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Found 126 results
  1. News Article
    Health workers will be sent door-to-door under drastic new NHS plans to tackle sickness rates across England, according to reports. A community health worker will be allocated 120 homes to visit every month to see if help is needed under plans set to be rolled out in June, The Daily Telegraph reports. Health secretary Wes Streeting said trials of the scheme showed “encouraging signs” in slashing the number of heavy NHS users which he called “frequent flyers” of A&E departments. A pilot scheme in Westminster, London, showed a dramatic 10% drop in hospital admissions over a year, The Daily Telegraph reports. “We’re seeing some really encouraging signs about what can happen if you’ve got the right care in the right place at the right time,” Mr Streeting said. The scheme, set to be rolled out in 25 parts of England, is part of Mr Streeting’s 10-year plan for the NHS, which could also see younger people directed to pharmacy care using the NHS app, leaving GPs to devote their time to sicker and older patients. The health secretary said a modernised version of the health service’s phone app could mean the NHS could “do a much better and faster job of making sure patients get the right care at the right time in the right place”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 April 2025
  2. Content Article
    We hear time and time again on the hub about the lack of joined up care and communication within and across organisations. Patients and their families and carers not knowing who to contact to chase up a referral, having to travel miles for appointments, missing appointments because the letter didn’t arrive on time, or having to repeat the patient’s history and medications to every new healthcare professional they see because the notes haven’t been shared or clinicians "don’t have time to read them all". These issues are widespread and urgently need to be addressed if we are to prevent people falling through the gaps and suffering worse health outcomes. In this blog, Sue* shares her and her husband's experiences of trying to coordinate the healthcare system and highlights the challenges and frustrations they continuously face. Difficulties getting a diagnosis My husband Neil* has a very rare chronic condition that means unfortunately he is not managed in the area we live at as it’s a regional centre some miles away. We live in North Yorkshire, one of the largest geographical areas in the country, and we feed into various health economies. It took over 4 years and three different healthcare organisations before Neil got his diagnosis. Every time we see someone new we have to go through all of Neil’s medical history again, and then they often say that it’s not their area of expertise because they only deal directly with one area or speciality; they don't think of the patient as a whole. Whilst waiting to get the diagnosis, Neil had a heart attack so he was initially treated more locally to us but it was still over 40 miles away from where we live. When we called an ambulance for a second time he was taken to a different hospital from the first one he was treated in. So he was taken to two different geographical areas not even under the same trust. To add to this, Neil is also under lots of different specialities, i.e. rheumatology, general surgery, dermatology, respiratory and lipids. So he is being treated and has appointments in numerous places. Coordinating appointments and results With all these different specialties, even if they are within the same regional centre, none of the information is joined up or accessible, including blood results from the GP. We find that things are incorrect all the time and we spend a lot of time trying to coordinate Neil’s care and following up on test results, appointments, etc. Neil receives appointments in various ways—emails, phone calls, texts, letters, messages left on his answer phone. You might get a phone call followed by a letter, or you could get a message to say ignore the letter. You may miss a call but you don’t know which department to ring back because it usually comes up as an unknown number. Recently, Neil received a text message which said he was on a waiting list, but it didn’t say what it was for or what specialist department it was from. It said in the text that if you no longer wanted the appointment and wanted to cancel it, to follow a link, but we had no idea what the appointment was referring to or where it came from! As a patient you want to have some control over your health and be able to see all blood test results, scan results and letters from the hospitals. For example, it would be so much easier to look at Neil’s medications and patient letters if they were all in one place but you can't look at the medical records to see what's been said. The only way we can get it is waiting for the letter to be seen by the GP and then, eventually, added on to their system, but it's not always quick because again it's a different geographical area and systems that are disconnected. As a patient with a new disorder, you’re not familiar with the system. Neil was referred to other specialities from rheumatology. Unfortunately, the treatment plan. including tests