Abstract
The National Health Service (NHS) is the United Kingdom’s largest public organisation and is currently undergoing strategic change in response to operational and workforce demands. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and immersive technology in the form of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), are currently seen as part of the potential solution to organisation-wide challenges the NHS is facing. Despite their potential, the mentioned forms of innovation and technology are suffering from fragmented implementation and isolated piloting which is stifling the potential of how such technologies can help the NHS. Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are a high-cost, high-pressure and high-risk environment where cognitive load on clinicians, strain on the workforce and operational inefficiencies are all found. This results in such a setting being a relevant area of the NHS for digital transformation to be implemented to its fullest and showcase the benefits of a change process. With the NHS moving from analogue processes to digital systems as proposed within the 10-year ‘Fit for the Future’ strategy (FFTF), this development paper frames a mixed-methods study examining the strategic and practical implementation of AI, VR/AR and Robotics in a practice-based setting. The study aims to assess the impact of the aforementioned technologies on workflow efficiency, sustainability and clinical decision-making whilst also analysing barriers to organisation-wide, scalable adoption. This paper contributes towards the very foundation of the debate on digital transformation within healthcare, whether it is enough to simply use new technologies within healthcare or whether organisational reconfigurations are needed.