Monzo-meets-medicine? A prescription for just-in-time healthcare

Challenger brand thinking has transformed industries all around us. What if we applied the same to healthcare?

Drawing on his experience as a former NHS surgeon, Dr Harry Thirkettle, director of health innovation at 'tech for good' consultancy, Aire Logic, looks at the parallels already being drawn with the NHS App’s Amazon-style prescription tracking service. He explores how the industry can feasibly take this new standard of convenience and apply it to the entire operational backbone of the health service.

Applying a challenger mindset

When Monzo reshaped banking, it didn’t just digitise old processes. It built new ones around the user - designed for speed, clarity, and control.

In the same way, the opportunity to take the NHS 10-Year Plan to its ultimate conclusion lies in not digitising existing services, but fundamentally reimagining the infrastructure that underpins care delivery.

Some of the most critical pressures on the health service are rooted in the complex logistical systems that support clinicians. By re-engineering this operational core to ensure that medical staff have the tools, data, and medicines ready when they need them, technicians can help build the foundation for a truly responsive healthcare system.

Moving in real-time

Imagine an experience where patients can track prescriptions in real-time, flag concerns through chat, receive reminders and support, and access local services on demand. All without defaulting to GP bottlenecks or hospital visits.

The recent move to introduce an “Amazon-style” prescription tracking in the NHS App is a crucial first step. People want transparency and agency in how care is delivered and patients are more likely to adhere to treatment when they feel informed and in control.

This standard for convenience and real-time service is set by other industries. In healthcare, the focus must now shift from implementing standalone features to creating a cohesive and just-in-time experience that meets these modern expectations.

From digitising services to reimagining delivery

True transformation lies in moving beyond thinking of the hospital as a physical place and more of a blueprint for care that is decentralised and designed to move with people. This is a core principle behind what Aire Logic refers to as ‘The Everywhere Hospital’. This concept aligns neatly with the core pillars presented in the NHS 10-Year Plan with an emphasis on community-led care, disease prevention, and digital-first delivery. It envisions a network of connected services, from specialist treatment centres to community hubs and care in the home.

For the pharmaceutical sector, this decentralisation presents both a profound logistical challenge and a strategic opportunity. The journey of a medicine no longer ends at the hospital or pharmacy door. Instead, it must navigate a complex network of care settings. This requires a new paradigm for pharma logistics that is built on interoperability, predictive analytics, and real-time data flow.

Predicting pharmaceutical needs

Applying the principles of a sophisticated fulfilment network, like Amazon, to hospital and community operations would not only enhance convenience, it could eliminate waste, improve safety, and create a genuinely just-in-time healthcare system.

AI forecasting driven by real-time data from electronic health records and patient flow analytics could predict a hospital’s precise pharmaceutical needs. This would ensure that critical medications - especially expensive biologics or drugs with short shelf-lives - are always available where and when they are needed most. This data-driven approach takes the supply chain from being a reactive ordering process to a proactive, intelligent fulfilment model - reducing the risk of dangerous shortages and the wasteful expense of overstocking.

This thinking also extends to the equipment required to administer treatment. Predictive analysis based on actual usage patterns can target maintenance for infusion pumps, cold-storage units, and diagnostic machines. Ensuring the entire treatment pathway is robust and that critical apparatus never breaks down when a patient needs it.

The final, and most critical, step is the administration of the medicine itself. Here, smart and automated dispensing systems can drastically reduce the risk of human error. When integrated with real-time data on patient location and need, these systems can ensure the right dose, of the right drug, gets to the right patient - at the right time.

Building a system designed for patient power

Ultimately, this Amazon-inspired infrastructure serves one primary purpose: to build a more reliable and empowering system for the patient. A just-in-time system is not a cold, efficiency-seeking process, it is the invisible foundation that will make truly patient-centric care possible. When people have real-time access and control, it changes their relationship with the health service.

What’s more, putting this ‘faster, smarter, and more accessible’ model in action creates an environment of profound safety and reliability.

This is about the confidence a cancer patient has that their specific chemotherapy drug will be ready, without delay or error. It is about the parent of a diabetic child managing prescriptions and supplies seamlessly through a single interface. This is how we translate the abstract concept of ‘patient power’ into a concrete reality for those receiving and relying on critical care.

Truly fit for the future

True transformation means also adopting this philosophy when it comes to a patient’s most valuable asset: their data. There needs to be empowerment of the patient through data ownership.

The current approach, which scatters a person's medical history across numerous and disconnected systems, must be replaced. The patient should become the custodian of their own health information, granting access as they see fit. This transfer of control is not just a technical change, it is essential for fostering the trust required to build a more collaborative and effective healthcare ecosystem.

The journey to this envisaged reality demands both audacious thinking and a deeply collaborative ethos. The pharmaceutical industry has a pivotal role to play, not just in drug discovery, but in co-designing the delivery systems of the future. By embracing a modular, interoperable, and patient-centric model, we can collectively build a healthcare service that is truly fit for the future.