Digital screening
NHS England is transforming the digital services that underpin NHS screening programmes. This is part of wider digital prevention services – a new portfolio to develop and deliver digital products for services including vaccination and screening, personalised prevention and the digital NHS Health Check.
NHS Screening Programmes can save lives and reduce ill health by finding out if people have a higher chance of having a health problem, so that early treatment can be offered, or information given to help them make informed decisions. By supporting the government’s shift from treatment to prevention, these programmes mitigate the demand for resource-intensive procedures and reduce strain on other NHS services.
Background
Our vision is that in the next five years, a third of interactions with the NHS will be delivered using the NHS App and other digital tools. These tools can support people to take control of their health, while also freeing up more time for healthcare staff and providing valuable new data and insight.
Aims
New digital products and services will:
- improve the way eligible people are identified and invited for screening and enable them to view and change their appointments through the NHS App. Non-digital alternatives will remain in place for those who are unable or choose not to use the App.
- better support and manage participants through the screening process, making the most of data to reduce the need to collect information multiple times, and supporting the tracking of participants’ progress more effectively, freeing up time for staff.
- provide better data on the performance of screening services, allowing providers and commissioners to better target their work to continually improve screening.
Our ambition is to:
- increase informed uptake of screening, particularly for those from under-served groups, allowing people to remain healthy and in work.
- reduce burdensome admin, through improved services that work better for screening staff.
- develop innovative and flexible digital services that are able to respond to technological and policy changes and help inform healthcare research.
Over time, new services will be rolled out to all screening programmes.
Progress and next steps
We are building digital capabilities, based on existing Government Digital Services components that will initially be developed for breast screening in a way that allows them to be scaled to other programmes. These include systems that will improve the identification of eligible people and increase the availability and quality of data for services.
As part of the process, we will initially roll out our capabilities on a small scale, allowing us to test our approach to designing and rolling out new services supporting the clinical journey for staff and participants. This will ensure that the new services can be integrated smoothly with the existing systems.
At each stage of our transformation, regular insights will be used to continually improve and expand the new services, eventually extending the transformation to cover all screening programmes. All of our services are designed in collaboration with users.