or length of wait for appointments, isn’t shared directly with us. We rely on my note taking to ensure everything is completed and followed up. Often we end up going to an appointment without the tests Neil needs to have done due to the length of wait for the test, or the test being triaged and cancelled but this not communicated either to us or the referring doctor. The waiting for test results at the moment are long for some of these tests but if it was in your capacity to be able to seek or understand when you might possibly get them, you wouldn't then end up wasting an appointment. You would wait until you've had the results back or know when it might be. It could take us over two hours travelling time for a wasted appointment. We don’t want to waste our time and the time of others. Lack of communication Neil has radiotherapy coming up shortly and we've had no communications regarding it. I ended up making a phone call to inquire and was given a date. But we’ve still not received a phone call, no email, no letter or anything about it, even though they've got the date and time in their books. You can’t make plans, for example if you are trying to go away for the summer. If you’re waiting for a treatment, which on the NHS may take a while, you want to know when to expect the appointment. It’s a lot easier to manage your condition or diagnosis if you have the knowledge of when something's going to happen and you can manage your own expectations. Navigating the various healthcare apps To try and help with all of this we’ve been really keen to try and find a way to get all of Neil’s medical information, from many different organisations, together in one place and to rationalise appointments. We signed up to the NHS app which then put us on to System Online and then Neil was directed to AirMid UK. We've also found the Patients Know Best app which has been set up and says that you can access all your records but it seems to be only if an organisation has signed up to it. So we’ve got four apps to supposedly access the information but not one of them has all of Neil's information. We are actively looking for an online place which has all the information but none of it ties up. None of the apps give you the same information. We’ve asked our GP but he couldn’t help and hadn’t heard of some of the apps we’d found. A system that isn't working These are just a few examples of what we’re dealing with. I’m lucky as I have some medical knowledge so I know when we're missing something or waiting for something and I will chase up, but not everyone will have this knowledge. If it’s an older patient, or someone who hasn’t got family to support them, then they are on their own to navigate a very complex system. A system that isn't working. *The names in this blog have been changed to ensure anonymity. Are you a patient, relative or carer frustrated with navigating the healthcare system? Or is your GP practice or Trust doing something innovative to make it easier for patients? We would love to hear your stories. Please add to our community forum (you will need to register with the hub, it's free and easy to sign up) or email us at [email protected]. Related reading The challenges of navigating the healthcare system: David's story The challenges of navigating the healthcare system: Margaret's story Navigating the healthcare system as a university student: My personal experience Lost in the system? NHS referrals "I love the NHS, BUT..." Preventing needless harms caused by poor communication in the NHS (DEMOS, November 2023) Robust collaborative practice must become the bedrock of modern healthcare Robbie: A homeless patient’s struggles with the system Digital-only prescription requests: An elderly woman sent round the houses Lost in the system: the need for better admin Digital-only prescription requests: An elderly woman sent round the houses
  3. Content Article
    Wrist-based wearables in the US have been FDA approved for atrial fibrillation (AF) detection. However, the health behaviour impact of false AF alerts from wearables on older patients at high risk for AF are not known. In this work, the authors analysed data from the Pulsewatch (NCT03761394) study, which randomised patients with history of stroke or transient ischemic attack to wear a patch monitor and a smartwatch linked to a smartphone running the Pulsewatch application vs to only the cardiac patch monitor over 14 days. At baseline and 14 days, participants completed validated instruments to assess for anxiety, patient activation, perceived mental and physical health, chronic symptom management self-efficacy, and medicine adherence. The authors used linear regression to examine associations between false AF alerts with change in patient-reported outcomes. Receipt of false AF alerts was related to a dose-dependent decline in self-perceived physical health and levels of disease self-management. The authors developed a novel convolutional denoising autoencoder (CDA) to remove motion and noise artifacts in photoplethysmography (PPG) segments to optimize AF detection, which substantially reduced the number of false alerts. A promising approach to avoid negative impact of false alerts is to employ artificial intelligence driven algorithms to improve accuracy.
