Preventing illness before it happens is a priority. The current focus on shifting from treatment to prevention aims to help people stay healthier for longer, reducing pressure on the NHS. From better screening for conditions like heart disease and cancer to supporting healthier lifestyles, early intervention can prevent serious illness and improve quality of life.

Digital tools play an important role in this shift, but simply creating more apps and websites isn’t enough. Technology needs to be designed to segue with people’s lives and the workflows of healthcare professionals. Whether it’s supporting patients with long-term conditions, making clinicians’ work more efficient, or strengthening community-based care, digital solutions must be built for real-world impact—not just digital convenience.

Yet often, mindset biases hold back the potential of digital health tools. Focusing too much on one-way information delivery, prioritising patient-facing tools over clinician needs, or over-relying on automation can create barriers rather than solutions. From our experience, we’ve identified five common biases that prevent digital health tools from reaching their full potential.

1. Broadcast bias – one-way conversations

Too many digital tools focus on broadcasting information and hoping people will act. While good information is helpful, empowering people to engage in meaningful dialogue with healthcare teams is far more effective—especially in managing chronic conditions like diabetes.

Effective diabetes management is a partnership. Patients do their bit by sharing personal data, such as blood sugar levels, lifestyle factors and updates on what they’re finding challenging. While healthcare professionals perform tests and provide personalised care. When this communication loop is genuinely collaborative, people are more likely to stick to recommended health regimes.

Digital tools often aren’t optimised for communication loops, rather, they’re understandably concerned with triage and gate-keeping. Involving patients in their care is largely focused around questionnaires and signposting. However, people often need more than that - they need care and support to understand their health and their choices. This is a conversation challenge, not just a data capture or a content delivery challenge.

A GP might inform patients that they are ‘pre-diabetic,’ but often lacks the time and resources to explore the issue in depth. Without this support, the message risks coming across as a scare tactic. What’s needed is a digitally-supported approach that empowers the patient to understand the impact of lifestyle changes and take meaningful steps towards better health.

For example:

When we collaborated with NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) on the co-design of a new health and wellness centre, we involved local residents, GPs, community groups, NHS staff, and local authority representatives. A concept that came out of this process was the creation of a patient education space, where people could access health information without appointments, supporting them in building confidence to manage their health using digital apps and tools.

Patient education needs to go beyond sharing reading lists or recommending videos, a public notice board and a few leaflets isn’t enough. We need to consider interactive teaching, group discussions, and real engagement. Even independent learning benefits from dialogue and feedback, helping people develop a deeper understanding and greater confidence. 

Shifting from one-way education to two-way collaboration encourages individuals to take ownership of their health. This active engagement enables earlier detection of potential issues, reducing the reliance on intensive and costly treatments in the future.

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2. Front-stage bias – deprioritising the healthcare professional experience

There’s a strong focus on developing digital platforms for the public. These tools aim to improve access to information, booking services, and self-management. However, healthcare professionals also need well-designed digital systems to support their work. Without intuitive and efficient tools, clinicians struggle to manage patient information, collaborate with colleagues, and deliver timely, proactive care.

When back-end systems are clunky, slow, or poorly integrated, the burden falls on staff, leading to inefficiencies, frustration, and potential errors. A seamless patient experience starts with well-functioning clinician-facing tools—ensuring that information flows smoothly, administrative tasks are streamlined, and care teams can focus on patients rather than fighting with outdated systems.

Investing in user-friendly digital tools for professionals is just as important as designing engaging public-facing apps. If staff struggle to navigate complex interfaces or spend too much time on manual processes, the entire system becomes less effective. True digital transformation in healthcare isn’t just about improving the patient experience—it’s about supporting the workforce with technology that enhances, rather than hinders, their ability to provide high-quality care. Well-designed clinician tools ultimately lead to better patient outcomes and a more sustainable health system.

For example

Recently, we collaborated with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to lead the redesign of LUCI, a population health management tool for mental health teams. By taking a user centred approach to the design work, we streamlined workflows, improved data collection and the tool’s efficiency, effectiveness and overall usability. This approach frees up clinicians' time, allowing them to focus on preventative interventions, such as counselling at-risk patients before complications arise.

Providing staff with well-designed digital tools allows them to respond more quickly to risk factors and early symptoms. Currently, they face the challenge of piecing together data from multiple sources or sifting through irrelevant information. 

Clinicians need tools that get out of the way so they can be present and focus on the patient. Designing the right tools in the right way helps patients stay healthier for longer by addressing issues early, before they become more serious.

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3. Atomistic bias – focusing on patients in isolation, rather than their community

Health is rarely a solo journey. Families, friends, and community groups often provide crucial support, helping individuals stay motivated and engaged in their health. Digital tools have the potential to strengthen these networks, making it easier to share progress, receive encouragement, and coordinate care. By shifting from an isolated approach to a more collaborative model, we can create systems that actively involve the people who matter most in a person’s health journey.

Research consistently shows that social support plays a key role in maintaining healthy habits. A study published in Public Health Nutrition found that stronger social connections in lifestyle interventions led to healthier dietary choices. Similarly, research in Nicotine & Tobacco Research highlighted the effectiveness of peer support in smoking cessation, demonstrating that people are more likely to quit successfully when they have encouragement from those around them.

