Mobile health and apps news in brief

Our latest mobile health and apps news roundup features Push Doctor partnering with Datix to improve their patient safety software and a food app that uses AI to analyse the nutrition of a meal being launched in the UK.

Push Doctor chooses Datix to protect patient safety

UK digital health provider Push Doctor has chosen Datix as its patient safety software provider.

Push Doctor will use three modules from the company – incident, dashboard and risk register – to transform its current reporting system by improving accuracy of incident reports, standardising reports and triangulating incident and risk data to identify opportunities for improvements.

“A key differentiator was that the Datix system could be configured around our individual policies, processes and culture,” said chief executive Wais Shaifta.

“The connectivity between incident and risk data is key to us, as it will provide us with a complete overview of all of our data and allow us to more accurately pinpoint areas of improvement, something that we couldn’t do with our previous system.”

Food app uses AI to evaluate nutrition

An app that uses AI to evaluate people’s diet has been launched.

From a simple picture of a plate of food the Foodviser app provides a nutritional report as well as personalised advice from nutritionists.

Foodviser is fast and easy to user, helping people keep track of their eating habits so they can learn what food is good for them and what to avoid.

The AI algorithms are able to identify more than 1,000 foods and estimate serving sizes, as well as integrate new foods into the database for future recognition.

“Our unique technology and the advice of our dietitians have already helped one million people to eat better,” said CEO Charles Boes.

“We want to help more people eat better and live healthier, that’s why we are expanding to the UK where nutrition apps are very popular but they all require manual logging. With Foodvisor, it’s easy, fast and fun to track your diet plus you receive personalized advice from our dietitians.”

The app was launched in France in 2018.

Interactive patient assessment app to reduce risk of surgery

A team of consultants in Brighton have developed an interactive digital patient assessment app to reduce the risk of surgery.

The LifeBox app, developed over the past two years at The Montefiore Hospital in Hove allows patients to fill in pre-op assessment forms in the comfort of their own home.

It is hoped that its success will help it be adopted nationally by NHS trusts.

The answers they give will generate more patient-specific questions to fully identify their level of risk.

All patients are then called by a nurse to discuss the findings. Those with low or no risk may not need to come back into hospital for further tests before they have their medical procedure.

The app will also generate information and videos specific to the patient’s condition, so they can prepare for the procedure.

By reducing paperwork and unnecessary testing, LifeBox is expected to save around £215,000 per 5,000 patients.

Mr Sandeep Chauhan, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at The Montefiore and lead consultant for LifeBox, said: “You’ll have easier access to paperwork, medication or the help of family members to ensure questions are answered correctly.

“Patients can elaborate on their health with guided questions to enable the medical teams to better assess risk.”

dabl announce new collaborative project in wearable technology

As part of a consortium led by Tyndall National Institute, dabl, a company focused on blood pressure management, will share in £6.5m to develop health tech solutions based on human-centric intelligent sensors and their communication to support new products.

It’s part of the first wave of funding from the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund established by the Irish government to stimulate private investment in new technologies.

Bill Rickard, managing director of dabl said: “Blood pressure is a key biomarker and careful management has been proven to reduce the incidence of stroke and coronary heart disease outcomes.

“Accurate blood pressure measurement including 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring which is recognised globally as the gold standard in measuring blood pressure, is essential in clinical management and clinical trials.

“Our focus at dabl has always been on innovation and we continuously up-skill to reap the rewards of new research and technologies. In order to remain as market leaders we look forward to working with our partners in the consortium to develop new technologies for the accurate measurement and management of blood pressure and other vital signs.”