A report into how the NHS uses technology has formed some pretty scathing opinions, suggesting that the health service has done a poor job of updating to use the most modern tools -- and adding that some doctors appear to be taking matters into their own hands by using social media to share things with colleagues.
The thinking comes from DeepMind Health -- yes, the one affiliated with Google -- which says that doctors are hacking together their own "technical fixes" by using apps like Snapchat to share data, even though official use of such channels is frowned upon due to potential lack of security.
DeepMind's experts were really quite harsh indeed on the NHS, saying: "The digital revolution has largely bypassed the NHS, which, in 2017, still retains the dubious title of being the world’s largest purchaser of fax machines. Many records are insecure paper-based systems which are unwieldy and difficult to use."
Of the hacked together solutions that include sending images via Snapchat and using smartphones to record consultations, the paper says: "It is difficult to criticise these individuals, given that this makes their job possible. However, this is clearly an insecure, risky and non-auditable way of operating, and cannot continue." [The Times]
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