First Community CEO contributes to national AI and proactive care summit
Sarah Tomkins, Chief Executive of First Community, joined healthcare leaders, innovators and technology experts at the AI-Powered Proactive Care Summit hosted by Doccla and Sword, Europe's leading virtual care providers. The event explored how artificial intelligence (AI), digital innovation and new models of care can help health services move from reacting to illness to preventing it.
First Community's Chair, Lorcan Woods, also attended the summit in his capacity as Chair of First Community and Advisor to Doccla, reflecting the organisation's commitment to exploring how innovation can support better outcomes for patients and communities.
Speaking on a panel discussing the future of proactive care, Sarah shared her perspective on the unique role of community services in supporting the NHS ambition to move from treatment to prevention, from hospital to community, and from analogue to digital.
Using a Formula 1 analogy, she described how successful racing teams use real-time data to anticipate issues before they become problems, rather than waiting for failure to occur.
"When I think about proactive care, I think about Formula 1. Success isn't determined by the driver alone, but by an entire team using real-time data to anticipate and prevent problems before they happen.
AI and population health intelligence give us the telemetry to identify who may be heading towards crisis before they get there, but data alone does not improve outcomes. Community services are the pit crew. We are the part of the system closest to people's homes, families, and communities, working alongside primary care, mental health, social care and the voluntary sector to intervene early and keep people well.
To deliver proactivity at meaningful scale, we need to move from managing caseloads to managing populations. Instead of asking who has been referred to us today, we need to ask who in our neighbourhood is most at risk tomorrow and what support could make a difference now.
The future role of community services is not to be faster at responding to crises. It's to be better at preventing them. AI provides the telemetry, neighbourhoods provide the team, community services are the pit crew, and success should be measured by how many people stay healthy, independent and living well for longer."
Sarah highlighted that community healthcare teams are uniquely placed to understand the wider factors that affect health and wellbeing, enabling earlier interventions that can help people maintain independence and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
Reflecting on the event, Sarah said:
"It was a fantastic opportunity to share experiences and learn from colleagues across the sector. The conversations demonstrated a real commitment to harnessing innovation to improve health outcomes while ensuring the highest standards of quality, safety and accessibility for everyone."
Lorcan Woods, Chair of First Community and Advisor to Doccla, said:
"What stood out from the discussions was the shared recognition that technology alone is not the answer. The real opportunity lies in combining innovation with the deep understanding of people and communities that exists across our NHS neighbourhood teams.
Community services are uniquely placed to turn insight into action, helping people stay well, independent and connected to their communities for longer. As we embrace advances in AI and digital healthcare, it is essential that we do so in a way that strengthens, rather than replaces, the human relationships that underpin great care.
Events such as this demonstrate the power of partnership between healthcare providers, patients, communities and technology organisations in creating a more proactive, preventative and sustainable health and care system for the future."
The summit highlighted the growing role that digital technology, population health intelligence, and neighbourhood-based care models will play in transforming health and care services. Through partnerships such as its work with Doccla, including supporting patients to safely monitor heart conditions at home, First Community continues to explore innovative approaches that help people stay well, live independently, and receive care closer to home.
Find out more
Further information about the event is available on the Doccla AI-Powered Proactive Care Summithttps://www.doccla.com/ai-powered-proactive-care-summit.