NHS Scotland has awarded a contract to Inhealthcare to support the scaling up of remote monitoring services across Scotland, bringing them into mainstream use.
The award supports the Scottish Government’s Digital Health and Care Strategy, which details how the country’s services and public can ‘adapt to change’ and ‘thrive in a digital world’.
Earlier this year, Inhealthcare’s remote health pathway for people with COVID-19 in Scotland was evaluated for roll-out, with the study indicating that the pathway contributed to ‘increased self-management’, ‘improved resource efficiency’ and ‘reduced health inequalities’.
The new 3-year contract means that Inhealthcare will provide its technology to enable people to record relevant information from home and relay readings to NHS teams for analysis. The service will work by sending messages to patients at home, prompting them to record their health readings via a choice of communication channels from mobile app to landline telephone. Readings and trends will be analysed against a baseline, with alerts and follow-on messages generated as appropriate. Clinicians will be able to review readings and patient history to assess the individual’s condition.
The programme will expand to manage illnesses including hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, depression, malnutrition, cancer and COVID.
Bryn Sage, Chief Executive Officer of Inhealthcare, commented on the news: “Just as digital technology was at the forefront of our response to the pandemic, it will be central to how we rebuild and remobilise the health and social care system as part of the recovery from COVID… we look forward to delivering life-changing services for the people of Scotland.”
Bryn previously commented on the COVID-19 remote pathway study: “[it] demonstrates how effective remote monitoring can be in reaching people living in disadvantaged areas. The use of inclusive technology… can help overcome the digital divide.”
To read the report in full, or find out more about how it was conducted, access it online here.
