Enhancing Healthcare Transformation through Data and Collaboration: Telefónica Tech UK&I and Starlight

Introduction

This article has been authored by Chris Uren, Data & AI Public Sector Sales Director at Telefónica Tech and Ross Fullerton, Co-founder of Starlight Consulting

From the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to the explosion of artificial intelligence, the role of data is crucial to the delivery of safe, cost-effective healthcare across the globe. Healthcare providers must harness the potential of the vast amounts of data they collect every single day to identify trends, predict disease outbreaks, and tailor treatments to individual patients. This data-driven approach not only helps in early diagnosis and personalised care but also supports research and innovation, leading to the development of new therapies and medical technologies.

However, effectively managing the extensive volume of data and unlocking the potential insights and improvements remains a significant challenge for healthcare providers, including NHS Trusts and integrated care systems.

Challenges in Healthcare Data Management

Unlocking your data

Types of data
Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and patient data come in both structured and unstructured formats, both equally important for modern healthcare systems and play a significant role in clinical decision-making, patient care, and analysis. Examples include MRI scans in the form of images, structured clinical codes, or doctors' notes stored as free text. Structured data provides a foundation for easily accessible and efficient healthcare management, while unstructured data offers detailed, rich, and nuanced information that, when processed correctly, enhances clinical decision-making and care.

Healthcare infrastructure
For the last 15 years NHS organisations have had free reign to purchase IT systems, often with selection based upon affordability and prioritising an organisation-centric requirements rather than prioritising how they work across care settings. This local decision making by hundreds of independent care providers is compounded by a lack of enforcement of standards which should ensure that data can be brought together. As a result, the siloed systems that exist across the NHS are often incompatible or have data impenetrably locked away.

Challenges in Healthcare Data Management

Managing data and developing insights

Being a data-savvy workforce
The demand for data professionals across industries has fuelled a shortage of skills to curate and manage the complex data sets that underpin everyday health & care. Most NHS organisations lack access to the skills to bring multi-modal data together and make it usable for the decision makers – from managers to clinicians.

Insights
Even when provided with access to data, most users aren’t given to access to the analysis tools, support and skills to understand how to analyse data, what the risks are of the datasets they are using and to make effective decisions. The usability and utility of investments in data are often lost, with users reverting to historic work practices when faced with challenges in analysing data effectively. This links to our Data Culture methodology.

Challenges in Healthcare Data Management

Building trust and confidence

Improving NHS staff trust in health data
Data quality is wildly inconsistent across health & care systems, with issues ranging from incomplete data about allergies to inaccurate records of the treatment that a patient has undergone. Establishing trust in data among NHS staff is crucial, but to do this they need to have the correct skillset to understand why data quality is important, and how the data they are recording might be used. This includes addressing the role of AI in health and ensuring that staff are equipped with the skills to organise, analyse, and make effective decisions based on data.

Improving public trust in health data
The public are most supportive of their data being used, when they are involved in decision making about how it is used and who has access. The last 10 years has seen adverse reactions to national programmes related to healthcare data reduce the confidence of the public that they are going to be involved in those decision-making process and to build the trust that is essential.

Bridging the Gap in Healthcare

The partnership between Telefónica Tech and Starlight bridges gaps in healthcare organisations by providing a complementary set of approaches and skills to support with these challenges. This partnership journey started with our customer, Oxford University Hospitals, who recognised the need for both strategic and technical expertise, leading to a successful collaboration.

We worked together as one team with the client, to create a Secure Data Environment (SDE) for the Thames Valley and Surrey region. Our partnership on this project, which began in April 2024, aims to enhance the security, accessibility, and utility of healthcare data, supporting NHS England’s initiatives.

Key achievements include:

Designing and deploying a robust SDE that meets NHS requirements.
Handling data ingestion from various sources, initially focusing on cancer data.
Integrating the NHS England Opt-out and other components into the SDE.
Combining the Trusted Research Environment (TRE) with the SDE to provide a secure space for researchers.
When focusing on knowledge transfer and training to help the Oxford University team become self-sufficient, the goal is to build their skills, empower them to manage and maintain systems independently, and ensure they are confident in applying new knowledge.

The success of this project is attributed to the strong teamwork, agility, and dedication of all involved parties, promising significant advancements in healthcare for the region. More details from Starlight – Unlocking Data to Save Lives: building a Secure Data Environment

We also collaborate with other NHS trusts and our partnership will continue to grow in 2025, continuing to create a unified delivery team to support healthcare customers.

Read the article here.

The Role of Telefónica Tech and Starlight

The partnership between Telefónica Tech UK&I and Starlight brings together complementary expertise to address these challenges:

Starlight: As a healthcare strategy partner, Starlight provides structural and strategic support, leveraging their domain expertise to navigate the complexities of healthcare data.
Telefónica Tech: With technical expertise and experience in data science, data engineering and much more, Telefónica Tech offers robust solutions to manage and utilise healthcare data effectively.

The partnership blends Starlight’s sector expertise with Telefónica Tech’s technical capabilities, filling gaps in knowledge and expertise to deliver comprehensive solutions.

Testimonial

“

"Our partnership with Telefónica Tech is built on mutual respect and responsibility, creating one approach and one delivery team that includes the client. This extension to the team fosters trust and confidence. As a former CDIO for NHS Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board, I understand at a personal level the importance of doing more with less. Ensuring public funding is used wisely to benefit the future of healthcare is part of every engagement."

Ross Fullerton,

Founder at Starlight

Conclusion

In conclusion, the partnership between Telefónica Tech UK&I and Starlight exemplifies the importance of collaboration and data in healthcare transformation. By addressing the challenges in healthcare data management and leveraging our combined expertise, we are paving the way for a more efficient, effective, and patient-centred healthcare system. We look forward to continuing our partnership and sharing more success stories.

Authors

Chris Uren, Data & AI Public Sector Sales Director at Telefónica Tech
As the Sales Director, Chris runs a team of Account Directors who are responsible for all engagements within Public Sector. This includes key verticals such as Central & Local Government, Health, Education, Police & National Security and Not For Profit. His strategic approach and collaborative efforts on various projects and initiatives over the last 7 years have made him a key contributor to the Telefónica Tech’s growth and a trusted partner for clients.

Ross Fullerton, Co-founder of Starlight Consulting
Ross has worked in sectors such as energy, retail and defence before joining London Ambulance Service as Chief Information Officer in 2017. He subsequently has held board level posts in acute hospitals, for primary community care and across integrated care systems.

Contributors: Darren DaCosta, Liv DaCosta