What sets the global leaders in digital health apart? A lecture by a representative of the UK Department for Business and Trade distilled nine key dimensions, from innovation hubs and growth pathways to data, the workforce, trust, and regulation. Using examples from Britain, it showed how the state can support innovations and their scaling at home and beyond its borders.
How innovation emerges: hubs and growth pathways
A top-tier digital health ecosystem rests on three ingredients: clinical practice, technology, and research. In the United Kingdom, the AHSN network connects them through 15 regional networks and specialized accelerators, such as The Hill in Oxford and Propel in Leeds. The goal is to create innovations aligned with the needs of the healthcare system.
Even with good solutions, growth runs up against the challenge of scaling across the system. England and Scotland have therefore defined clear growth roadmaps from idea through prototype to diffusion and spread, including where to obtain support or evidence. These pathways are meant to ease the transition from pilots to routine practice.
Financing, infrastructure, and incentives
The United Kingdom attracts the highest volumes of health tech investment from European VCs, and the government complements the ecosystem with programs for AI development. An important foundation is the central digital infrastructure known as the Spine, which supports health records, electronic referrals, and prescriptions. Without such a backbone, nationwide digitisation is hard to get off the ground.
It is equally important to align the interests of patients, providers, and the state as payer. If the system is not incentivised to use digital services, the innovation ecosystem does not grow. The British approach therefore combines technical enablers with user-side incentives.
Data, people, trust, and regulation
High-quality health data are the key raw material for innovation. Access to them is mediated by Health Data Research UK through nine thematic hubs, from oncology to gut and eye diseases, and it is underpinned by five centers of excellence for AI – three for imaging and two for digital pathology – together with the UK Biobank. Such resources enable the development of data-driven technologies.
The system also focuses on people and trust. Two reviews proposed how to better equip clinical staff to work with technologies and what clinical leadership is needed, including the role of the Chief Clinical Information Officer in NHS organizations. Earning the trust of patients and clinicians is a prerequisite for the success of national digital projects, while regulation seeks a balance between safety and rapid access for innovations; four institutions are therefore creating a unified approach, especially for AI. To support international collaboration, the government introduced the Digital Health Playbook as an overview of British solutions to the most pressing health challenges.
