Future Healthcare and digital technology
Welcome back! After successful forays into quality improvement (QI), trainee issues, generalism and leadership, to name but a few, the editorial board recently took stock, reviewed our output and reflected on our current and desired areas of influence. The board then unanimously took the bold decision to change the name of this journal; while the three letter acronym FHJ remains, the evolution from Future Hospital Journal to Future Healthcare Journal seemed a natural one. The issues we discuss and debate within these pages are not confined to the hospital setting and while ‘hospital without walls’ was a phrase embedded in the Future Hospital Commission publication,1 the name restricted both the impact and the appeal to potential readers and contributors. The new name should allow immediate resonance with the wider healthcare community we wish to engage with.
This change also represents a maturity of the FHJ, now 3 years old, but, like a growing toddler, increasingly assured, and built on firm foundations, with steadily rising visibility, voice and impact. Downloads of articles continue to rise dramatically, while a QI article2 in the journal was recently cited as the Nuffield Trust’s second-placed recommended read of 2016, sandwiched between ones from the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. Venerable company indeed!
So with a new name comes a new cover; one I hope you agree reflects a futuristic medical feel. The QR code will allow the immediate download of the FHJ content onto any mobile device and seemed a pertinent introduction, in this, the first of our two digital special issues. Finally, but by no means least, the FHJ achieved a major milestone for any journal, in successfully passing the scientific assessment for PubMed Central inclusion. We hope therefore that by the end of 2017 we should be citable and visible using the most widely available, and used, academic medical search engine, PubMed. Also remaining free to download on our own platform, the potential reach of FHJ is significant, not just within the UK, but globally. PubMed listing will be no mean feat, and to a significant degree cements the future of the FHJ, allowing us now to build on this strategic milestone.
So what of this issue? Dr Mark Temple and Ms Sheena Visram have compiled an impressive edition, exploring the role of digital technology in healthcare, against a brief of a ‘warts and all’ realism demanded by the editor-in-chief. This is the first of a two-part series exploring digital technology at both a systems level and a more front-line person-centred support perspective. This edition will predominantly, but not exclusively, focus on the former perspective, but with some insightful personal reflections from patients and clinicians alike. The next linked edition will complement this one.
I am particularly pleased to have an article from one of the initial Future Hospital Programme sites, which shares the pitfalls and reality of developing telemedicine services in rural North Wales.3 The sharing of formative experiences is a key role for this journal, to allow others to benefit from the lessons identified and hopefully learnt, and to ensure these are disseminated widely. The requirement for co-production with patients is a central message in their article and the need for genuine and meaningful stakeholder education, engagement and leadership, whether from healthcare staff or the users of our services, is writ large throughout almost all the articles contained within this edition.
As a self-confessed cynic, the reflections of Harold Thimbleby,4 articulated in a highly readable way, reflect my personal prejudices and concerns about the adoption of powerful enabling technology without adequate consideration as to whether they really do add value to what we do, or merely give a veneer of modernisation with little in the way of support to our clinical care.
In addition to the digital focus of this edition, we do not forget the other aspects of healthcare we aim to air. Research articles on training, including the thorny issue of training gaps in adolescent and young adult healthcare, are explored, while challenges to teaching in core medical training and the trials and tribulations of the annual review of competency progression (ARCP) give much food for thought, as does the article on collaborative working and the blurred lines of responsibility in sharing care in complex disease.
I close with thanks to my Editorial Board, past and present, for enabling the FHJ to grow and mature, and the RCP editorial staff who work so tirelessly to ensure this journal stays on track and continues to grow. The foundations are strong and we continue to evolve, so ‘til next time I hope you enjoy the offering…
- © Royal College of Physicians 2017. All rights reserved.
References
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- Future Hospital Commission
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- Dixon-Woods M
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- Olwen W
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- Thimbleby H.
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