Ten digital priorities for NHS patient safety

A number of patient safety and digital experts have given their views on immediate digital priorities that could make a significant difference in the NHS.

Professor Mike Bewick, England’s former national deputy medical director and board member of C2-Ai:

1. Strengthen digital literacy

Eric Topol’s 2019 review of the future workforce laid the foundations around this urgent requirement which still needs to be advanced. Digital literacy is fundamental to enabling effective and safe use of technology in the NHS – both for professionals and patients.

People are usually digitally literate in their own lives, but they are often less literate in the IT of a disjointed health and social care system. Some people will be fluid quickly; others...