Exploring new solutions for patients with long term conditions
Using a smartphone app to facilitate better care coordination for patients with long term conditions.
In partnership with Healthy.io we are testing several new technological solutions to facilitate better care coordination as well as prevention and management of chronic disease for residents of East London. Working collaboratively with personal carers, general practice, community nursing teams and nurses, we are testing the use of smartphone cameras as portable testing devices.
People with long-term conditions are significant users of both health and social care services: for every £10 spent on health and social care, around £7 is spent on people with long-term conditions. They also account for around 50% of all GP appointments, 64% of all outpatient appointments and 70% of all inpatient bed days*.
As a healthy ageing innovation centre, our mission is to transform the health and wellbeing of our east London population who generally live shorter lives and live more of these years in ill health compared to the national average. This mission has resulted in a partnership with healthcare technology company Healthy.io, embarking on a joint program to assess different technologies with the potential to aid the ageing and caregiver communities.
This partnership began one year ago with the stated mission of detecting and preventing long term conditions by educating and supporting both paid and unpaid caregivers with new technology to improve health outcomes across the East London population. The partnership is currently examining three key services that empower patients, medical professionals and caregivers by using the smartphone camera as a portable testing device: urinalysis, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) screening, and wound management.
- Carers in 3 care agencies in East London have been extensively trained to use Healthy.io’s 10 parameter urinalysis dipstick, providing GPs with a rich dataset of results upon which they can decide to intervene in patient care.
- 4 local GP practices have partnered with Healthy.io to facilitate screening for CKD among high-risk populations using Healthy.io’s home ACR testing kit. According to a YHEC study published in 2018, using the kit among at-risk populations could prevent 11,376 cases of end-stage kidney disease and identify 276,790 cases of undiagnosed kidney disease within 5 years.
- Working with NELFT District Nurses in Hawkwell Court to explore new ways of assisting tissue viability nurses to monitor and assess wounds.
Technology which can help GP’s, carers and nurses more accurately monitor and manage the health of their patients and provide pro-active and rapid treatment and support can not only reduce cost burdens on the NHS, but improve health outcomes for the patient.
We are delighted to partner with Care City and to provide local healthcare professionals with new tools to improve care for the community in East London.
Katherine Ward, Chief Commercial Officer and European GM, Healthy.io
*Long-term conditions compendium of information third edition Department of Health