  4. News Article
    Plans for an upgraded NHS App to allow more patients in England to book treatments and appointments will be part of a package of measures unveiled by the government on Monday. The changes will allow patients who need non-emergency elective treatment to choose from a range of providers, including those in the private sector. But the British Medical Association (BMA) said there was a risk the policy would "discriminate or alienate" patients who did not have access to digital technology. Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC on Sunday: "The NHS needs investment, but it also needs reform, otherwise we will not break this cycle of annual winter crises." The plan will set out how the government intends to meet one of its key election pledges - for more than 9 in 10 patients to have their treatment or be signed off within 18 weeks of a referral by the end of this parliament. Announcing the plan, he said the move would shift the NHS "into the digital age" and help cut waiting times "from 18 months to 18 weeks". The app would "put patients in the driving seat and treat them on time", and they would be "put in control of their own healthcare", the health secretary said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 January 2025
  5. Content Article
    Parkinson’s UK created the Tech Guide so that people with Parkinson’s, and their families, friends and carers, can make the right decisions for themselves about all the devices and apps that claim to be able to help improve their quality of life. To do this, they provide trusted reviews based on the lived experience of people with Parkinson’s, and maintain a catalogue of the various products that are on the market. This is backed up with information about Parkinson’s and evidence-based articles that will help you decide what’s right for you, in your unique circumstances.
  6. News Article
    The NHS should no longer do business with leading tech supplier Epic unless future iterations of its technology work with the NHS App, a senior government adviser has warned. Professor Paul Corrigan was appointed by the Department of Health and Social Care in the summer to help shape its 10-year health plan. Speaking at an event organised by HSJ and IBM on Tuesday, he praised Epic’s ’My Chart’ App which is supplied alongside its electronic patient record system and provides patients with a wide range of useful information. However, he expressed concern that it did not integrate with the NHS App, and said: ”The NHS, in my view, should not buy the next generation of Epic if it doesn’t talk to the NHS App”. Professor Corrigan gave a detailed analysis of how the NHS needed to work better with technology businesses. As part of this he said: “The ability to have interoperability [between IT] is greater and greater almost every year, but we are still constructing bits of pathways which are not interoperable. The main thing I would say is that we need to ensure that whatever kit is being bought talks to other kit and that you’re not allowed… to construct bits of pathways that don’t talk to others.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 6 December 2024
  7. Content Article
    Through online health portals, patients receive complex medical reports without interpretation from their healthcare provider. This study evaluated the usability of MedEd, a patient engagement tool providing definitions of medical terminology in breast pathology and radiology reports. People who underwent a normal screening mammogram were invited to complete semi-structured interviews where they downloaded MedEd and discussed their download experience. The authors then evaluated the acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility of MedEd. Participants reported ease of downloading and navigating MedEd while raising concerns about privacy and others’ abilities to download.
  8. Content Article
    The benefits of giving patients a central role in developing healthcare solutions have been widely demonstrated, but meaningful engagement is still far too rare, particularly in digital healthcare. In this blog for World Patient Safety Day 2023, Clive Flashman, Chief Digital Officer at Patient Safety Learning, looks at the benefits and barriers to engaging patients in developing digital healthcare solutions. He looks at why healthcare innovators struggle to include patients at an early stage of development and suggests some ways that NHS England could help facilitate coproduction through its existing patient engagement and innovation structures. If you saw a news item announcing that you could now book online to have a face-to-face meeting with a person from your bank, or to visit a kitchen showroom, you’d find it bizarre. You’d be asking, “Why is this newsworthy?” Yet week after week I see headlines trumpeting how wonderful it is that patients can now make an online booking for an outpatient appointment, or something similar. These new technologies have misleading names such as ‘patient engagement platform’[1] when actually they are simply an online appointments application. Why do organisations use terminology that is so misleading? It’s a problem because many patients really do want to be engaged in their care, yet find the whole system opaque and generally impenetrable. Headlines like this make the promise that patients can have more involvement in their own care, then fail to deliver on that promise. The NHS has even got a way of scoring how involved patients are in their own care, called the Patient Activation Measure (PAM)[2]. It is the top rung of a ladder of patient involvement that starts with patient engagement, then moves up to patient empowerment. Sadly, the PAM seems to be almost invisible when one looks at NHS plans and progress reports—perhaps this is illustrative of the fact that so few parts of the NHS really manage to involve their patients adequately. Many papers have been written on the benefits of