The Cognitant Group, which works on health technology for patient empowerment, has partnered with a host of women’s health charities and healthcare providers to create ‘information prescriptions’.
These will allow people to have “access to the right information, at the right time, in a format that is useful to them”, the company says.
The news comes as the UK government closes its consultation on its Women’s Health Strategy, with one of its key priorities being to improve the quality and accessibility of information and education on women’s health.
Now, through Cognitant’s Healthinote platform, healthcare professionals can access and share content that has been extracted from “legitimate and trustworthy sources”, to provide information prescriptions, or digital health content, to their patients.
Cognitant’s partners on this project include Cancer Research UK, Macmillan, Melanoma UK, the Miscarriage Association, MSI Reproductive Choices, and The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, while the MS Society and Asthma UK are just some of the organisations also expected to be added in the near future.
Dr Juhi Tandon, co-founder and Clinical Director at Cognitant, said: “The pressure on GP practices is greater than ever before and Healthinote allows them to provide trustworthy information from reliable sources directly to the patient – in an easy and efficient way. By partnering with notable organisations, we have a wider pool of materials to provide to people, saving time and avoiding confusion.
“One of our main ambitions is to address and tackle health literacy barriers that otherwise prevent people from fully understanding their health and we deliver information in a variety of formats ensuring we address health inequalities and reach people from diverse backgrounds.”
Healthinote’s ‘information prescriptions’ can be sent by email, text or QR code, directly from GP practices, secondary care and outpatient clinics. The prescriptions signpost patients to a list of resources, as part of personalised packages of information that can be accessed at any time. Information is pulled together from a library of resources – in either plain text, audio, visual or via interactive 2D/3D animations and virtual reality formats. There will also be content added in multiple languages.
Angela Keane, NHS Engagement Manager at MSI Reproductive Choices UK, says: “Our MSI UK digital team works very hard to make sure patients and healthcare professionals, including GPs, find the right information online about sexual health services such as termination of pregnancy and contraception. That’s why we are delighted to be partnering with Healthinote, as it means we can provide accurate information for people at the point of need. If health information is more accessible, memorable and impactful, patients can make more informed decisions about their care.”
Healthinote is free to access for healthcare professionals and patients through healthinote.com or via the Healthinote App.
