Distec has now returned from the UK Health Show 2018. We’re delighted to report that the event was a resounding success – both for the industry, and for our organisation.
The show ran from September 25th & 26th at the Excel Centre in London. With around 4,000 visitors through the doors over the two days, it attracted a massive range of attendees looking to network, to find out about the latest healthcare policies and to test out the latest technologies making a difference in the sector.
We exhibited in partnership with Howard Medical and Elo Touch Solutions, demonstrating the latest innovations in medical technology and paperless processes to help healthcare professionals to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and ultimately enhance patient care. Howard Medical’s advanced mobile carts are well-established in the US, and Distec is working with the firm to bring them to the UK market for the first time.
The CEO of NHS Digital, Sarah Wilkinson, delivered the show’s keynote address. She focused on the ‘new wave of data’ offering huge advantages to the health and social care sector; an issue which is at the forefront of Distec’s operations too. Many of our products, including our touch screens, medical carts and medical-grade computers aim to help healthcare organisations deliver a more joined-up approach to data management and information-sharing, which ultimately leads to more informed and faster decisions, and better patient care.
The NHS and the UK healthcare industry more broadly are evolving towards electronic patient records (EPR), and electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA), replacing previously paper and manual process with digital information sources and centralised data management. The Paperless 2020 initiative which, as it says on the tin, aims to create an entirely paperless NHS by 2020, is the pinnacle of these ambitions. This move will transform how healthcare operates in the UK as it becomes an entirely digital world.
Attendees at the show immediately recognised the benefits of Howard Medical’s experience and products to help move the NHS into this new digital era. Howard Medical specialises in high-grade carts with a longer battery life, carefully designed ergonomics and efficient power system, meaning that its carts have a longer useful lifespan than other products and deliver greater cost-effectiveness over time. Visitors to the stand shared their frustrations with lower-grade medical carts that they had previously deployed, and expressed great interest in the workflow efficiencies that Howard Medical’s carts can generate, as well as their quality construction. This was a great accolade for Distec as the firm that is introducing these carts to the UK market for the first time.
We also showcased a range of touch monitors for EPR updates, patient self-service kiosks and appointment check-in screens, all aiming to improve patient safety and speed up manual processes. Whilst discussing our medical carts and medication delivery carts we met several NHS Trusts who are not yet using the devices due to previous poor experiences, and are instead relying on manual processes. However, these cumbersome and manual methods are not effective for the movement towards EPR, ePMA and Paperless 2020; the need for mobile access to data is increasing and new technologies will need to be adopted accordingly.
The energy and innovation on show at the Health UK Show was truly inspiring, and is precisely what the sector needs as it seeks to shake off the restrictions and inefficiencies of paperless processes and disparate data sources. Digital transformation in the NHS is crucial if the organisation is to continue delivering outstanding care to the growing and aging population, and Distec is proud to be operating at the forefront of these changes.
View our Digital Healthcare Solutions here