involving patients in the own care, generally pointing to the better health outcomes, better care experiences and reduced use of healthcare resources of engaged patients (Hibbard and Greene, 2013)[3]. Patient engagement in digital health attracts no fewer benefits and potentially has even more. ‘Co-design’ and ‘co-production’ are terms used very heavily these days to explain how the end users of a solution ought to be involved in its early design, development, prototyping and pre-launch testing. Despite NICE mandating this through its Evidence Standards Framework[4], it still happens far less than it should. Why is this? Digital health innovators are in a catch-22 situation. They want to pilot their solution to gain access to patients and show evidence of impact, but often they are not given that opportunity unless patients have already been involved in the genesis of the solution. That is not always possible as these innovators (many of whom are originally from outside of the health and care domain) have no knowledge about how to find and engage with patients or end users. In my opinion, one of the key things that NHS England ought to be doing via Health Innovation Networks (HINs, formerly called AHSNs [5]), is helping digital health innovators access appropriate patients who can help them to design and develop their solutions. By working in a collaborative way, these patients are not only going to be potentially supporting their own wellness journey, but that of thousands of other people too. The patients involved should represent multiple sectors of the population and embody the principles of the Core20PLUS5[6] programme in terms of reducing healthcare inequalities and improving access to digital therapeutics. NHS organisations have recently been encouraged to recruit Patient Safety Partners (PSPs)[7]. This is a new and evolving role developed by NHS England to help improve patient safety across the NHS as part of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). The NHS Patient Safety Strategy includes the ambition for all safety-related clinical governance committees (or equivalents) in NHS organisations to include two PSPs by June 2022, and for them to have received the required training by June 2023. Anecdotally, this seems to be running around a year behind schedule. From a review of the job description, the PSP appears to be a policy and governance oversight role. PSPs might have been a much more valuable addition to the NHS if they had been asked to become involved in the creation of safer tools and therapeutic services that patients would eventually use. An opportunity missed, but NHS trusts could change this themselves in the future if they wished to. From my recent interactions with the NHS as a patient and carer, I can honestly say that patients and their needs are not at the centre of the services provided. It is really centred around staff–their availability, skills and capabilities, and their ability to effectively communicate with each other and their patients. We are a long way from value-based care,[8] in which health and care providers are incentivised to give their patients the best outcomes possible. Until the financial levers of the NHS are aligned with the interests of patients, and the huge benefits of digital solutions are factored into that, patient care in the NHS will sadly remain sub-optimal. References 1 Gateshead Health NHS launches innovative digital patient engagement service. Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust website, 29 August 2023 2 Patient-centred intelligence: A guide to patient activation. The Strategy Unit, 18 November 2019 3 Hibbard J, Greene J. What the evidence shows about patient activation: better health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health Aff (Millwood). 2013;32(2):207-214 4 Evidence standards framework (ESF) for digital health technologies. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 9 August 2022 5 NHS and Government back AHSNs to continue to lead innovation, under new name. The AHSN Network, 26 May 2023 6 Core20PLUS5 (adults) – an approach to reducing healthcare inequalities. NHS England, 10 November 2022 7 Appendix 5: Patient safety partner role description. NHS England, 24 June 2021 8 Hurst L, Mahtani K, Pluddemann A et al. Defining value-based healthcare in the NHS: CEBM report. Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, 2019
  9. Content Article
    This guide published by NHS England & Improvement describes the validation rules relating to the LFPSE project, specifically around submitting an Adverse Event via the Adverse Event Application Programming Interface (API). It covers several types of validation rules, which have been split into three sections. Bespoke business validation rules which have been implemented based on the dependencies between responses and extensions that cannot be captured by the FHIR resource validation. FHIR validation responses which may be returned from the API when native FHIR validation checks the submission body against the LFPSE FHIR profiles defined for an adverse event. Invalid operations and similar responses which are external to validation of the submission, including responses pertaining to permissions, personal information and any other responses that do not fit into the two categories above.
  10. Content Article
    The Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio aims to use digital technologies to make prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines everywhere in Wales, easier, safer and more efficient for patients and professionals. It brings together the programmes and projects that will deliver a fully digital prescribing approach in all care settings in Wales. This video outlines the different elements of the portfolio that will be introduced across primary and secondary care, including the Shared Medicines Record, which will store information about a patient's medications all in one place.
  11. Content Article
    NHS hospital staff spend countless hours capturing data in electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems. Yet that data remains difficult to access and use to support patient care. This is a tremendous opportunity to improve patient safety, drive efficiencies and save time for frontline staff. In this blog, Kenny Fraser, CEO of Triscribe, explains why we need to deliver quick, low-cost improvement using modern, open source software tools and techniques. We don’t need schemes and standards or metrics and quality control. The most important thing is to build software for the needs and priorities of frontline pharmacists, doctors and nurses. A study in 2018 found that 237 million medication errors occur each year in the NHS in England alone. Three quarters of these cause harm and there are 1,700–22,303 deaths from avoidable adverse drug reactions. Two things immediately strike me about these numbers: Medication safety is a huge issue. The breadth of the estimate suggests that data about the scale and impact of medication safety errors are incomplete and unreliable. I have not seen a similar published study since. My experience working with NHS hospitals since 2018 suggests slow progress. There are four reasons: The spaghetti medusa of data. Millions of staff hours spent to capture and store medicines data in a variety of legacy siloed hospital systems such as EPMA, pharmacy stock and EPR. The NHS employs 1.5 million people and at least the same number again work in social care. Yet there are almost no tools specifically built for either NHS or social care workers. Slow progress of clumsy digital initiatives that focus on the wrong thing, made worse by the fear of digital monsters. Lack of change and innovation. Lots of noise around schemes and gateways rather than actual solutions for real people. Layer the pandemic impact over these underlying issues and the position seems hopeless. It's not. “Data isn’t oil, it’s sand.” The tech industry has invested trillions of dollars and the time of millions of the world’s smartest experts. Much of this goes into solutions that capture and use epic quantities of data. Over the past 15 years, multiple standard, open source software tools and techniques have emerged that tackle exactly this kind of problem. Behind all the hype, hysteria and scaremongering, the current AI boom is just a manifestation of all this money and intellectual capital. It is outrageous that this is not used for the benefit of hard pressed frontline hospital staff. So what does this mean in practice? How can tools, like Triscribe, actually improve medication safety? Those 237 million errors include a lot of different things. Adverse drug reactions are just a small portion and the severe reactions are pretty rare. Using the existing data collected from a multiplicity of systems, we believe that more meaningful analysis is possible by: Reporting of adverse drug risks updated at least daily. Note: using a little AI, we can predict the risk of adverse drug reactions and give clinicians the information needed to stop at least some from happening. Much better than just reporting the incidents. Monitoring adherence key safety policies and guidelines. For example, VTE prophylaxis, allergy reviews and oxygen prescribing. Tracking and reporting late and omitted doses every day across all systems, including ward comparisons to identify learning and share better ways of working. Safe use indicators for specific medications; for example, early/ late administration of Parkinson’s medicines and opioid deprescribing. Reporting key compliance measures, including IV to oral switching for antibiotics, high dose prescribing of opioids and usage of methotrexate The possibilities are limitless. There is no shortage of data in the NHS. However, the ability to share that data between systems and organisations is something the health and care sector still lacks. It’s a solvable problem. Deliver quick, low-cost improvement using modern, open source software tools and techniques. We don’t need schemes and standards or metrics and quality control. The most important thing is to build software for the needs and priorities of frontline pharmacists, doctors and nurses. Keep learning and keep improving every day.
  12. Content Article
    Technology holds promise for the future of healthcare. It can prevent illness, enable early diagnosis, empower health management and support general wellbeing. But how might people use technology to have more control over their health and wellbeing? And do they want to? This report explores the role of technology in managing, improving and supporting health and wellbeing. The NHS Confederation, in partnership with Google Health, commissioned Ipsos to explore people’s behaviours, attitudes and beliefs about responsibility and control when it comes to their health, the role that health technologies play in this and their expectations about the future of healthcare. A survey of more than 1,000 adults in the UK – a third of whom live with one or more long-term conditions (LTCs) – and interviews with individuals with LTCs and who have frequent interaction with the health system, forms the centrepiece of this report. Key points While individuals feel accountable for their health and wellbeing and want to be empowered to improve it, what became evident is that, frequently, they lack the confidence, tools and technologies to take control as much as they would like. We heard that people want more control over their health but need their actions, and the tools they can use, to be endorsed by healthcare professionals. They also want to make better use of health technology, but not at the expense of face-to-face contact with their doctor or other healthcare worker. While the vast majority of people use some form of health technology and find that useful, they are not totally satisfied by what is currently on offer. Across all age groups more than 7 out of 10 (72 per cent) would use technology to avoid a hospital admission, with a similar proportion happy to use technology to monitor their health and share information and data with their doctors. Many individuals are not confident about using technology to manage their health, leading to a fear that they may be locked out of healthcare if they cannot access or use digital tools. People think there is a larger role for health technologies in the future; many are not confident in using them now. Three areas emerged as necessary building blocks that could enable greater patient empowerment: digital access and inclusion, patient satisfaction, and user confidence. This report concludes that the health service must design services in collaboration with patients to address these issues and empower patients. The next phase will explore health leaders’ and practitioners’ experiences and views and identify practical examples that speak to resetting the social contract between the public and the NHS.
