How can we make technology work for us in healthcare? | Professor Trish Greenhalgh | AMSlive

Professor Trish Greenhalgh is a doctor and a social scientist at the University of Oxford. Here, she explains why so many projects using technology in healthcare fail, and what we can do to help them succeed.

Using an example of a failed 'action research' project about using GPS trackers to assist patients with memory loss, Professor Greenhalgh explains how what we may see as a simple problem with a simple solution is actually full of complexity. In this instance, even a small project raised diverse concerns, from the balance between privacy and empowerment, to whether or not frontline staff have the resources and trust necessary to adapt the system to their situation.

The nature of health and social care - complex, interactive and interdependent - means it is all too easy to oversimplify a system which is in reality not fully predictable or controllable. Instead, Professor Greenhalgh talks through three key pieces of advice for those seeking to implement new technologies: to tell a story of the project in its full complexity, to reduce complexity in as many aspects of the system as possible, and to avoid over-specificity in how the project is implemented. Through understanding the infrastructure, regulation, and concerns in which the project sits, her approach aims to enable people to move away from "disruptive" technology and instead implement sustained change.

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh OBE FMedSci is Professor of Primary Health Care Sciences, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

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This AMSlive talk was filmed on 17 October 2018 at the annual Helix Group reception, hosted by Clive Cookson, Science Editor at the Financial Times. Find out more about the Helix Group:
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