The U.K. is planning a massive project – worth close to $1B – to procure new IT tools for medical diagnostic use. While details of the plan are still sketchy, it involves the acquisition of both radiology and cardiology PACS, as well as AI.
The U.K.’s NHS has become one of the world’s hottest test beds for medical IT adoption as the service struggles to reconcile a static workforce with rising demand for healthcare services.
- For example, the NHS last year issued the AI Diagnostic Fund, which provided £21 million ($28M) for a variety of AI implementation projects across 64 NHS trusts.
But the new tender offer dwarfs that investment. NHS has proposed a Digital Diagnostic Solutions project to serve as “a route to market for departmental wide diagnostic IT solutions.”
- The value of the project is pegged at £700M ($923M), a massive investment in medical IT by any metric.
The offer is being led by NHS Supply Chain, the governmental agency responsible for procuring medical equipment within the NHS.
- The program’s tender offer states that the Digital Diagnostic Solutions project “is to be the new Framework for the Medical IT Departmental Software and Hardware Solutions framework within NHS Supply Chain.”
It includes the following provisions:
- Acquisition of radiology PACS, cardiology PACS, RIS, cardiovascular information systems (CVIS), laboratory information management systems (LIMS), and vendor-neutral archives (VNAs).
- Software acquired through the program “will sit alongside” other capital equipment like X-ray, MRI, and CT systems.
- It will also include 3D software, diagnostic AI software, and endoscopy image management applications.
Publication of an invitation to tender will happen in December 2024, and the contract award will be in July 2025, with the framework itself starting in August 2025.
The tender offer was published just a few days before a government-commissioned report that said the NHS was in “serious trouble” and that was harshly critical of the system’s transformation to digital operation.
- And that report came after a July election that saw the Labour party win power for the first time in 14 years – raising hopes that it would approach NHS funding differently than the previous Conservative governments.
The Takeaway
Does the Digital Diagnostic Solutions project represent a new commitment to funding IT innovation from the Labour government? Or is it simply a rebranding of the NHS’ existing procurement activities? Stay tuned.
