The Space Around the Thing

The invisible work that goes into delivering impactful digital health services

The latest spending review reiterated the Government’s focus on improving health outcomes nationally. Key strategies to support this goal include a focus on prevention, reducing health inequalities and utilising the digital to provide more efficient and effective services. These goals relate directly to the work we’ve been doing in digital screening with NHS England.

In digital teams, especially in agile environments, there’s a strong focus on the thing – the product, the feature, the user need. And rightly so. But in our experience, you can build the best product in the world, and still have it go nowhere. Why? Because you didn’t design for the environment it’s entering.

In this panel discussion, we’ll discuss the importance of creating the right “space around the thing – the invisible work that goes into delivering digital public services”.

Takeaways:

• Attendees will learn about how to create the right environment to deliver digital transformation and the often invisible work that goes on in this space.
• We’ll discuss how to engage with policy and governance and the importance of involving decision makers on the journey.
• We’ll also look at the risks of not doing this and why having a great product alone might not be enough.

Read some recent blog posts by Marianne and the team on the same topics:

• The space around the thing: why products alone won’t transform healthcare
• The hidden fundamentals of digital transformation in healthcare: how to roll out nationally in a local system