Our latest news-in-brief is here!
In the latest edition we cover a pilot of remote monitoring tech at Leeds Teaching, AI to detect Parkinson’s, digital check-in kiosks at Lewisham and Greenwich, and the NatWest Group has introduced a menopause app for employees.
NatWest Group introduces menopause app for employees
NatWest Group has introduced the health app Peppy to their employees, offering menopause support through the digital medium.
As part of the Peppy service, NatWest Group employees will have access to expert, human-led support from specialist menopause practitioners. This includes consultations, one-to-one chat and group chat, along with access to articles, video and audio content, events and webinars.
Mridula Pore, CEO and Co-Founder, Peppy, said: “It’s great to see an organisation such as NatWest Group take menopause support seriously. Looking after people during this life stage helps companies recruit and retain this important demographic, and that’s great for business, the economy and, most of all, those at the receiving end of the support.”
Leeds pilots continuous remote monitoring technology
WarnerPatch, a continuous remote monitoring technology, is working with the Innovation Pop Up at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The wearable sensing mechanism monitors the health of soft tissue to provide real-time and near-future indications of disease evolution, and uses artificial intelligence to predict likely outcomes and generates alerts if symptoms get worse.
Dr Berthelot, founder, said: “Our first goal is to target peripheral vascular disease, a progressive, chronic and incurable disease which affects 200 million people around the world and can cause embolism, stroke, pulmonary disorder and renal failure. It’s a gruesome disease.
“Clinicians can use WarnerPatch from the point they suspect the patient has the disease to gather vital data to enhance clinical diagnosis and decision making. We anticipate our trial will show that our medical device is acceptable to patients and clinicians and can improve quality of life, reduce emergency admissions and lengths of stay and prevent disease escalation.”
Professor David Brettle, Chief Scientific Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and founder of the Innovation Pop up, added: “We are delighted to be working with Dr Berthelot and her team at WarnerPatch to help bring this exciting new product to market. Our centre is dedicated to transforming the latest advances in science, technology and engineering into products and services that can solve health and care challenges facing Britain and the rest of the world.”
MIT develop device and AI model to assess Parkinson’s from breathing
Researchers from MIT have developed a device said to discern the presence and severity of Parkinson’s disease. The research team have developed an artificial intelligence model that they say can detect Parkinson’s just from reading a person’s breathing patterns.
Dina Katabi, Thuan and Nicole Pham Professor, said: “A relationship between Parkinson’s and breathing was noted as early as 1817, in the work of Dr. James Parkinson. This motivated us to consider the potential of detecting the disease from one’s breathing without looking at movement.
“Some medical studies have shown that respiratory symptoms manifest years before motor symptoms, meaning that breathing attributes could be promising for risk assessment prior to Parkinson’s diagnosis.”
The research team’s algorithm was tested on 7,687 individuals, including 757 Parkinson’s patients. To find out more, please click here.
Ambulance trusts trial electric vehicles
Eight ambulance trusts are trialling 21 zero-emission vehicles of various types, as part of £2.1 million investment.
Dr Nick Watts, Chief Sustainability Officer at NHS England, commented on the project: “Each electric vehicle costs less to run and maintain, meaning these new vehicles will spend more time on the road and change the way we deliver care in the community – whilst also cutting our carbon footprint as we strive to make NHS services greener and more efficient as part of our ambition to hit net zero by 2040.”
Lewisham and Greenwich introduces outpatient check-in kiosks
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has introduced new check-in kiosks for patients attending appointments.
The trust said the new kiosks helps to save time from queuing and “leaves reception staff free to answer individual patient queries”.
A patient can also update their personal details if needed, adjust the size of text on screen and change the language.
New digital X-Ray facility officially opened at Grimsby Hospital
A fully digital X-Ray room has opened at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby.
The trust, commented: “The new, state-of-the-art equipment not only allows our teams to carry out instantaneous X-Rays, with high-definition imaging – but also has a considerably lower radiation dose for patients.
Head of Radiography, Tim Mawson, explained further: “This room will help us to reduce the waiting time for patients, increase diagnostic accuracy and enhance the overall experience for our patients. The room has been designed with the comfort of our patients in mind, with soothing mood lighting to help put them at their ease.”
