NHS England has launched a £100million prize fund to back NHS trusts that want to become centres of global digital excellence.
The trusts have been invited to bid to win up to £10m each to invest in digital infrastructure and specialist training.
NHS England envisions 10-16 of the 26 trusts becoming centres of digital excellence to “lead the way for the entire system to move faster in getting better information technology on the ground”.
The chosen centres of excellence will be partnered with “international sister organisations” to maximise benefits across the NHS.
NHS England’s head of technology, Paul Rice, said the UK has a “set of acute” providers that are leading the way in digital technology.
Rice added: “This benefits their clinicians, their patients and the wider community they serve.
“By stepping up to become world class, they can join the most digitally advanced healthcare organisations across the globe and help deliver a sustainable and transformed NHS.”
The first centres of excellence will be selected only from acute trusts, but in due course, NHS England plans to establish centres across the health and care sector.
The NHS has partnered with artificial intelligence research lab Google DeepMind on two projects in London.
The first is a kidney monitoring app called Streams which seeks to assist clinicians at three hospitals in detecting early signs of acute kidney injury. The second at Moorfields Eye Hospital aims to detect early signs of eye diseases which could lead to blindness through machine learning.
However DeepMind must win the public over to the controversial partnership after concerns over data.
Wearable devices could save NHS billions every year by creating ‘the missing gear between hospital and home’.
That is the view of Dr Jack Kreindler, who is also using technology to battle cancer.