2019 annual report Digital Technologies SIG

In the last year we have expanded the SIG team as the group has continued to grow in numbers and includes members from academia, industry and patient groups. We continue to send a quarterly newsletter which includes member updates, topical new stories and relevant request for input. The most recent newsletter was sent in October.

This year we have held two events. Our usual meeting in July at the national SAPC conference where I provided an overview of the years policy changes and news stories relating to digital technologies in primary care. We discussed the important areas of focus for the group. In October we held our first external event in London, a networking which attracted both members and non-members from academia and industry. Our keynote speaker was Rebecca Rosen from the Nuffield Trust. There was an additional presentation from Minal Bakhai from NHS England. A separate report on this event can be found on the SIG pages. We are pleased to report that as a result of the networking event several useful connections were made and attendees have been in touch with each other as a result, which we hope will lead to useful collaboration. Minal Bakhai has been in touch with SAPC to discuss collaborating on an initiative by NHSE and NICE to catalogue evaluations of digital technologies.

The SIG has gained a wide profile and this is due in part to the affiliation with SAPC which helps us to communicate our primary care focus and the legitimacy of our group.

We plan to run another external event in 2020, this may comprise a series of smaller events focused on a particular area, and/or an event giving people an opportunity to share their work. We will have an informal coffee gathering at the SWSAPC conference in March 2020 and will meet at the SAPC national conference in Leeds in July 2020.

We welcome new members and ideas for diversifying the group.