HSJ100 comment: Design of the times

Fortrus Ltd are delighted to sponsor this year’s HSJ100. As the leading supplier of innovative software solutions to the healthcare sector, we believe passionately in the need for modern IT systems to support our frontline services.

As we move into a new year, it is critical that the leaders identified on these pages continue to create an environment for innovation in order to improve patient care and deliver better NHS services.

We must also be mindful of the need to balance investment in innovation with the financial pressures placed on trusts, and the need to deliver services in line with regulation, policy and standards.

In the strategy document Personalised Health and Care 2020, Tim Kelsey, NHS England’s national director for patients and information sets out plans for an “NHS app store”. So, as the healthcare sector further embraces mobile applications, the importance of good design should become increasingly important.

My colleague Joe Panasiuk, chief innovation officer at Fortrus, has commented: “Too often have I met developers working on IT projects within the health sector who have boasted about the technical capability of their applications: the number of systems with which they have integrated, the speed at which they can pull data from servers, the new technologies they have utilised, only to be greeted with an interface that is not only badly designed but outright dysfunctional. The core aim of their systems has been lost, they are there to serve the users, be it clinicians, administrative staff or patients.”

Has the health sector fallen into the trap of development first, interface second? Through the transition to the digitisation of patient records, the presentation of that data to clinicians should not be a secondary thought. What value does the data hold, if first and foremost it does not meet the needs of the users?

If the NHS is to introduce kitemarks for “apps”….. an understanding and appreciation of the importance and utility of good interface design is of paramount importance.

If the NHS is to introduce kitemarks for “apps”, surely all of these things need to be taken into consideration and an understanding and appreciation of the importance and utility of good interface design is of paramount importance.

Fortrus’ solutions ensure that patient care and services are improved through the use of innovative design, creating a cohesive and efficient user and patient experience.

What could be a more pertinent message for this year’s top 100 than to consider the words of a forthright British technology company?

Leigh Baillie is marketing director at Fortrus, Leigh.Baillie@Fortrus.com