• New ways of working. Automation, robotics and other digitally enabled insights help HCPs with task-shifting and role-enrichment to create a sustainable, adaptable workforce.
• Training. Developing cognitive, digital, emotional and analytical skills allows HCPs to communicate effectively with each other and with patients, including providing the confidence to discuss the results of AI- enabled diagnostics and genomics testing.
• Provider infrastructure. Helps HCPs data-share across organisational boundaries.
• Pharmacists as caregivers. Provide online/video consultations, and monitor/track medication remotely.

• Skills and talent. More diverse individuals from more varied backgrounds have been recruited to become HCPs. All receive core training, using blended learning methods to increase expertise.
• Funding. National and local governments help determine training budgets and align incentives/funding models to attract the right people. Employers give staff opportunities and remunerate them for develop specific skills.
• Regulations. Regulators and professional bodies collaborate to ensure compliance with safe staffing models and partner with academia to match training with the evolving roles and responsibilities of the tech-enabled workforce.
• Data and interoperability. Staff understand data provenance, curation, integration and governance, and the ethical, data privacy and security considerations associated with technology.

• Area9’s customisable healthcare learning platform. The NEJM Knowledge+ medical education platform uses smart technology that adapts to clinicians learning goals, pace of learning and knowledge gaps. Area9 partnered with the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Group to develop this first-of-its-kind platform.
• CMR Surgical Ltd widens the use of robot surgery. Developed in collaboration with surgical teams, the Versius® Surgical Robotic System has been created to boost uptake of robot-assisted minimal access surgery (MAS). Now approved for use across Europe, its novel, mobile design has the ability to improve patient outcomes (compared to open surgery), team communication, the surgeon’s workspace and career longevity.
  

Health systems had little time to respond to COVID-19. They nevertheless reorganised services, trained staff to work in new ways in unfamiliar teams, developed effective ways to support the wellbeing of staff and delivered safe patient care, all in the shortest of time frames.

One notable outcome of this change-management programme is an accelerated adoption of digital technologies – like new robotic processes to support service delivery and telehealth consultations. Hospitals are also using data analytics and automated dash boards so staff can work more efficiently.

Vimercate Hospital (Lombardy, Italy) collaborated with Fujifilm to implement an AI platform, REiLI, to help deliver a timely COVID-19 response to the influx of patients with serious breathing difficulties. REiLI processes CT scans and chest X-rays, providing vital support for radiologists via rapid objective assessments of lung zones for pulmonary parenchymal consolidation. The AI data supports daily examination reporting to monitor the disease’s development, as well as clinical analysis and decision making. In the first few months of the pandemic, the tool identified 900+ cases of COVID-19 lung disease.