Here are our entries for the category of Best Solution for Clinicians.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) & Clinibee
Overview: Built by clinicians for clinicians, QGenome is a cloud-based tool offering genomics referral and testing guidance in a practical format for use in clinics.
Why? Genomics constantly evolves, making it difficult for clinicians to keep pace, existing information sources can be unwieldy, and demand for genomics services has outstripped the number of specialists.
What happened? GSTT Regional Genetics Service collaborated with technology provider UBQO to create QGenome, built using their cloud-based Clinibee platform. QGenome allows genomics specialists to collaborate and produce practical content and tools aligned with national guidance, then make this accessible to thousands of clinicians. Clinicians collaborate in real time to produce content and can manage updates without developer input, with inbuilt tools to support a structured governance and publishing process. Healthcare professionals access QGenome free of charge, with 200+ documents created and 70+ step-by-step workflows. QGenome also generates workflow outcome reports for the patient’s record or referral and covers clinical genetics areas including cancer, renal, cardiac, and maternity. Following the introduction of the Cancer Genetics App (early version of QGenome), the proportion of referrals offered an appointment increased from 71 percent to 79 percent. Potential referral processing savings for our service are around £700,000+.
Looking ahead. The team is also planning further project and process efficiencies, and the model is already being replicated for menopause treatment guidance.
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and Imprivata
Overview: Imprivata Medical Device Access simplifies processes for clinicians and protects patient data for Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.
Why? The challenge was to seamlessly join all elements of the trust’s digital portfolio to simplify processes for clinicians and improved the efficiency of workflows, while maintaining full data, audit trails and system security.
What happened? The trust chose Imprivata’s authentication management platform to replace the cumbersome manual entry of user data. Imprivata’s solution enables fast, automated authentication through the simple tap of a badge. The trust’s clinical staff were already familiar with Imprivata solutions, having used them to access desktops and WoWs. Extending their use to medical devices kept the same style of tap on/tap off access, which meant that new workflows were easily adopted. The Welch Allyn/HillRom devices are now configured to use the secure hospital WiFi and once authentication using Imprivata has taken place, patient readings are pushed straight through to the EPR. The patient record is updated in real time, enabling speedier decisions using the accurate NEWS2 score, which feeds into a traffic light system and flags potential problems on a patient dashboard in real time. The system will also show if observations for a particular patient are late, which means nurses can react quickly. Benefits include faster and more secure access to readings from interconnected medical devices, increased productivity, and more accurate data.
Looking ahead. Imprivata hopes to continue working with Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to further streamline workflows and release more time back to clinicians for patient care.
Child and Family Training
Overview: The In My Shoes (IMS) Child Interviewing and Assessment Toolkit is a cross-platform collection of interactive digital modules designed to support professionals working with children.
Why? To facilitate assessment of children (and some adults) who, by virtue of age, disability or emotional/behavioural problems, would find it difficult or impossible to use traditional methods of interview or paper and pencil assessments.
What happened? The IMS project was undertaken by a multidisciplinary group of clinicians then based at Liverpool University. The goal was to develop a package of interactive digital tools that would enable professionals to elicit data and information from children that is both reliable and valid. IMS tools were tested on a wide range of children, with diverse health, social and emotional problems. Three of the original 10 desktop (Mac and Windows) modules have been adapted to be compatible with touch screen devices. One of these (This Feeling) allows children to create a customisable representation of any somatic experiences (including pain) on an interactive body plan. A second (This Much!) offers an interactive, child-friendly version of a visual analog scale that can be customised to the assessment needs of almost any clinical condition. The development team investigated the utility and acceptability in a range of conditions, including resolving post-surgical pain, minor accidents and also intentional harm. A team at Manchester University also investigated one of the modules as a tool for repeated measure self report of children suffering from arthritis.
Looking ahead. C&FT continues to actively develop the IMS toolkit, exploiting continuing technological and social changes and collaboration with colleagues working in different countries and cultures.
Dosium
Overview: Dosium integrates the British National Formulary (BNF) directly into eP systems, providing patient-specific, indication-based dosing recommendations, reducing the risk of error and improving prescribing efficiency.
Why? Medication errors remain the leading cause of preventable harm in healthcare settings. Current electronic prescribing (eP) solutions are failing clinicians.
What happened? Dosium have created Touchdose, the only solution to exclusively integrate the British National Formulary (BNF) and the BNF for Children (BNFc) directly into electronic prescribing systems. Touchdose integrates with existing EHRs, receiving inputs related to medication, indication, and patient anthropometry. It then applies clinical logic to an underlying formulary, primarily the BNF and BNFc, with supplementation from local clinical guidelines where necessary. Touchdose performs precise dosing calculations as needed, delivering patient-specific, indication-based dosing recommendations. Touchdose is a SMART-ON-FHIR application and registered Class I Medical Device which can operate as a stand alone application or integrated directly within an existing EHR. The development of Touchdose has been heavily informed by user-centred design principles, ensuring that the tool meets the practical needs of clinicians. In a recent pre-clinical study, Touchdose demonstrated a 76.5 percent relative risk reduction, and time to prescribe was reduced by 20 percent.
Looking ahead. Building on the encouraging study results, Touchdose won support from NHS England’s Digital Medicines First-of-Type scheme. This initiative plans for further expansion after a successful pilot phase.
