Occupational Therapy News OTnews October 2019 | Page 54

FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
Two sides to every story:
digital opportunities and risk
In the third article in the technology
series, Suzy England, drawing on
expertise from the NHS Digital Clinical
Safety Team, looks at the adoption
of digital technologies in health and
care, with a specific focus on risk
management
A
Key points
All occupational
therapists have the
skills in activity analysis
and risk enablement
to appraise the use of
digital technologies
with citizens and those
used in the workplace.
Occupational
therapists are well
placed to take on
roles in organisations
that look at the safety
aspects of digital
technology adoption.
cross the four nations of the UK we
are informed that digital technologies
can improve the quality, efficiency and
user experience (for citizens and the
workforce) of our services. There is also a strong
message that improved access to digital health and
care services can offer citizens more personalised
care and support self-management of health
conditions.
While this is all well and good, there is another
side to the story, and that is how safety and risk are
addressed when introducing digital technologies.
This article is intended to prompt reflection on
how we might approach risk assessment of digital
technologies in health and care practice, drawing on
insights from three occupational therapists who are
clinical safety officers.
While the clinical safety officer role and related
standards are England specific, the overall messages
are applicable to the whole of the UK.
Reflection point: ‘Technology is nothing. What’s
important is that you have faith in people, that they’re
basically good and smart, and if you give them tools,
they’ll do wonderful things with them’ (Steve Jobs).
Two things struck me as important from one of the
world’s most influential advocates of technology.
First, the focus on people using technology rather
than the technology itself; don’t get me wrong, I think
we can all appreciate a well-designed tool, but when
it comes down to its use there are a wide range of
factors, including the activities and contexts in which
we are using the technology that will impact on the
relative success of using it.
The second thing is that it prompts us to think
about technology not being inherently good or bad.
In the times that we live in, this is important to
remember, as we will be bombarded with many
54 OTnews October 2019
companies trying to sell us fail-proof, well-tested,
high user-satisfaction technology; yet the important
bit is to consider the use of technology in context.
Clinical safety
In England, the NHS Digital clinical safety team are
subject matter experts in areas relating to Data
Co-ordination Board Standards (DCB) 0129/0160,
ensuring that the production, implementation and
deployment of health IT systems are clinically safe for
patient use.
The clinical safety team offer training to
organisational-appointed clinical safety officers, of
which some are occupational therapists.
The training covers principles of safety, human
factors, risk assessment and risk mitigation and
enables clinical safety officers to address the
requirements outlined in Clinical Risk Management
Standards DCB0129 and DCB0160.
Jeremy Wilkinson, occupational therapist, says:
‘Successful IT programmes are not about the kit, they
are about “change enablement” and occupational
therapists are really good at stepping people through
change into embracing new digital ways of working
with people.’
Activity analysis
There are a growing number of digital tools being
introduced within health and care settings, for example
videoconferencing, webinars, virtual support groups,
Amazon Alexa and NHS approved apps.
An occupational therapist has a huge advantage
when it comes to evaluating the safety of tools for
citizens considering their knowledge and skills around
activity analysis (see box out: evaluating apps).
Given the growth of using mobile technologies
across our personal and working lives, it is important
that we stop and think about the discussions we might
be having with citizens about apps.
RCOT’s Keeping records: Guidance for occupational
therapists (2018) states that we have to document all
occupational therapy activities; ‘if it isn’t recorded, it has
not been done, has not been considered, or was not
said’.
This should not stop us from exploring the benefits
of apps with citizens, but in the same way that we might
prescribe a piece of equipment, we need document the
professional information that we provided.