Industry news in brief

The latest Digital Health industry round-up brings you news of a robotic acquisition for HCA Healthcare, the expansion of a medical imaging sharing system and more robot news with Versius.

InterSystems launches TrakCare 2020

InterSystems has announced the latest version of its TrakCare Electronic Medical Record System, T2020, enabling rapid response and flexible capabilities for clinical users.

T2020 includes an integrated Covid functionality; an intuitive and responsive mobile interfaces that scales across different devices and saves clinicians time by speeding up processes; Encounter Record, which creates a single unified workspace by centralising all patient records and documents; and Remote Workbench, a streamlined workview designed for remote care centres and remote patient retrieval.

In addition, T2020 also gives nurse clinicians intuitive and structured frameworks for determining a patient’s diagnosis, preparing an action plan and monitoring for outcomes to improve care delivery.

To address the challenge of patients being unable to attend in person, the system also now integrates with Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and other platforms to enable telehealth capabilities.

Don Woodlock, head of healthcare solutions for InterSystems, said: “This latest version of TrakCare empowers healthcare organisations to be more agile with rapid response and flexible care capabilities that address evolving healthcare needs in every corner of the globe.”

Based on the InterSystems IRIS for Health data platform, T2020 is interoperable with HL7 SMART on FHIR to give optimal security and reliability.

HCA Healthcare UK invests £7m in da Vinci Xi robots

HCA Healthcare UK is investing in four state-of-the-art da Vinci Xi robots, which will see it bring minimally invasive robotic capabilities to The Lister Hospital for the first time.

The da Vinci robots give surgeons far greater flexibility and precision when carrying out procedures, and opens up the opportunity for minimally invasive surgery to more patients. The benefits of this type of surgery include quicker recovery times, less post-op pain and lower rates of surgical complications.

For surgeons, they gain real-time visualisation and assessment of vessels, with built-in firefly fluorescence imaging.

John Reay, president and CEO of HCA Healthcare UK, said: “Our £7million investment in robotic surgery is part of a long-held commitment to ensuring that across our healthcare system we have the infrastructure, technology, and capability to offer the consultants that practice with us, and the patients we care for, access to the latest in innovation and the breadth and depth of treatment options to support their individual needs.”

The news brings HCA Healthcare’s fleet of robots to seven, with five hospitals using them: The Lister Hospital, The Wellington Hospital, London Bridge Hospital, The Princess Grace Hospital and The Christie Private Care.

As well as opening up more options for patients at The Lister Hospital, with capacity for up to 250 procedures annually, the newly acquired robots will see the site join The Princess Grace Hospital as a training hub for consultants to develop their robotic surgery skills.

DMC Healthcare collaborates with Insource for data automation

DMC Healthcare has commissioned Insource for Reporting-as-a-Service (RaaS).

DMC Healthcare is an independent provider of primary care, dermatology, endoscopy and radiology reporting. RaaS will allow its patient-level activity data to be gathered across multiple source systems to provide fully validated, automated KPI activity reports.

The move will ensure that there is complete transparency for NHS commissioners, as well as help DMC to detect unforeseen issues and correct them promptly.

Pritika Gupta, corporate strategy director at DMC, said: “Our primary aim is to ensure complete openness and transparency with our NHS commissioners. We needed a detailed understanding of our activity levels to ensure care is being effectively delivered across all our services. We wanted to ensure we were meeting our targeted new referrals, minor ops, follow ups and triage rates.

“With Insource we now have accurate, validated submissions that pinpoint exactly what care we’re delivering, where and when. We will now be able to use this consolidated, uniform picture for effective capacity planning and business management.”

Insource, an elective care solutions and data management provider to the NHS, will provide monthly activity reports against contract KPIs for each of its NHS commissioners as well as national Referral-to-Treatment waiting list dataset reporting.

Jackie Sawyer, independent sector director, Insource, added: “Our data platform automates complex data acquisition, consolidation and validation processes from their disparate source systems – including EMIS and SystmOne – and produces the accurate reporting outputs tailored to their needs.

“And whilst their primary driver was to improve the accuracy and timeliness of their reporting, they also see a broader vision of what’s possible. With unified data DMC can not only see activity against contracts but will also be able use this data for their own insight and view activity to steer the growth of the company.”

Versius has indication extended into thoracic surgery

The Versius Surgical Robotic System is now in clinical use in thoracics, providing surgeons with support for minimally invasive surgery for complex operations in the lungs, thymus and oesophagus.

Small incisions are made near the patients’ ribs so that thoracic surgeons can work precisely and accurately in the chest cavity using Versius. Its small-wristed instruments and 3D HD vision benefit surgeons and according to the company are thought to minimise post-operative pain.

