importantly, patient feedback tells a similarly positive story with 75% of patients reporting that our digital service is ‘better’ than previous arrangements.”

Background

Seer 2 is supported by the expertise of Digital and Data leads in NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and the Scottish Government.

Seer is a core part of Scotland's Health and Social Care Data Strategy and the Data and Analytics service for the National Digital Platform.

Seer supports a broad range of users, underpinning thousands of important data and analytical products in key areas of healthcare, such as vaccinations, cancer intelligence, and blood donation and usage. 

NHS National Services Scotland supports the delivery of digital health and care across NHS Scotland where we combine professional capability, leading technology platforms and data assets.

Link to Data Strategy ‘Data Driven Care in the Digital Age’

Link to Enabling, Connecting and Empowering: Care in the Digital Age – Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy