Shortlist shows cream of UK e-health innovation

With just under two weeks to go before the presentation of the E-Health Innovation Awards 2005 the details of shortlisted entrants are now available and listed below.

Of course the category winners will not be known until the big night on 21 April when GP and broadcaster, Dr Phil Hammond, will compere the awards ceremony in London. Our guest of honour will be Dame Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation. Booking details are available here. 

Best use of e-health to deliver integrated care

Overcoming Bulimia
University of Leeds Media Innovations Ltd
The shame and secrecy attached to bulimia nervosa makes computer-based treatment particularly appealing to people – most young women – who experience this disabling disorder. Those affected binge on food and then purge themselves with laxatives or self-induced vomiting to try to control their weight. Clinical trials of the “Overcoming Bulimia” programme, which was developed as a CD-ROM, have shown diminished use of two key behaviours – laxative use and self-induced vomiting.

Haematology Teleclinic
Sherwood Forest Hospitals
The haematology teleclinic allows patients to have their blood samples taken in the community whilst still having their haematological condition supervised by a hospital specialist. The specialist can write prescriptions and keep in touch with patients and their GPs by letter. Orion Systems was selected to provide the teleclinic’s technology and its Concerto, Soprano and Rhapsody applications work together to support the clinical pathway. Benefits seen include: the integration of multiple systems, results available at the point of care, template generated reports and the production of data for clinical audit.

Implementing an electronic patient record system for allied health professionals working in the community
Ethical Technology Ltd (Ethitec), Charnwood and NW Leicestershire PCT and Leicestershire Health Informatics Service
Everyone bemoans the fact that the allied health professions are poorly served by information technology in the NHS, but our shortlisted entrants actually worked together to do something about this. Their implementation of Ethitec’s Tiara system has improved communication between professionals when they are treating the same patient and transformed the appointments system to the point where, for example, the podiatry waiting list is now virtually zero.

Best use of e-health to improve efficiency

Patientline bedside access for electronic records
Patientline and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Patientline is well-known for its bedside terminals that provide phones and entertainment, but at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital staff can also use the terminals to access patients’ records. The development, the first of its kind in the UK, means that nurses no longer have to queue to use computers at their work station to update records. Other benefits include the creation of more opportunities to involve patients in their care and a reduction in recording errors.

Electronic prescriptions management service
Pharmacy2U and EMIS
The electronic prescriptions management service allows patients to request a repeat prescription by phone or online and then wait for their medicines to be delivered at home or in their office, eliminating visits to the surgery and pharmacy. GPs have found considerable efficiencies in the repeat prescribing process and 86% of patients who used the service rated it as much more convenient than traditional methods of prescription fulfilment.

Increasing efficiency in radiology through PACS and speech recognition
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust and Philips Speech Recognition Systems
A chronic shortage of radiology secretaries sparked interest in the use of speech recognition technology to aid workflow at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Goole. Since then other radiologists led by consultant, Dr Richard Harries, have converted to the technology. A new picture archiving and communication system arrived last year and the combined effect of the two technologies – plus a great deal of human effort – has seen the average time from examination to report authorisation drop from 17.66 days to 4.56 days – an efficiency increase of 74%.

Best use of mobile technology

‘Blackberry Transplant’
University of Cambridge Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Transplant co-ordinators at Addenbrooke’s Hospital’s famous transplant centre used to carry around 200 A4 sheets of information – some of it out of date – about patients waiting for new organs. A switch to handheld Blackberry devices, linked to a central server, now enables the co-ordinators to access or update the records instantly. As renal transplant co-ordinator, Paul Jones, explained: “When we are on-call we need rapid access to up-to-date information. Though this could be done using the paper-based systems, it’s a great benefit to have wider and more up-to-date information readily accessible.”

SMS text messaging in primary care
Sheffield University Health Service
When a student survey found that the Sheffield University Health Service was having difficulty meeting demands for its telephone results line, another way of sending results had to be found. With a mobile phone savvy audience, the service was well-placed to use text messaging and now offers patients the option of having a text sent to indicate whether or not they need to make an appointment to discuss their result. Benefits include reduced telephone congestion, increased access to nurses for patients who need help or advice and increased patient satisfaction.

Early treatment of acute myocardial infarction
Formic Ltd and Essex Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Early administration of thrombolytic ‘clot-buster’ drugs is a proven method for reducing the damage to heart muscle experienced during a heart attack. If paramedics can give the drugs before hospital admission so much the better – but there are serious risks too. Formic has devised a solution, used by the Essex Ambulance Service, which pre-loads an electronic form to be completed via a touch screen on a Tablet PC. The form’s 19 point checklist and a cautionary statement for patients helps paramedics give the drugs safely and creates a record which can be handed over when the patient reaches hospital.

Most innovative e-health product

EMIS Access
EMIS
EMIS Access allows patients to view. book and cancel appointments through a secure website. Practices choose which of their surgeries appear online. When appointments are booked their clinical systems are updated immediately to prevent double booking. In addition, a pilot in South Yorkshire is offering patients the option of booking via a digital television set using the remote control. EMIS estimates that if just 10% of UK appointments were booked using the system the NHS would save £14.6 million.

Historian – automated psychiatric history taking on the internet
North East London Mental Health Trust
Automated history taking is not new but the innovative approach taken by Historian, devised by Dr Jason Taylor, is. The program enables histories to be taken in more than 15 languages, including many that are common among refugees, and offers English output to the assessing professional. The system enables patients to complete the history at home and helps professionals to appraise psychiatric referrals rapidly and prioritise services.

CQuINS
National Cancer Action Team and Mayden Health
There are now over 1000 measures for providing high quality cancer care which NHS trusts and cancer networks aspire to meet. The massive task of collating organisations’ self-assessments against the measures along with the outcomes of peer review visits has been migrated from a cumbersome paper exercise to a web-based system, the Cancer Quality Improvement Networked System (CQuins). The system was launched in September 2004 and up to 80 users a day now access the site to perform self-assessments or review submitted material.

Best use of e-health to empower patients

GePmail
GePmail Ltd
GePmail was established in 1994 to provide rapid, secure, web-based clinical feedback from out-of-hours services to GPs, helping to provide continuity of care. Then it was realised that the GePmail channel could be used for other purposes and the UK’s first truly e-enabled patients are now able to send in home-monitored blood pressure and blood glucose readings and have them uploaded as Read-coded data in their personal records on their GPs’ computer system. The facility has been well-received by patients and could be adapted for other forms of home-monitoring.

t+ for diabetes monitoring
e-San Ltd
t+Diabetes is a new way of recording healthcare data and providing real-time personalised feedback over a mobile phone to people with diabetes. The development version of the t+ product has been tested in a randomised controlled trial run by Oxford University’s department of public health and primary care. The trial showed a significant positive influence on glycaemic control for the group using the product. The outcomes were achieved as a result of high compliance in the group using t+ and the key features of the system: real-time feedback and support from nurses when abnormal readings were picked up.

Using EMIS Access to communicate with deaf-blind patients
EMIS
EMIS demonstrated several powerful ways in which its Access solution provides tools to help patients manage their care. A particularly innovative example was the use of Access features to create a communication channel between a GP, Dr Chris Dobbing, and a deaf-blind patient. By sending a Braille message to the patient, the system bypassed interpreters and allowed the patient to communicate directly with the GP for the first time. It also gave the patient time to digest information and helped to avoid difficult surgery visits.

Links

E-Health Innovation Awards