  13. Content Article
    Digital health inequality, observed as differential utilisation of digital tools between population groups, has not previously been quantified in the NHS. But recent developments in universal digital health interventions, including a national smartphone app and online primary care services, allow measurement of digital inequality across a nation. This study in BMJ Health & Care Informatics aimed to measure population factors associated with digital utilisation across 6356 primary care providers serving the population of England. The authors concluded that the study results are concerning for technologically driven widening of healthcare inequalities. They highlight the need for targeted incentives to digital in order to prevent digital disparity from becoming health outcomes disparity.
  14. Content Article
    Download the free Let’s Talk Clots patient information app from Thrombosis UK, and help reduce your risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism in hospital.
  15. Content Article
    Orchard Care Homes had noticed high numbers of antipsychotic medicines being prescribed to people living with dementia. There appeared to be little consideration of why these people were distressed and communicating this through behaviour. Orchard staff were convinced pain was a key factor in these distress responses—they were not necessarily because the person had a diagnosis of dementia. Orchard adopted PainChek, a digital pain assessment tool, in 2021 to support their dementia promise framework. They worked with the PainChek team and ran a pilot with the app. They were one of the first care providers to use this solution in the UK. It was originally launched it in one of their specialist dementia care communities, but is now in all 23 Orchard homes. Since the rollout of the app, there has been an increase in available pain relief and a decrease in conflict-related safeguarding referrals. There is increased time available for colleagues and a reduction in polypharmacy. There has been a 10% decrease in antipsychotic medicine use across all 23 homes, promoting a greater quality of life. People now have effective pain management plans. Orchard have also been able to ensure distress plans are in place which firstly considers if pain is the cause of distress. This case study was submitted to the Care Quality Commission's (CQC's) Capturing innovation to accelerate improvement project by Orchard Care Homes.
  16. News Article
    Millions of patients will be handed the power to view their own medical records and test results online after the NHS overruled opposition from the doctors’ union. From 1 November every GP surgery in England will be contractually obliged to give all patients over the age of 16 access to their health information on their phones. It means patients will no longer have to ring up their surgery or book a GP appointment to get details of blood test results, medications and repeat prescriptions, but instead they can access them by logging in to the NHS app. The British Medical Association (BMA) had threatened to go to court over the plans, arguing that granting people access to their records would add to GP workloads and could put patients at risk. However, Jacob Lant, the chief executive of the charity umbrella group National Voices, said: “Ensuring everyone has access to their own medical records through the NHS app is an important step in building a more equal partnership between patients and clinicians. “It gives people much easier access to the information they need to prepare for appointments, and having quick access to test results can help patients manage their conditions better. Using technology in this way has the potential to help millions, and free up capacity of staff to help those who are less able to make use of digital services.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 31 October 2023
  17. Content Article
    Designed by the Inpatient Diabetes Team at University Hospital Southampton (UHS), the DiAppBetes app for healthcare professionals aims to provide easy access to clinical guidance on managing patients with diabetes in hospital. It allows all healthcare professionals—including non-specialists—to quickly check up to date guidance on: the basics of diabetes. screening and diagnosis. type 1 diabetes guidance notes. patient assessment. complications of diabetes. patients with diabetes in a variety of scenarios, including pregnancy, about to have surgery, new to insulin, using an insulin pump and at the end of life. diabetes treatments. The app is freely available and content is generic apart from a few hospital-specific contact details. Hospitals using the Microguide platform for antibiotic guidance can reconfigure the format of the app—if they do this, hospitals should ensure that UHS is acknowledged as the original provider of the app.
