• The Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, has recently pledged almost half a billion pounds to transform technology within the NHS in an attempt to reduce staff workloads and improve patient care
• There are many different parties working to bring the NHS forward, including health techs, politicians and NHS workers. However, there needs to be more transparency within the sector so these different groups can work together, rather than set out different aims
• Echo is proposing we need to bring a system like ‘open banking’ to the health service which at the moment has too many walled gardens
• Opening up the system and improving the interoperability of health apps will improve patient access and quality of care
• Stephen Bourke, co-founder of Echo and Alistair Murray, Clinical Director at Echo are available to comment

Stephen Bourke, co-founder of Echo, said: “Babylon’s GP at Hand service does more than just provide patients with easier access to healthcare. It also paves the way for other innovators like Echo; enabling an ecosystem of world class digital health start-ups to develop and support the NHS. The only way that we will be able to afford to provide high quality care for our ageing population is by letting technology flourish. Currently there is too much inertia, particularly in primary care, and very few practical alternative solutions. We need to support pioneers like Babylon or nothing will change.”