NHS Wales: App helping keep heart patients out of hospital

Mobile apps to track patients' health are keeping them out of hospital and could cut waiting times, experts have said.

It follows a trial of a new app which heart patients are using through their mobile phones. The trial allows clinicians to change treatments quickly and uses video consultations, avoiding unnecessary hospital visits.

Rhodri Griffiths is the innovation adoption director at Life Sciences Hub Wales, and is looking for more ways to introduce similar technology. He believes the pandemic accelerated the use and acceptance of digital solutions in healthcare, by patients and clinicians.

"We really are looking at a big digital revolution within healthcare and there are an amazing myriad of things coming through," he said.

He explained data collected by smartphones and watches can help predict who is likely to have a heart attack.

"We can avoid that happening. So prevention is key but it's also looking at how some of this can impact on waiting lists," he said.

"So, looking at how theatres are used, which patients can be prioritised?

"In social care it's looking at how pain is managed by face recognition."

Mr Griffiths said he believed the data collected could also identify wider problems: "It's combining these digital solutions with our genetic information - bringing big data together on a population level we can start spotting trends".

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Source: BBC News, 4 August 2022