  18. Content Article
    Halfloop are a team of senior doctors and developers building a digital platform where patients can store information securely about their medical implants and share their progress and outcomes securely with their clinical team. They would like to hear your views by asking you to complete their short survey. What is Halfloop? We are a group of surgeons, physicians, engineers and software developers building a patient-owned app to keep patients informed of the details of the medical devices implanted in their bodies. After the recent high profile recalls of medical implants such as hip replacements, gynaecological meshes and breast implants, it became apparent how difficult it is to track these patients down for reviewing progress and outcomes. We would like to improve patient care by giving you, the patient, access to this crucial data. We would also like to empower you with the ability to interact with your clinical teams privately and securely to track your progress and outcomes. Why would I want this information? Medical investigations and treatment can be delayed when the details of a medical implant, such as what materials it is made of, are not easily accessible. Examples include not knowing if your implant is safe to go into an MRI scanner or not being able to be easily contactable if an implant is recalled. The main focus of Halfloop’s app is to support you on your journey with your medical device after implantation. The platform gives you easy and secure access to your post-procedure outcomes and the ability to compare your progress anonymously to patients like you. The features we are building are designed to give your clinical teams a much more complete picture of how you are doing with your implant. How could this benefit me? We are looking at a number of additional ways this could be useful to patients, including more interaction with your clinical team over the longer term, access to rehabilitation and recovery information after the implant is fitted, and reward mechanisms for sharing data. Who else could see this information? You decide as this is your information. On Halfloop, you will be able to share progress on your recovery with your clinical team. You can choose to anonymously give feedback on your progress and outcomes to manufacturers. You can also just keep your personal information on the secure app without sharing.HalfLoop – The patient powered intelligence platform for medical device How can I help? We want to build Halfloop’s app with patients at its centre, built with the help of patients. For this, we need as much patient input as possible. We have put together a short questionnaire which should take less than 5 minutes to complete. We would be very grateful if you could help us develop Halfloop’s app to the best possible version. The survey can be found here: https://halfloop.typeform.com/survey.
  19. Content Article
    In this blog, Dr Timothy Ferris, NHS England National Director of Transformation and Rachel Power, Chief Executive at The Patients Association, look at patient access to health records. Dr Ferris writes about NHS England's ambition that patients are able to see their GP health record "at the touch of a button" and Rachel explains why it's important that patients have access to their records. Three patients also share why they find digital access to their records so useful.
  20. Content Article
    This webinar hosted by the Patients Association looked at the benefits to patients of accessing their GP health records online, and answered questions from patients about how to access this information.  The webinar answered the following questions submitted by patients: Can people who aren’t online still access their records by going into the practice and asking for them? How will NHS England support people who do not have digital access? What provision will there be for them? Can you say a little more about the security of info on the NHS App. I sit as a patient representative on a digital governance group and there was a general worry about this new feature. Can I access my medical records via the internet through a laptop or desktop computer rather than via a smartphone? Is the NHS App the only app I can use to access my records? I can access my GP record online but there are no notes! Could my GP practice have disabled that facility? Why are some practices delayed in offering access to patient records via the NHS App? How can I get access to my records before 31st October (when GPs across England will offer automatic records access)? Can information on my medical record be hidden? What would be an acceptable reason for this? Is it down to the GP’s judgement? I understand that if a GP switches off access to my medical records via the NHS App there has to be a good reason. What if I disagree with my doctor and believe I should have access to my health record? How does one overcome that? How do I get hold of my historical GP records? Online records only go back so far. I already have access to my historic medical records, will I lose this now because the NHS only gives access to prospective information? Can I access my hospital records, or tests done in hospital, as well as my GP records through the NHS App? If results are received from another hospital or clinic is there a safety net to ensure patients can’t see them before the GP has seen them. to avoid any difficult news being received before having the appropriate support to understand it? Can you correct any errors in the record yourself (eg allergies)? Or does the GP practice have to approve? Is there a limit on the type of information that patients can correct? Once the system is fully available, will GPs expect patients to use it? There is a danger that they won’t actively inform patients about results, assuming/expecting that patients will check it themselves online. Will a parent still be able to see the records of their young children? Can I see the records of someone I care for? It would be helpful to have more information about the options that exist where a patient has activated a Health & Care Lasting Power of Attorney. What access do commercial companies, pharmaceutical companies and research companies have to these data. Can it be shared systematically, securely and anonymously for research purposes so that everyone can benefit from new healthcare discoveries/improvements? Are my GP-held medical records available to other healthcare professionals? For example, NHS 111 or hospitals? Can I show it to another medical professionals? Will there be a short 'lay' explanation accompanying any complicated test results?
