A new secure video service to help streamline epilepsy diagnosis and management has been announced by vCreate – and is already being piloted in Scotland and at select hospitals in England.
According to the company, the video sharing service – called vCreate Neuro – has been independently assessed by Information Governance teams in UK NHS Trusts. It allows registered patients and carers to share smartphone-recorded videos of potential seizures with clinicians through a secure system.
Recorded data and footage provide ‘a visual aid’ to help assist clinical teams with ‘quick precision diagnostics’, aiming to speed up diagnosis and create a digitised clinical pathway that minimises the need for face-to-face appointments and wait times.
As well as being piloted across Scotland, the system is now also being trialled in England including at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Evelina London and Sheffield Children’s Hospital. It is available to, and aimed at, families who are concerned that they, their child or loved one may be experiencing seizures or epilepsy.
Professor Sameer Zuberi, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow, said: “vCreate Neuro has transformed how we use carer-recorded video in our service. We are diagnosing epilepsy more rapidly, preventing misdiagnosis and saving unnecessary investigations. Families feel in more control and better connected to the service.”
Dr Jay Shetty, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, added: “We are now able to diagnose with more speed and accuracy, reducing hospital visits and tests and improving our communication with patients. This platform allows clinicians to collaborate, teach and conduct research to improve patient care.”
According to vCreate, more than 2,000 families have shared over 5,000 videos on the platform since May 2020. The service runs on the Microsoft Azure Cloud and, as well as video and data sharing, it offers a clinical database which can act as a ‘learning resource’ for clinicians studying seizure types and symptoms.
