Delivering value with digital technology
Helping NHS finance staff support the transformation of care through digital technologies
HFMA Awards 2024
Nominations for the delivering value with digital technologies award category are open until Friday 27 September.
Digital technologies such as digital medicine, genomics, artificial intelligence, and robotics have an immense potential to transform the delivery of healthcare and NHS organisations.
These technologies can empower patients to participate actively in their care, with a greater focus on wellbeing and prevention. They also support the prediction of individual disease risk and personalize the management of severe or long-term conditions. In service areas that are not patient-facing, technology can streamline data processing tasks to enable staff to be more value added, or to reduce the WTE where the roles are only moving data around.
The HFMA, supported by NHS England Digital Academy (formerly part of Health Education England), is delivering a programme of work to increase awareness amongst NHS finance staff about digital healthcare technologies, and enable finance to take an active role in supporting the use of digital technology to transform services and drive value and efficiency.
As part of the programme, the HFMA is publishing a series of briefings and case studies supported by blogs and the Digital Technologies Resource Map. Working with organisations who have started on the digital transformation journey, we will identify examples of good practice and highlight the challenges that services face. This will include specific challenges relating to NHS finance.
Policy and guidance
This map brings together tools and resources that will be useful to finance teams supporting digital transformation within their organisations
The Darzi review offers a chance to take a long-term view on NHS, says HFMA president Claire Wilson.
An update to the 2022 case study on artificial intelligence in use in three London NHS organisations.
Shared cyber services, at system level, could be the answer to better cybersecurity, while opening up career paths and addressing recruitment issues.
Where does a finance professional start on their journey to finding greater value from digital innovations?
NHS organisations are using robotic process automation (RPA) in a range of clinical and non-clinical areas, to streamline administration tasks.
HeartFlow gives an advanced view for diagnosis, saves cost and adds patient benefit through improved communication with the patient.
A case study describing how a digital system is enabling knowledge of the relationship between genes and medicines to be used in primary care
Finance's role in enhancing efficiencies is explored in a recent HFMA roundtable, with a focus on required systems.
Dorset Intelligence and Insight Service has been set up to enable people working across the health and social care network to access digital tools.
The digital agenda is increasingly important to NHS trusts.
This case study describes Alder Hey’s model for innovation, identifying the key factors that make it a success.
The briefing sets out the process that NHS bodies and their auditors follow when determining the appropriate accounting treatment.
This case study describes a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system tracks medical assets.
Workforce remains a major challenge as the NHS looks to reduce waiting lists
The association has responsed to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry on digital transformation in the NHS.
Explore how Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust approached making better use of the information held in their clinical systems.
This case study describes how digital technology can improve access to pulmonary rehabilitation as a treatment for chronic lung conditions.
This briefing focuses on identifying and realising benefits for digital transformation.
This case study describes how research teams from two biomedical research centres in London have used natural language processing AI.
This briefing explores how funding and accounting interacts when considering digital projects.
A review of whether digital transformation is high on board's agenda.
News and analysis
The Darzi review offers a chance to take a long-term view on NHS, says HFMA president Claire Wilson.
Reforming the NHS needs to square with budget restrictions, says Healthcare Finance editor Steve Brown
Virtual wards enable patients to get hospital-level care from the comfort of their own homes. But how do you get the most value out of them?
Integrated care boards should ensure funding for virtual wards is built into long-term spending plans, according to NHS England.
Shared cyber services, at system level, could be the answer to better cybersecurity, while opening up career paths and addressing recruitment issues.
Where does a finance professional start on their journey to finding greater value from digital innovations?
There is a presumption that digital services will help the NHS meet net zero targets. But NHS bodies must have an understanding of the actual impacts
Delivering value from digital projects requires a different approach to traditional investments, the HFMA annual conference was told this week.
After industrial action continued into autumn, with junior doctors and consultants in England taking joint strike action for the first time ever.
NHS England head Amanda Pritchard this week defended levels of NHS productivity, arguing the current measure did not fully reflect improvement.
Four chief finance officers make up this year’s shortlist for the HFMA Finance Director of the Year Award in the 2023 HFMA awards.
The government rejected MPs' calls to allow additional remuneration for digital, data and technology specialists to improve recruitment and retention.
Digital solutions can help deliver the NHS’s quadruple aim, but staff need the right skills to take advantage of these opportunities.
Every £1 invested in community or primary care could provide a return of up to £14 into local economies.
NHS England has announced details for when patient-level costing data will need to be submitted as part of the 2023 national cost collection.
The digital agenda is increasingly important to NHS trusts.
An HFMA roundtable, supported by Optum UK, said the NHS needs to improve digital business cases and fix an imperfect allocation and approval process.
Recent technical developments
The new Diagnostics recovery and transformation strategy was a key objective in last year’s planned care transformation plan.
Progress on creating a digital NHS has been rated as ‘inadequate’ by an expert panel of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee.
Upcoming events
This event will explore the requirements and environment needed for implementing automation in healthcare and finance's role within it.
HFMA London Branch, SDN and London Finance Academy look forward to welcoming you to the Annual conference 2024
On-demand events
Join the HFMA Academy team for an informative webinar covering the benefits of studying an HFMA qualification in healthcare business and finance.
Join the HFMA Academy team for an informative webinar covering the benefits of studying an HFMA qualification in healthcare business and finance.
Welcome to an exclusive HFMA lunch and learn session spotlighting the success story of the finance team at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation
The HFMA members' summer series took place on 18-20 June
In this webinar, we delve into insights from one of the pioneering sites involved in the Pharmacogenomics PROGRESS initiative.
Online event on website test
This online event offers indispensable practical insights and serves as a valuable platform for audit committee chairs and members to engage
As part of the HFMA's programme of work this series aimed to increase awareness amongst NHS finance staff about digital healthcare technologies.
Zeeshan Muhammad developed a costing reporting dashboard on Qlikview platform. This session will outline the salient features and uses of the NCC app
We heard from CIVICA's head of AI and analytics talk about the things to consider when buying or building an AI solution.
Join our exclusive webinar and explore the potential of HFMA qualifications to elevate your career.
The procurement forum brought together finance and procurement-based colleagues to explore the benefits of joint working and best practice.