Attending HETT North Healthcare Show

HETT (Healthcare Excellence Through Technology) brings together those in the healthcare market and employees of the NHS. Their most recent event was HETT North on the 2nd of March in Manchester. It was a great environment to meet other healthcare experts and see what other technology is out there. Our Director of Business Development, James Morriss, gave a speech in the Digital Maturity Theatre about how apps can deliver value, efficiency and engagement in healthcare technology. 

His speech was well attended and is available to view below.

• Our Stand
• James's Speech
• Networking
• Conclusion
  
  

Our Stand

WiFi SPARK is an entertainment and engagement platform provider and a WiFi provider. 

At the show,  we displayed our SPARK® products, which included the new Bedside Unit to replace Hospedia Legacy Units, SPARK® Horizon, and a tablet that showcased our BYOD solution, SPARK® Media.

Our attendance was an opportunity to engage with our existing customers as well as inform attendees about the new-to-market technology we’re now starting to roll out in the UK. By bringing along our technology, attendees were able to interact with the Horizon unit and tablet and see the solution live for themselves.

If you didn’t attend, you really missed out.

Attending the event were Alice and Ria from Marketing, Ian from Sales, and James in Business Development. We were a uniformed team, wearing matching colour schemes and delivering information to those who were interested in what we do. Seeing the healthcare community come together in search of solutions to improve the landscape was a great experience for the team.

If you talked to us on the day, or are interested in learning more about a particular product then please contact us. 

James’ Speech: How Apps can Deliver Value, Efficiency and Engagement in Healthcare Technology

In his well-attended session, after introducing the company, James jumps into our collaborative approach to best benefit the Trusts with Bedside Units. “We want to appeal to providers of technology that exists within the NHS already, organisations who have an app but struggle to get them in front of the right patients at the right time. We want to work with those organisations, alongside the clinicians, to increase app exposure, drive usage, and assist the NHS with many of the pain points that exist today.”

He highlights the reason why the company bought Hospedia in 2021 and the change we plan to bring. There is still value in the existing Hospedia units regarding patient experience and engagement as well as upgrade options, to which James comments:“We now own, manage, and support 56,000 bedside units in the NHS. We acquired Hospedia just over a year ago and we did this absolutely because we wanted to remove patient pay for services and we wanted to remove some of the barriers that were in place, preventing the NHS from making the best use of that technology.”

We follow the NHS digital inclusivity and push towards innovation by opening ourselves up to different apps partners and inviting collaboration.“We want to encourage ideas and suggestions, and we want to explore and take forward different app technologies in the best interest of our clients”

James analysed the potential benefits that apps can bring by saving time, money and increasing efficiencies. Even a small change can accumulate into a big difference. “In a financial year, 16 million people completed an inpatient episode in an acute NHS Trust. If a quarter of 1% of those people left hospital one day earlier, the NHS would have an additional 400,000 nights of capacity for other patients. With us having a footprint of over 120 Acute Trusts, it must be possible to work together to achieve specific tangible outcomes like this.”

We have a vast involvement in the NHS already. Utilising this can grant numerous benefits to the NHS, just like that example James gave. 

James announced our first app partner, Patients Know Best. They have developed an app that connects patients and staff through online reporting, all on one platform. Patients' test results, past history and online consultations can be readily available. We are promoting them through SPARK® Connect our WiFi solution which is available on BYOD (Bring your own device) and will then encompass their technology on Horizon units. "It’s a simple and straightforward app partnership that we have in place. When a patient logs onto the WiFi and sees the initial splash screen, ‘welcome to the NHS WiFi’ there are signposts to a link to download the app.”

James highlighted the power of BYOD solutions and how it can work alongside Trust own devices and bedside units through a holistic approach.“We really want to sweat those assets in the best interest of the Trust. In terms of engagement,  what better way to engage with patients than making use of the device in their pocket? For those without a device in their pocket, we can make use of the devices at the bedside.”

Networking

We were one of 50 suppliers attending the HETT show to showcase our products and services. However, we didn’t see the other suppliers as competition, we see them as a collaborative opportunity. We are the platform that other services can utilise by becoming an app partner. This includes web and native apps. Together, we can work together to improve the healthcare landscape by saving time and money for Trusts all over the UK.

We saw some great companies at the show. Cleo Systems for example is a patient management system and electronic prescribing web platform for urgent, emergency and outpatient services. This is an example of a system that could go on both SPARK® Media and Horizon. 

Virtual wards are a hot topic in healthcare and James spoke about this technology in his speech. WiFi SPARK can introduce virtual wards at the bedside before a patient goes home and uses it on their own. Current Health, Doccla and Inhealthcare are examples of virtual ward technology and how we could work together to set patients up on the right care track from the hospital, to their home. 

Conclusion

Innovation in healthcare technology is an area that’s being pushed and encouraged now more than ever. The NHS even has Innovation Services that support healthcare innovators getting into the NHS and providing the positive change they are looking for. We have already spoken about the importance of Digital Transformation in healthcare and the way it can vastly make a difference in the NHS. 

We attended the event to connect with those who were as driven by technology as we are and to learn more ways to better the NHS.

To read more about SPARK® Media for BYOD and Horizon units, download our brochure below.