Cloud21 view | Important strides in digital investment must unlock value and productivity

"The commitment to a digitally-enabled future health service is clear. What's needed now is a focus on how we deliver the change needed, successfully and sustainably. That shift requires investment in people, processes and culture and ensure we're not just investing in tech - but in outcomes.

Emerging innovations—such as AI tools and the development of a single patient record—offer exciting opportunities. But to realise their potential, we must align technology to purpose and help NHS staff transition between traditional ways of working and a digital future. That's how we'll build confidence and achieve digital productivity.

The NHS has made important strides in digital investment. To continue to unlock the full value of these efforts and realise benefits, we must ensure that digital workflows are matured around the needs of clinicians, operational teams and their patients. We must connect and maximise the solutions already in place to enable more joined-up care, support out-of-hospital models, and promote prevention.

Long-term service transformation is a journey, built-on tech, used by people and beholden to processes. Bridging the gap between them, redesigning more efficient, safer processes that work for frontline teams, operational staff, and their patients, must come first.

It's about helping people work differently in a digital environment, and focusing relentlessly on improving patient safety, experience and outcomes. It's then that we will find the efficiencies needed, embed the highest possible safety standards, whilst improving experience and outcomes for patients and staff."

Issued: 3rd July 25

Kath Dean, President Cloud21

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Kathryn Dean, President, Cloud21

Kathryn Dean is President of Cloud21 and a recognised leader in healthcare transformation. With a career spanning clinical, commercial, and strategic leadership, she has successfully delivered complex change programmes across the NHS and wider health and care system.

Kathryn has led large-scale transformation and set-up initiatives, including the implementation of an organisation-wide programme across a £1bn healthcare provider group with over 13,000 staff. Her work consistently delivers measurable improvements in performance, efficiency, and patient outcomes—often in challenging environments requiring turnaround or cross-boundary collaboration.

She is known for her ability to unite diverse stakeholders around shared goals, drawing on deep clinical knowledge, a scientific mindset, and strong interpersonal skills. Her leadership spans service reconfiguration, digital and technical transformation, and people-centred change.

Kathryn is a passionate advocate for using digital tools and data to drive transformation. She believes that successful change is rooted in understanding people—patients, staff, and stakeholders—and enabling them through insight, engagement, and leadership.