Diverse delegates from healthcare

The event brought together diverse delegates from The New Hospital Programme (NHP), NHS Hospital Trusts, Local Government, Building Contractors and Consultants, with The Lister Alliance, Ideal and other leading technology partners who have proven smart solutions in the healthcare space. 

The view from private sector experts 

In a packed speaker session, delegates heard from a number of private sector solution providers about where they see smart solutions, now and into the future.  

Speakers included: 

• Lisa Kenny – Head of Client Experience, 150 Holborn who explained that the key to creating 150 Holborn, one of the smartest buildings in Europe, was having a clear vision of what it needed to achieve for the best staff and visitor experience, whilst harvesting data that could automatically drive the efficiency and sustainability of the building itself. 
• Rachelle McDade – Director of Healthcare Planning, Currie & Brown used a current case study of a stroke patient to show how broken digital pathways between ambulance, A&E, a specialist stroke hospital and community care negatively impacted patient outcome, quality of care and efficiency. Rachelle argued that digital design around workflows should be part of the RIBA 0 stage of development for any new build or hospital refurb. 
• David Sewell – Associate Principal & Digital Practice Lead, Perkins & Will discussed how healthcare buildings and estates can only become smarter through better-connected spatial, asset and operational information. His example of porters trying to find wheelchairs at NHS Imperial was illuminating. The Smart solution went beyond RFID tagging to a Google Maps style app, giving directions to the nearest unused wheelchair. 

• Richard Evans – Chief Solutions Officer, Ideal, explained that to deliver Smart Buildings you need the right digital foundations. The Intelligent Ready Building (IRB) collaboration between Ideal, Cisco, Schneider Electric and Para, proven at 150 Holborn, is the perfect blueprint for a Smart Hospital or healthcare refurbishment project, offering a secure-by design, resilient, validated Smart Building wireframe to de-risk operations.  

• Chris Needham – Solutions Lead Public Sector & Healthcare, Schneider Electric spoke about their hands-on experience at ‘Penn Med’ in Pennsylvania, USA where the digital challenge was to integrate 300 separate workflows. For Chris, simplification is key. 150 Holborn has 62,000 data points reporting every five seconds. The skill is in translating all that data into meaningful metrics that improve performance for people and systems.  

• Lisa Yates – Head of Public Sector, Ideal talked about her experience as Digital Lead at the National Rehabilitation centre, (NRC) and how smart networks and connected technology ecosystems can enhance patient care, empower clinical teams, and enable more efficient, resilient and sustainable estate operations. Lisa said that the critical issue is to bring staff along with you on the digital journey, from initial ideas to proof of concepts and rollout. 

• Declan Hadley – Healthcare Lead, The Lister Alliance, the healthcare innovation programme, explained how they are constantly working with NHS Trusts, practitioners, industry and academia to reshape the future of healthcare technology, creating better outcomes for patients. That involves bringing experienced NHS clinicians, nurses and digital transformation experts together with digital experts to drive fresh approaches. 

Smart solutions in play

Alongside the meeting area, a number of hand-picked healthcare technology specialists were on hand to demonstrate leading-edge solutions including:  

UMA

Showing how SaaS-powered buildings that think, give staff more time for care, with meeting room and facility booking systems, environmental tracking and controls, desk booking,  sensors, AI automation and workplace analytics — designed to reduce operating costs and improve employee experience.

Cisco – Ideal

Demonstrating transformational network and building technology for healthcare with devices, displays and entire workspaces powered by Cisco network infrastructure using Power over Ethernet (PoE). Ideal’s Seymour Telemetry platform tracks this power usage at a granular level to measure success. 

Thinlabs

Showing PoE workspaces and digital integration, including advanced PoE medical-grade workstations and computers designed to improve operational efficiency and sustainability outcomes.

Schneider Electric

Showing the intelligent building operations and management systems behind 150 Holborn, and how that technology is already transforming hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world.

Proxximos

Sharing their intelligent infection prevention through smart monitoring products that track where pathogens may have spread, improving contact tracing in hospitals and care homes.

SIYTE (formerly Puple Transform)

Showing their operational intelligence platform that can improve staff and patient safety through Smart CCTV, sensors and systems.

Insights from the 150 Holborn Tour 

After a generous lunch, delegates enjoyed a full tour of 150. It started at the sustainable roof garden, where rainwater harvesting and wildlife studies are informing sustainability and setting standards based on learnings from this year’s drought-riven summer.  

Walking down through the building via the spectacular central staircase, the group learnt how the converged network and over 650 sensors control heating, lighting, access and security, monitor space usage and provide automatic controls for meeting room booking and air conditioning.  

By capturing and analysing building data, 150 Holborn becomes a living lab that informs operational improvements and future strategy. The advanced network infrastructure not only supports evidence-based decisions on space utilisation but also provides the foundation for ongoing innovation, enabling the building to adapt and incorporate new smart technologies, such as automated shading, sensors, and automation systems, over time. 

Lisa explained that 150 Holborn may be the only Smart Building that actually runs a preventative maintenance programme through data indications. A demonstration of Digital Twin technology showed how real-time dashboards also inform space utilisation reporting for tenant companies and building management.  

Sharing experiences in a round table discussion

Expertly chaired by Declan Hadley from The Lister Alliance, a round table session invited delegates to share the challenges they face and the digital solutions they are deploying. 

From leadership, governance and operating models, to technology integration and digital foundation planning, collaborations with clinicians, nursing staff, paramedics and patients, through to use cases and value creation across hospital estates, individual wards and out-patient clinics, a wealth of experience and expertise was shared in a short space of time.

There was a great deal of agreement in the room around the scale of the task for digital transformation, with hundreds of inter-related workflows, a complex web of legacy systems and often ageing estates. 

Perhaps the biggest learning is the need to make everything in smart technology, people- (and patient-) centred.  

Staff have to be taken on the journey; codesign strategies, senior champions and a laser-focussed on patient outcomes are cricial.  Targeting relatively small steps, helping staff get familiar and experience the benefits and then scaling is undoubtedly the smart route for smart technology.  

Relaxed networking to round off a busy day 

The day culminated in some light refreshments, where new connections and familiar colleagues could reflect on what they had learnt and agree next steps for connected healthcare in their own context.