The UK government’s latest initiative to revolutionise healthcare through technology and artificial intelligence (AI) signals a shift towards a more efficient, data-driven NHS. This new plan aims to streamline public services, enhance data sharing, and ultimately reduce costs while improving patient outcomes.
Through this initiative, the UK government aims to replace outdated technology and sluggish manual processes. According to Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting: “We are bringing our analogue NHS into the digital age. Our Plan for Change will rebuild our NHS, put patients in control of their own healthcare and arm staff with the latest groundbreaking technology, ending the needless bureaucracy faced by patients up and down the country.”
As part of this, AI usage within healthcare is set to increase, with a new package of tools nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ being made available to the workforce. This comes just after the launch of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which aims to make the country “one of the great AI superpowers.”
Expanding patient communication
The Plan for Change has been warmly welcomed by Optum, formerly EMIS, the UK’s leader in clinical IT systems for joined-up patient care. One solution by the company, a case-finding module for driving early health interventions, is particularly well-placed to support this digital transformation.
“Optum has the largest market share of GPs using our systems for electronic health records and daily management of patients,” says Jenny Hamilton, Product Manager, Pathway, Optum. “Having that in one place enables us to run fast searches on this data to identify groups and cohorts of patients that may need some kind of proactive or preventative care.
“What we can then do with our Pathway product is work closely with life sciences customers and the NHS to find ways to potentially move those patients from GP practices, which are really busy, into other healthcare environments that are dedicated to providing specialist preventive care and just don’t have access to the GP records to find those patients,” she explains.
Pathway was first piloted as part of the NHS England Hepatitis C Elimination programme, a world-leading partnership between NHS England and MSD to find, test, and treat every individual in England living with the infectious disease. In 2025, recent developments to the preventative health tool suggest its potential is only strengthening.
According to Hamilton, Pathway is now introducing a multi-channel approach that significantly broadens how healthcare providers can contact at-risk patients, including text messages, emails, and even NHS app notifications. The integration of NHS app notifications offers a secure and reliable channel, ensuring that important health messages reach patients through a platform they already use and trust for their medical records and appointments.
Meanwhile, this approach also utilises physical letters, including those in accessible formats such as braille, ensuring that older patients who may struggle with mobile technology do not fall behind.
Harnessing AI for preventative healthcare
Beyond effective communication, a major advancement in Pathway’s development is its integration with predictive analytics tools. By utilising disease risk algorithms, the Pathway team are exploring increasingly intelligent ways to help GPs identify high-risk patients before they require acute care.
“We’ve built a mechanism where we can work with companies that have developed algorithms that calculate risk scores for different conditions—your risk of developing heart disease in the next six years, for example,” says Hamilton. “Clinicians can then use that information, along with everything else they know about the patient, to take preventative action and reduce the risk.”
The technology enables healthcare providers to calculate risk scores for various conditions, including heart disease, kidney failure, and even mental health concerns such as psychosis. These risk scores provide clinicians with crucial insights, allowing them to take proactive steps in patient care. For example, if a patient is flagged as having a high risk of developing kidney failure within the next few years, their GP can intervene early with preventative treatments or lifestyle recommendations. Referral to a specialist team may also be required.
Importantly, Pathway has designed this interoperable system with stringent data privacy measures in place. The data shared with algorithm providers is pseudonymised, meaning no personally identifiable information is transferred. Additionally, only relevant clinical data is sent—ensuring that sensitive but unrelated medical details remain private. Before any data is processed, GP practices must formally approve participation, reinforcing ethical oversight in this new frontier of digital healthcare.
By enabling early intervention, these AI-driven tools not only improve individual patient outcomes but also alleviate pressure on secondary care services. Reducing hospital admissions and emergency treatments ultimately translates into cost savings for the NHS—a core objective of the government’s technology strategy.
Supporting integrated care with smarter data sharing
Another key aspect of Pathway’s development is its focus on seamless data integration. Traditionally, one of the biggest challenges in NHS digital transformation has been the fragmentation of health records. Pathway is working to address this by improving how patient data is written back into primary care records, ensuring that all healthcare professionals involved in a patient’s care have access to the most up-to-date information.
This extends to specialist care teams, with Pathway developing a mechanism that allows GPs to securely share relevant patient data with specialists, removing the inefficiencies of paper-based referrals and outdated administrative processes. By ensuring that all healthcare providers have a single, accurate view of a patient’s medical history, Pathway is helping to create a more coordinated and effective healthcare system.
The future of healthcare lies in proactive, personalised, and data-driven solutions. With greater use of tools like Pathway, the NHS can move towards a system that not only treats illness but anticipates and prevents it. As AI and digital solutions continue to evolve, the potential for transformative healthcare improvements is immense, offering hope for a more accessible, efficient, and sustainable NHS.
Life sciences companies also have an important role to play in this transformation. To find out more, download the whitepaper below.
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