From sickness to prevention: Using data to keep patients well, not just treat illness

The fundamental purpose of the NHS has always been to care for the nation’s health. Yet, for decades, the system has been overwhelmingly weighted towards treating illness rather than preventing it.

This reactive model, while vital for acute crises, is economically unsustainable and clinically inadequate for tackling the rising tide of long-term conditions. The “sickness to prevention” pillar of the NHS 10-Year Plan represents a crucial cultural and strategic reorientation, aiming to build a truly proactive health service that uses data to keep people healthy and out of hospital.

This shift is rooted in the powerful economic and human case for prevention. Health economics consistently shows that investing in preventative measures, especially those focused on early intervention and public health, offers a significant return on investment, far exceeding the cost of later treatment. 

Chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses account for the vast majority of healthcare spending and service utilisation. By harnessing digital tools to identify, educate and support high-risk groups before they reach crisis point, the NHS can achieve the 'triple dividend': Improved patient health, reduced costs and a more sustainable service.

SPARK TSL's mission, driven by the capabilities of SPARK Fusion®, is to provide the technological layer that transforms this strategic ambition into a practical reality. We believe the 10-Year Plan isn't a distant horizon; it's a blueprint we can start delivering right now. And, we bridge the gap between abstract public health data and the delivery of personalised, preemptive care.

The economic imperative for a preventative focus

For too long, the financial structure of the NHS has inadvertently rewarded reactive care; providers were remunerated for managing disease rather than preventing it. However, the overwhelming evidence now forces a change in perspective.

Analysis shows that investing in prevention is not only clinically sound but also financially prudent. For instance, top preventative interventions, many of which are community-based and focused on health education, have been shown to offer a high return on investment. 

The NHS Confederation highlights that better targeted spending on prevention could unlock an £11 billion annual return on investment across the UK. This stark financial reality underpins the need for Trusts and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to move away from a crisis-management mindset towards a long-term investment in wellness.

Achieving this requires technology that can:

1. Identify risks at scale (wellness analytics).
2. Act rapidly on that risk (early alerts).
3. Sustain engagement to drive long-term behaviour change (patient education).

SPARK Fusion® is engineered to support all three pillars of this digital preventative strategy.

1. Wellness analytics: Predicting risk with precision

The cornerstone of effective prevention is knowing who needs help, when and what type of help will be most effective. This moves prevention from a broad, general public health campaign to a targeted, personalised intervention.

SPARK Fusion® acts as a centralised data intelligence layer, facilitating population health analytics by securely integrating data from disparate sources — including EPRs, GP records, community datasets and patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

The Plan calls for genomics, wearables, early risk stratification, behaviour change and joined-up public health, all of which rely on this core data layer.

How Fusion enables prediction:

• Risk stratification: The platform applies algorithms to this combined dataset to perform risk stratification. It moves beyond simple demographic factors to identify patient cohorts at the highest risk of hospital readmission, developing a secondary condition or requiring unplanned emergency treatment.
• Actionable insights: Rather than presenting raw data, SPARK Fusion® provides clinicians and ICS planners with actionable insights. For example, it can highlight that 65-75 year olds in a specific postcode with co-morbidities like asthma and type 2 diabetes are statistically likely to require emergency care within the next six months. This level of precision enables effective resource allocation, meeting the goal of targeting those who need help the most.

2. Early alerts and intervention pathways

Once a high-risk individual is identified, the system must enable immediate, seamless intervention. A time lag between identification and action negates the benefit of early detection.

SPARK Fusion® automates the creation of a preemptive care pathway, which is essential for translating analytical insight into clinical practice:

• Automated alerts for clinicians: When an individual’s risk score crosses a predefined threshold, the platform automatically flags it in the relevant care team’s digital workspace. This could trigger a GP review, a community nurse home visit or a referral to a targeted wellness programme.
• Remote monitoring and intervention: For patients already managing a long-term condition at home, SPARK Fusion® enables the integration of remote monitoring devices. If a patient’s vital signs (e.g., blood pressure, blood glucose) indicate a deviation from their personalised baseline, SPARK Fusion® triggers an immediate alert to their care team, enabling clinical intervention before the deviation becomes a crisis requiring A&E attendance. This is the very definition of tertiary prevention — preventing complications in existing conditions.

3. Personalised patient education and self-management

Prevention, ultimately, relies on empowering patients to become active participants in their own health journey. Technology is the most scalable way to deliver personalised health education and encourage sustainable behavioural change.

SPARK Fusion® enables this through a secure, personalised patient portal accessible via a dedicated app or web interface, making prevention 'everyone's business':

• Targeted educational content: Instead of generic brochures, patients receive tailored health information based on their specific risk factors and existing conditions. If the platform’s analytics identifies a patient as being at high risk for diabetes, the portal will proactively deliver content on diet, exercise and local prevention schemes.
• Proactive self-management tools: The platform provides interactive tools, such as symptom checkers, medication reminders and wellness tracking logs. For example, a patient recovering from a cardiac event can access a personalised rehabilitation plan, track their exercise progress and receive motivational nudges — all digitally delivered and securely logged. This encourages self-management, which is a key component of supported self-care outlined in the prevention programme.
• Continuous feedback loop: Patient interaction, such as engagement with educational videos or completion of wellness surveys, feeds back into the SPARK Fusion® platform. This continuous data stream informs the analytics engine, refining the risk stratification and ensuring the content delivered remains relevant and effective, thereby closing the loop between data, education and outcome.

The path to healthier populations

The shift from sickness to prevention is complex because it requires a change in culture, funding and technology infrastructure. It demands that NHS leaders view upfront investment in digital preventative tools not as a cost, but as a critical saving for the future — reducing the long-term economic burden of late-stage, complex diseases.

SPARK Fusion® provides the necessary platform to execute this strategy. By embedding SPARK Fusion® early, Trusts and ICSs can begin realising Plan goals today without waiting for distant system-wide reform.

It moves prevention beyond high-level policy by offering practical, real-world capabilities, using integrated data to find the person most at risk, deploying technology to send a timely alert and delivering tailored education to sustain their wellbeing. 

By making digital health the default for preventative care, Trusts can immediately align with the national agenda, easing the pressure on A&E services and creating a healthier, more resilient future for their populations.

The technology is ready, the economic case is overwhelming, and the need is urgent. For Trusts committed to delivering on the NHS 10-Year Plan, investing in a robust, data-driven platform like SPARK Fusion® is the essential first step towards building a system focused on keeping people well, not just treating them when they’re sick.

If you’re ready to begin turning the 10-Year Plan vision into action today, download our guide for a practical roadmap for implementation, from pilot to system-wide scale.