Klinikum Chemnitz – a leading hospital in Saxony – was the first site to commence a clinical programme with Versius in thoracics in early 2021.

CMR Surgical’s Versius has been introduced to thoracic surgery in line with the company’s collaboration with the IDEAL framework, which provides an international benchmark for each stage of the surgical innovation process – including clinical trials and post-market surveillance.

Mark Slack, chief medical officer at CMR Surgical, said: “This is a hugely important milestone for Versius as we continue on our mission to make the benefits of minimal access surgery available for more patients around the world. Patients undergoing major surgeries for cases including lung cancer need to have the highest standard of care and we believe minimally invasive surgery, enabled by robotic technology, is the answer.

Laiye partners with Microsoft to accelerate data sovereignty

Global AI leader Laiye and Microsoft have formed a strategic partnership which aims to help UK and EU customers to have advanced intelligent automation capabilities which comply with data regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The move will help Laiye customers to streamline their ongoing transition towards hyper intelligent automation while meeting regulatory compliance in the region.

Ronen Lamdan, CEO international of Laiye, said: “Intelligent automation needs intelligent hosting. Customers want access to Laiye’s world leading technology and they also want control over how and where their valuable internal data is processed. Our Microsoft Azure partnership brings together the momentum players in the cloud hosting and intelligent automation markets together in one easy-to-buy package. Laiye is sending a clear message of intent to legacy players to up their game, or move aside.”

Doreen Yun, general manager, partner and alliances at Microsoft, added: “Data privacy is a hot-button issue, and strict compliance laws make lawful processing of this data essential. We are delighted that Laiye has recognised the ability of the Azure platform to provide UK customers with safe, seamless access to its services.”

Sectra Image Exchange Portal expands to 500 institutions

The UK-wide medical imaging sharing system, Sectra Image Exchange Portal (IEP), has expanded beyond hospitals, enabling the secure sharing of medical imaging among the NHS and other healthcare providers.

The expansion will help ease the flow of vital patient information beyond hospital settings – something which is particularly important post-pandemic when many patients may be seen in alternative settings.

Originally launched over a decade ago within the NHS, IEP is now used to share around 47 million images every week in the UK. The cloud-based system counts its NHS users as around 50 per cent of the institutions now using the system. Non-NHS organisations joining the network include teleradiology providers, private hospitals as well as those that focus on areas such as 3D reconstruction and AI-supported diagnostics.

Susan De Four, radiology systems administrator at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which was one of the first hospitals to start using IEP in 2009, said: “IEP has gone from being a local image sharing tool to becoming the predominant way we share images institution to institution, even changing how we share images with patients.

“It has replaced the need to share using optical media which has unavoidable security risks, with a secure system where an image can be captured at one hospital and become available within minutes to specialists and multi-disciplinary teams in another organisation. This is especially important for critically ill patients so that we can get them on the right pathway without delay.

PocDoc launches smartphone-based test for cardiovascular disease

PocDoc will launch the world’s first personal diagnostic technology for cardiovascular disease in a move that could save the NHS millions of pounds every year.

The technology, set to launch in the spring, allows any user with a smart device to take an accurate blood test from wherever they are, helping to support early detection of the disease.

The PocDoc platform uses digital technology and a proprietary lateral flow system to enable precise colour measurement in order to accurately determine blood-based biomarkers.

Professor Graham Finlayson, head of the Colour Lab at University of East Anglia and advisor to PocDoc says: “Together, we are developing cutting edge algorithms that will transform a smart phone into an accurate colour measurement device to address major global health issues. PocDoc has huge potential to deliver significant real-world benefits and I am very excited about our collaboration.”

The company estimates that the NHS would make significant savings in staff, administrative and pathology costs. Health outcomes for cardiovascular disease would also be improved, thanks to earlier detection.

Results take six minutes and are delivered via the PocDoc app. The test covers the full five marker lipid panel, considered the gold standard for cardiovascular assessment.

Once the PocDoc app is downloaded, users are required to fill out a health questionnaire. Then then carry out the test by pricking their finger and dropping the sample into a lateral flow test. Once the test has developed for six minutes, the test can be photographed and uploaded to the app. With results returned immediately and delivered alongside a personalised health assessment.

PocDoc CEO  and co-founder, Steve Roest, said: “Personal diagnostics can free up desperately needed clinical time for the NHS while also helping people to detect potential health issues earlier for a fraction of the price of lab testing, helping to avoid long and costly treatment down the line and improve health outcomes across the board.”

The tests will initially be available to healthcare distributors and businesses such as private healthcare providers, pharmacies, care workers and NHS providers. A wider public roll out is planned for later in the year.