Rachael Grimaldi

Having read an article about a critically ill intensive care patient terrified when they couldn’t understand what the healthcare team were saying through their personal protective equipment (PPE), Rachael Grimaldi, an NHS anaesthetist, was inspired to create a simple communication tool: CARDMEDICTM.   Update from Rachael: Since writing this blog, we have been accepted onto The Hill Accelerator Program, run by Oxford University, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford Brookes University. We have also been selected to be a part of the Healthcare UK Digital Health Offer for Export for 2020. Healthcare UK is a joint initiative of The Department for International Trade (DIT), The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, which promotes the UK healthcare sector to overseas markets. We now have over 30,000 users in over 100 countries, alongside 11,500 app downloads.  Version 2 of the app is out now, with a 'free notes' section so the patient and healthcare staff can communicate directly. Text can either be dictated or typed into the notes box, the language auto-detected and then translated into one of 10 languages available and read aloud to the patient if necessary. We are working on enhancing accessibility through the addition of sign language videos and images / illustrations / makaton signs.  An independent academic evaluation by University of Brighton using simulated patients demonstrated 25% increased confidence in understanding a healthcare worker in PPE with CARDMEDIC than without. Overall, confidence improved by 28% to 95%. Results likely significantly higher for those unwell/communication needs.