Healthcare blog

The healthcare industry is at a transformative crossroads, with both opportunities and challenges on the horizon. Amidst this, ISO 7101:2023 emerges as a beacon, ushering in a new era of healthcare quality management. Discover how ISO 7101 is set to revolutionize healthcare standards.

Discover the vital shifts in pharmaceutical supply chains. Explore the intricate challenges of scale, control, volatility, and velocity, and learn why transparency and responsibility are now paramount. Join us on a journey to reshape the future of pharmaceutical supply chains in this blog by Courtney Soulsby, Sector Director for the Healthcare & Life Sciences, BSI.

A wide body of literature now exists on how to assess AI technologies for use in healthcare settings, but this knowledge doesn’t lend itself to practical application. This blog post introduces a new national standard for AI in healthcare that synthesizes what’s been learned into a single, practical and auditable framework.

Shusma Balaji, Data Scientist, Data Science and AI, BSI discusses the ethical issues surrounding AI in healthcare, and why developing systems that align with moral principles and values is critical for safe innovation and widespread adoption.

Jeanne Greathouse, Healthcare Development Director, Global Healthcare Leadership Team, BSI explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming healthcare wearables, and what cyber risks the healthcare sector should be aware of when implementing the technology.

In recent years, we've come to realize how crucial it is to have a seamless, high-tech ecosystem in place to manage and improve patient care. Thanks to advances in technology, we're now able to do that both inside and outside the clinical setting.

Discover our BS 30416 Menstrual and menopausal health in the workplace blog post here, and find out more about our launch event happing July 2023. 

Pre-register your interest now to receive an update when the standard is ready to be downloaded.

Burnout, exhaustion and industrial unrest. After almost three years on the front line, hospital staff have had enough. While the rest of the world likes to think we have moved on from COVID-19, that’s easier said than done for healthcare workers. This blog explores how hospitals can protect the well-being of their workforce after COVID-19.

Antimicrobial resistance is the ability of a microorganism to prevent an antimicrobial from working against it. While AMR occurs naturally and has always occurred, its rate and spread is accelerating. AMR has been described as one of the biggest threats to global public health today. Read this blog to find out more and how standardization is driving change.

With a view to reduce the number of animal tests where possible, the standard on testing medical devices for skin sensitization has been revised. This blog post discusses the thinking behind the standard and the changes introduced in 2023.

After a decade, the international standard on quality and competence in medical laboratories has been updated to increase the emphasis on patient care. This blog post outlines what’s covered in the new document.

BS ISO 3951-1 is the first in a series of international standards that applies statistical methods to checking product quality, and has now been updated. This blog post looks behind the scenes at how the standard works and at what’s changed.

Around the globe, there’s a growing body of opinion that suggests the most significant technical issue in healthcare to be solved is the challenge of siloed patient data due to the semantic interoperability issues and the resulting inability to produce a single unified lifelong patient electronic health record. Learn more about this technology challenge from Professor Michael Miller.

Global donor (pharmaceutical) organizations face a myriad of challenges and risks in their supply chains when monitoring donations of essential medical supplies to low-middle-income markets. Learn about these challenges and how they can be overcome by improving the visibility of medicines along the supply chain and capabilities of those involved.

Hospitals depend on energy to run their services, operate critical equipment and save lives. It's a vital operation but also an expensive one. Discover how hospitals can manage and reduce their energy use, and read about standards action many NHS trusts have been applying to reduce energy consumption and environmental impacts.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of telemedicine across the world. The need to limit the impact of the virus has increased the acceptance of telemedicine by clinicians and patients alike. Hear about the importance of telemedicine and the digital transformation of healthcare.

In this blog, hear from Kate Field, Global Head – Health, Safety and Well-being of BSI who states that we must protect the well-being of adult social care workers. Learn more about the challenges to well-being in the social care industry, how the pandemic is having a massive added impact and what can be done.

A French intervention has led to the amendment of the international standard BS EN ISO 10993-7:2008+A1:2022 on ethylene oxide sterilization of medical devices. This blog post discusses what’s new and why.

In this blog, Conor Hogan, Global Practice Director – Data Governance, Digital Trust, BSI discusses privacy and data protection in the age of digital health. Healthcare organizations can adopt simple measures to embed and implement privacy by design strategies early in their development lifecycle to ensure that patient data and privacy rights are protected.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the urgent need to connect health and care providers to their patients through remote appointments, and a need to address the ongoing concerns about how delivery of care would be maintained.

The future of healthcare includes a cybersecurity journey that every patient will take. This journey will be a journey of availability.

The digital revolution in healthcare can only happen with equipment online and security. The ability for a patient care facility to “go back” to traditional medicine will disappear as those systems are retired and replaced. Or, to put it another way, once this digital journey starts, there is no going back.

Head of Innovation Policy at BSI, Daniel Barlow, was recently interviewed by Infinity Health, where he shared the role that we play within UK healthcare.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued updated guidance to help identify the health apps which are medical devices.

Guidance on the application of the BS EN ISO 11607 series of standards, which specifies requirements for sterile barrier systems, is being balloted.

As further advancements are made with AI technology, regulators may consider multiple approaches for addressing the safety and effectiveness of AI in healthcare.

It’s widely accepted that healthcare has lagged behind other industries when it comes to cybersecurity, and that the industry needs to close the gap. Thankfully, healthcare managers can use standards to build resilience across diverse cybersecurity fronts simultaneously.