Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) has shared how it is using tech to pilot new falls prevention methods with the aim of enhancing its offer to patients and minimising the impact of falls on health, quality of life, and the NHS’s finances.
The projects and programmes being piloted include KOKU, an app to help reduce risk of falls and physical decline in older people through a mix of home-based digital exercise programme and community-based group sessions; and Falls Assistant, described as a web-based platform containing health information on falls prevention, with the option for users to self-assess their risk level.
The tech-based projects are being piloted alongside non-digital options, such as strength and balance classes, enhanced home hazard assessments and adoption of the World Falls Guidance risk classifications.
Also on supporting healthy ageing, NICE outlined three new work-streams for virtual wards to help support systems to deliver 40-50 virtual ward beds safely and sustainably per 100,000 population. An ambition equal to up to 24,000 virtual ward beds, supported by £450m additional funding over two years, the minimum requirement for ICSs is to establish virtual care models for acute respiratory infection and frailty.
Elsewhere, North East and North Cumbria ICB has reported on the progress made towards digitisation of social care, following nearly £2 million in funding from the Department of Health and Social Care that has been distributed across the region to support adult social care in the transition to digital records and technology.
In other news from the region, this month we reported on the £1.28 million AI upgrade to radiology training facilities at University Hospitals of North Midlands; and we also shared how the trust has updated the functionality of the Patients Know Best portal to include new services for lymphoedema outpatients, inflammatory bowel disease patients and patients involved in the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme.
