Recommendation 9

We were particularly interested in one aspect of interoperability, namely the opportunities afforded by the cloud and cloud computing. For example, vendor-neutral digital image sharing through the cloud can benefit patients, radiologists and consultants. But suppliers might experience difficulties in providing these services to the NHS. NHSX told us that, to facilitate the use of cloud (for image sharing, and more widely), there were a number of actions that could be, or had been, taken. First, it could ensure that the policy and standards facilitate the use of cloud and image sharing. Second, that NHS Digital had already undertaken work to ensure the connectivity and bandwidth were in place to allow these types images to be shared. Third, care pathways could be designed to make use of digital image sharing to deliver a more efficient service and better outcomes.14