From contact centre to care coordination: what comes next for digital health?

The launch of techUK's 'From Analogue to Digital' report at the Health & Care Summit 2026 showed that the tools needed to support digital transformation already exist. The challenge is using them in ways that genuinely improve people's experiences and outcomes.

A clear theme throughout the summit has been that digital transformation is about designing services around people, making support easier to access, more connected and more proactive. As Professor Jonathan Benger, Chief Executive of NICE, highlighted in his keynote, we must combine innovation with evidence, ambition with accountability and progress with public trust.

This has significant implications for contact centres.

Traditionally, contact centres have been seen as places that respond to demand and answer enquiries. But many of the challenges facing health and public services today stem from fragmented communication, missed opportunities to engage early and difficulties navigating services.

As technology develops, the role of the contact centre is beginning to change.

Increasingly, digital tools can help services identify need earlier, reach out proactively and guide people through complex pathways. Routine interactions can be handled through digital channels, creating more time for advisers to focus on the conversations where empathy, reassurance and human judgement matter most.

Our own experience reflects this shift. In Reed in Partnership's recent report, 'From call to care' we explored how proactive digital engagement is changing the role of the contact centre within preventative healthcare. Within the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, we have reduced waiting times, improved engagement and enabled advisers to focus on more meaningful participant interactions. The result was not simply a more efficient service, but a more responsive and person-centred experience that helped people access support earlier in their prevention journey. We were pleased that our work to implement proactive AI in our Contact Centre to generate better health outcomes was featured as a case study in the techUK report.

This is not about replacing people with technology. If anything, it is about creating more space for meaningful human interaction.

The most successful organisations will be those that view contact centres not simply as operational functions, but as a key part of delivering better outcomes. Success will be measured less by call volumes and more by what those interactions achieve: earlier support, stronger engagement and better experiences for the people using services.

Looking ahead, the opportunity is clear. As we demonstrate in our report 'From call to care', contact centres can become more than a point of contact. They can become coordination hubs that help people access the right support at the right time, connecting people with services, supporting prevention and enabling more joined-up care across organisational boundaries.

The next phase of digital health will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by how effectively we use technology to connect people with support before they reach crisis point. That's where some of the biggest opportunities for innovation in health and public services now lie.