  21. News Article
    “What if I told you one of the strongest choices you could make was the choice to ask for help?” says a young, twentysomething woman in a red sweater, before recommending that viewers seek out counselling. This advert, promoted on Instagram and other social media platforms, is just one of many campaigns created by the California-based company BetterHelp, which offers to connect users with online therapists. The need for sophisticated digital alternatives to conventional face-to-face therapy has been well established in recent years. If we go by the latest data for NHS talking therapy services, 1.76 million people were referred for treatment in 2022-23, while 1.22 million actually started working with a therapist in person. While companies like BetterHelp are hoping to address some of the barriers that prevent people from seeking therapy, such as a dearth of trained practitioners in their area, or finding a therapist they can relate to, there is a concerning side to many of these platforms. Namely, what happens to the considerable amounts of deeply sensitive data they gather in the process? Moves are now under way in the UK to look at regulating these apps, and awareness of potential harm is growing. Last year, the UK’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), began a three-year project, funded by the charity Wellcome, to explore how best to regulate digital mental health tools in the UK, as well as working with international partners to help drive consensus in digital mental health regulations globally. Holly Coole, senior manager for digital mental health at the MHRA, explains that while data privacy is important, the main focus of the project is to achieve a consensus on the minimum standards for safety for these tools. “We are more focused on the efficacy and safety of these products because that’s our role as a regulator, to make sure that patient safety is at the forefront of any device that is classed as a medical device,” she says. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 February 2024
  22. News Article
    New digital prescriptions mean NHS App users in England can now collect medication from a pharmacy without having to visit a GP or health centre. The usual paper slip given by doctors has been replaced by an in-app barcode, which can be scanned at any pharmacy. Users can already request repeat prescriptions on the app - and every digital order fulfilled will save the GP three minutes, NHS Digital says. It comes after a trial last year, involving more than a million users. Patients can use the app to check what medicines they have been prescribed, and when. Anyone who has a nominated pharmacy can continue to collect medication without a paper prescription or barcode, as the details are sent to their pharmacy electronically. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 January 2024
  23. News Article
    Next week’s launch of the ‘Wayfinder’ waiting time information service on the NHS App will give patients “disingenuous” and “misleading” information about how long they can expect to wait for care, senior figures close to the project have warned. Briefing documents seen by HSJ show the figure displayed to patients will be a mean average of wait times taken from the Waiting List Minimum Data Set and the My Planned Care site. However, it was originally intended that the metric displayed would be the time waited by 92% of relevant patients. This is more commonly known as the “9 out of 10” measure. Mean waits are likely to be about “half the typical waiting time” measured under the 9 out of 10 metric, according to the waiting list experts consulted by HSJ. Ahead of The Wayfinder service’s launch on Tuesday, NHS trusts and integrated care boards have been sent comprehensive information on how to publicise it, including a “lines to take” briefing in case of media inquiries. This mentions the use of an “average” time but does not provider any justification for this approach. HSJ’s source said the mean average metric was “the worst one to choose” as it would be providing patients with “disingenuous” information that will leave them disappointed. They added that the 92nd percentile metric would be a “far more realistic” measure “for a greater number of people”. They concluded that “using an average” would create false expectations “because in reality nobody will be seen in the amount of time it is saying on the app.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 January 2024
  24. Event
    This conference from the Westminster forum will examine the next steps for the use of patient records and data within the NHS and clinical research. The agenda also looks at the opportunities for improved patient engagement in their care, including through the NHS app which enables easily to access their own records. Speakers and other delegates will share experience, latest thinking on best practice, and views on the way forward for addressing key issues. Areas for discussion include: patient data use in healthcare delivery - the current landscape, and priorities for the future electronic health records - including their role in supporting integrated care systems clinical research - the next steps for utilising patient data, and developing best practice digital health - patient data collection, use and quality, and innovation priorities population health - achieving the potential of data collection to improve outcomes security - including transparency on patient data use public trust - digital health literacy and patient control of their own care plans the NHS app - its role in the future of patient-centred healthcare. Register
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