The Northern Care Alliance is to introduce a new virtual ward, working with remote monitoring specialist Dignio, to support up to ‘500 beds’.
Set to cover a large part of Greater Manchester, the project aims to support 500 people from their own homes for a variety of conditions. Patients will be provided with access to the MyDignio App to record their vital signs, with data reviewed and monitored by healthcare teams.
The project announcement follows a year-long evaluation of a virtual clinic for remote monitoring of heart failure patients, for those who had reduced hospital check-ups during the pandemic.
Ian Hogan, Chief Information Officer at the Northern Care Alliance, said: “After such a successful pilot scheme, and the national initiative for implementation of virtual bedded wards, it was clear that working with Dignio has the potential to offer our patients a different type of healthcare intervention.
“One that gives control to them, in their most familiar environment. It also offers a level of empowerment with regards to their condition management and ongoing assessment of condition specific observations all under the watchful eye of our clinicians and supported by the artificial intelligence within the Dignio platform and the personalised tolerances it offers.
“Patient feedback from the pilot has been really positive and engaging and the broader engagement across our clinical colleagues has garnered support and rethinking of clinical pathways to better support patient care and experience.”
Dr Jim Ritchie, Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at the Northern Care Alliance, added: “Being able to see and act on real time information about complex health problems such as kidney and heart diseases enables quicker optimisation of treatments, faster action where problems are developing, and lets staff maximise the impact of their time in clinic.”