These findings reinforce the idea that health isn’t just about personal willpower—it thrives in a connected, supportive environment. Digital tools that enable collaboration between patients, families, and care teams can make healthcare more effective, ensuring that people receive not just medical guidance but also the social support they need to sustain long-term well-being.

A community-driven approach helps people stay accountable and engaged, significantly increasing the likelihood of catching health risks early and intervening in time. By leveraging existing community strengths and involving local volunteers, we can create environments that promote a wide range of proactive well-being initiatives e.g. well-woman health check days or carb counting courses. 

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4. Conversion bias: measuring clicks not comprehension

Ultimately we want to know how any digital tools have impacted outcomes, but this is hard to measure. Because digital analytics are easier, this can lead to optimising speed and flow. Many digital health tools measure success through metrics like clicks, sign-ups, or app usage, but these don’t always reflect meaningful engagement or long-term behaviour change.

Prevention isn’t just about providing quick access to information—it’s about ensuring people truly understand the impact of their daily choices. If digital tools only focus on making things faster and simpler, they risk becoming passive rather than empowering.

Effective health interventions require more than just surface-level engagement. Simply presenting facts about diet, exercise, or smoking isn’t enough to drive lasting change. People need to see how their behaviours connect to long-term health outcomes in a way that resonates with them personally. Interactive tools, personalised insights, and real-world examples can help bridge this gap, encouraging reflection and reinforcing the benefits of positive actions. Without this, digital health solutions may fail to achieve their intended impact, even if they appear successful on the surface.

To truly support prevention and long-term health, digital tools must prioritise understanding over convenience. This means designing experiences that prompt critical thinking, encourage self-assessment, and provide feedback that helps individuals make informed decisions. By shifting the focus from short-term engagement metrics to meaningful behavioural change, digital health solutions can become powerful tools for improving public health rather than just driving clicks.

For example

Our research into video use in NHS elective care shows that different video types do more than inform—they build confidence, autonomy, and preparedness. Preparing videos cover practicalities, instructing videos offer step-by-step guidance, and patient stories provide reassurance. 

Rather than just delivering information, these formats drive behavioural change by prompting reflection and reinforcing key messages. Well-designed digital content deepens understanding, helping patients retain information, feel confident, and follow through on care recommendations.

By prompting individuals to think critically about their health and providing engaging, well-structured tools, technology can foster lasting behaviour change. This reduces the onset of preventable conditions like diabetes or heart disease and helps patients feel confident and prepared in managing their health.

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5. Digital overreach – technologising humans, rather than humanising technology

Digital can make healthcare more efficient, but it needs to be used carefully to avoid creating impersonal systems that frustrate or alienate users. Some tasks, like appointment reminders or routine check-ins, are well-suited to automation because they don’t require a personal touch. Streamlining these processes can save time without compromising the patient experience. However, automating interactions that need empathy, critical thinking, or human judgment can create gaps in care and weaken trust.

It’s often tempting to automate work that feels repetitive or time-consuming, but this can lead to important human elements being lost. For example, sensitive conversations about diagnosis, complex patient queries, and personalised advice require human understanding. These moments are essential for building trust, offering reassurance, and ensuring patients feel heard and supported. Removing the human element in such situations can lead to confusion, distress, or disengagement from care.

Finding the right balance means using digital where it improves efficiency while keeping human interaction where it matters most. A well-designed system ensures that routine tasks are handled seamlessly, freeing up healthcare professionals to focus on meaningful, high-value interactions that improve patient care and experience.

For example

In our work with NHS 111, we examined how to improve triage to reduce visits to A&E. The system relied heavily on algorithm-driven decision trees, which often directed patients to A&E as a precaution. Adding clinician-led assessments for certain calls significantly improved outcomes. In a subsequent pilot, introducing human judgment where needed reduced unnecessary A&E visits by 70%. This balance of automation and human expertise made the service more efficient while ensuring patients received appropriate, personalised care.

By integrating digital tools with human-centred approaches, we create systems that are both efficient and empathetic. This careful balance ensures individuals feel supported and engaged, leading to better adherence to preventative care measures and improved health outcomes.

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Getting it right together

The best digital innovations emerge when patients, healthcare workers, and communities co-design solutions that address real needs on the ground. This human-centred approach ensures that tools are useful, widely adopted, and—crucially—contribute to better health outcomes.

Equally important is acknowledging the wider factors that affect health: income, housing, education, and social support. Technology can help us spot these social determinants sooner, ensuring we act before they escalate into health crises.

When we combine digital tools with compassionate, community-focused care, we build a stronger, more proactive healthcare system—one capable of detecting illnesses earlier, encouraging positive lifestyle changes, and giving people the support they need to thrive. 

Well-designed technology can accelerate a prevention-first approach, helping the NHS not just treat conditions but actively keep the population healthier for longer.

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Problems Worth Solving

We discuss biases and challenges like these in our podcast, Problems Worth Solving. In each episode we talk to people driving change through the lenses of human centred design, service design, and digital. Sign up below to be emailed when we publish new episodes.