Dr Youssof Oskrochi and Dr Keith Grimes are co-authors on a landmark peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, alongside Dr Elliott Roy-Highley and Sam Shah.
"Digital Health Technology Compliance With Clinical Safety Standards in the National Health Service in England: National Cross-Sectional Study" is the first research to quantify both the scale of digital health technology deployment across NHS England and compliance with the mandatory clinical safety standards that govern it.
The numbers are stark. Of 14,747 digital health technology deployments identified across 178 NHS organisations, only 17.3% were fully compliant with both DCB0129 and DCB0160, the clinical safety standards that are a legal requirement not a best-practice recommendation. More than 70% had no documented safety assurance at all. Put plainly: three in four digital tools influencing patient care in the NHS do not demonstrate compliance with minimum legal or clinical safety requirements.
The paper is notable not just for its findings but for what it represents: the most rigorous quantitative picture to date of where NHS digital clinical safety actually stands, rather than where it is assumed to stand. The gap between assumption and reality is significant.
For healthtech companies seeking NHS deployment, and for NHS organisations managing their own obligations under DCB0160, the study provides important context. Compliance is not yet the norm. That creates both risk and, for those who take it seriously, a meaningful differentiator.
