On 5 July 2023, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) turned 75. It was a moment for deep national re-examination. The UK public has a strange and strained relationship with the NHS, simultaneously calling for urgent changes, yet also warning, ‘Don’t mess with the NHS’. The reality is that, since the inception of the NHS – still the most popular institution in Britain – two major shifts have impacted healthcare: global public health priorities have changed, and technology has evolved such that it permeates every aspect of our lives. Combine the two, and you have not only a need to transform healthcare provision but also have significant ways to do it. A team of researchers at Imperial College London are at the forefront of this conjectural nexus, inspiring an evolutionary leap in how healthcare is conceptualised: where the self-carer, health, wellbeing and healing are the main focus, as opposed to a system that considers patients in the context of disease, diagnosis and treatment using pharmaceuticals or surgery.
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