Holmusk UK
Overview: Holmusk UK’s Management and Supervision Tool uses predictive analytics to help health professionals use data to work smarter, and supports patient flow through services.
Why? Mental health trusts in England report increasing levels complexity and vulnerability. The national transformation agenda to bring primary and secondary care mental health services closer together means services are under pressure to use resources in a targeted way.
What happened? MaST is an intelligent analytics platform that analyses multiple data sources that go into a trust’s data warehouse, to predict people’s likelihood of requiring crisis care. MaST’s simple dashboard displays clinically relevant information that is already captured but often buried deep within the electronic health record. Allowing access to a tool that uses analysis and provides fingertip search and filter functions supports teams to identify resourcing priorities objectively using the data that they have already collected. MaST provides clinicians with a caseload and the multi-disciplinary team with the data, information and analytics which inform effective and efficient decision making in a more joined up, representative way. A London Trusted Implemented MaST to all 17 CMHTs in their boroughs to support these challenges, and reported a 54 percent reduction in the number of service users without an allocated Health Care Worker within one borough within three months along with more effective staff caseload management, with 80 percent of clinicians completing the questionnaire agreeing it helped with tracking risk assessment reviews.
Looking ahead. Holmusk looks to continue to work with health professionals to refine the MaST platform and bring further benefits for decision-making and patient flow.
C8 Health
Overview: The C8 Health platform simplifies clinical knowledge management by unifying, managing, and integrating clinical resources into care team’s daily workflows, tackling challenges like inconsistent care, inefficiency, and clinician burnout.
Why? Current knowledge management practices are lacking, leading to inconsistent care, inefficiency, preventable medical errors and legal liabilities.
What happened? The C8 Health platform provides a comprehensive, AI-powered clinical knowledge management system that offers a unified knowledge base, consolidating all clinical resources into a single platform, accessible on any device, with AI-powered search and smart formats for a personalised experience. The platform integrates with existing hospital systems and electronic health records, pushing the latest content directly to the point of care. C8 Health also enables knowledge sharing across multiple care sites, with discussion boards, departmental newsfeeds, and targeted notifications for guidance changes. The platform provides detailed insights on staff engagement with clinical resources, tracking key performance indicators through a customised dashboard. Developed with a deep understanding of clinicians’ needs, it addresses key challenges including information overload for clinicians, case complexity, clinician burnout, documentation burdens, and poor coordination of care. By providing up-to-date best practices, C8 Health has reduced unwarranted care variability, leading to safer and more reliable patient care.
Looking ahead. C8 Health is continuing to enhance patient care and improve operational efficiency, giving clinicians the tools they need to provide consistent, high-quality care, reducing waste and improving patient outcomes.
Inicio Health
Overview: Transforming the care of the NHS’s youngest patients with the infant jaundice inicioPage, which revolutionises patient care through cutting-edge digital charting.
Why? Despite the adoption of an EHR, the clinical team within the neonatal unit identified an unmet need relating to charting for hyperbilirubinemia, a critical biomarker to manage babies with jaundice.
What happened? MKUH and inicio health formed a collaborative partnership with the primary ambition of addressing the aforementioned unmet need, reducing clinical risk for babies whilst simultaneously reducing pressure on clinical teams via a real-time, integrated digital chart embedded within the EHR. This true clinical need led to the co-design of the hyperbilirubinemia inicioPage, incorporating key features required by the team, ensuring compliance with NICE guidance, and integrating directly into the electronic patient record to form part of the clinical history. The project recently passed the 6-month mark, with the supporting data demonstrating that key objectives have been met regarding patient benefits, reduction in clinical risk, and widespread technology adoption. The project has received 6,800 views/ interactions in the first 6 months, with 45 percent of cases managed being premature babies, with an estimated gestational age of <37 weeks. Enhancing data quality on the EHR, tests are now logged in the correct place to ensure that every test is captured and present on the digital chart. Remote access to the patient charts expedites care decisions.
Looking ahead. Inicio Health remains committed to leveraging technology to improve healthcare outcomes and staff experience at Milton Keynes University Hospital.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health & Digital Health and Care Wales
Overview: Digital Growth Chart Wales is a clinically led system for paediatric growth charts across Wales, enabling clinicians in any setting to share growth measurements through a national system.
Why? A broad range of health professionals record child growth in various care settings across Wales using paper growth charts or disparate systems and data sets results in multiple incomplete copies with vital growth information lost or inaccessible. This clinical risk impairs clinicians’ assessment of growth.
What happened? Clinician coders at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) developed an open-source Application Programming Interface (API) that can be plugged into electronic health records. Working together, the RCPCH developed an innovative open-source growth measures capability and DHCW brought the clinically led integrated care system alongside the national architecture to make it available across care settings. The RCPCH Digital growth charts platform delivers a more flexible digital equivalent of the paper growth charts, performs the calculations of child growth parameters with reliable instant results, and enables a ‘do once and share’ approach providing a single, national, validated system for accurate growth recording. The RCPCH interactive growth charts include percentiles, standard deviation scores, BMI and gestational correction. Digital Growth Chart Wales boasts a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of tracking, reviewing and contributing to growth data.
Looking ahead. Once the software is live, the clinical user group will prioritise future development and inform wider rollout to maximise clinical benefits gained.
Next up: browse entries for the Partnership of the Year category here.
