Next up: the finalists in the category ‘Best Solution Supporting New Models of Care’.
Vygon UK Ltd
Overview: Vygon collaborated with University Hospital of Wales to develop a system to allow heart failure patients at end of life to be cared for at home with a seven-day treatment. The Accufuser is a single-use silicone balloon infusion pump. It is designed to deliver a continuous flow of safe and accurate infusions for a variety of treatments including post operative pain management, cancer pain management, chemotherapy, treatment of Thalassemia and delivery of antibiotics.
Why? The hospital had championed the use of at-home infusions for heart failure patients at the end of their lives for six years, thanks to support from district nurses who managed daily treatments via 24-hour syringe drivers. This gave patients their preferred place of care and place of death, and reduced hospital admissions. However, the model was costly and highly resource-intensive because it required daily visits from the district nurses.
What happened? Vygon took part in a 12-month pilot with the hospital using the Accufuser technology to deliver the infusions over a seven-day period instead of 24 hours. A total of 12 patients received this new treatment method. They collaborated with the hospital pharmacy and SCS team to establish pump volumes, flow rates and constituents that would allow the system to work. In addition to the success in Wales, the Accufuser has been deployed with more than 60 virtual ward patients at the Medway NHS Foundation Trust – saving at least £160,000.
Looking ahead. Vygon is currently supporting the hospital and pharmacy to allow cost efficient preparation and timely dispensing to the patient according to clinical need. It is hoped a batch production model would allow roll out of this model of care on a national scale – meaning many more patients could benefit.
Think Healthcare
Overview. Foundry Lewes PCN developed a digital platform designed to enhance total triage benefits and access inequality improvements without incurring additional staffing costs.
Why? Following an extensive patient engagement program, the practice established that while their quality of care was highly rated, the journey to access that care was sometimes delayed & inconsistent. Baseline data showed over 83 percent of patients mentioned struggling to access services under the traditional NHS access models in use pre-pandemic.
What happened? To support the triage process, the practice had established simple red/amber/green categories for their patients within the clinical system (red indicating people with serious conditions; amber those with ongoing conditions; and green to signpost patients with minor conditions). Practice care priorities were able to be built automatically into traditionally manual contact methods, providing a pre-call triage solution, and ensuring those with the highest need were seen first. Access inequalities and patient experience was drastically improved, allowing the key patient gateway to the NHS to react automatically and dynamically to the different needs of multiple patient groups.
Looking ahead. As part of their wider new model of care, Foundry’s external studies found that over a three-year period it was expected to reduce secondary care access for the most vulnerable by up to 13,00 days, equalling a saving of up to £2.5m. This indicates exciting possibilities for the platform going forward and further driving a digital first approach across PCNs.
Solve.Care
Overview: Solve.Care’s Care.Labs is a development portal which allows clients to imagine their ideal digital network to provide healthcare services. Solve.Care has created its blockchain-based healthcare platform with the aim to fix the issues that today’s healthcare participants face, especially physicians and their patients. Care.Platform is their main product which is a decentralized healthcare platform where clients can rapidly author and roll out Web3 health networks to serve their clients.
Why? A major source of pain in the healthcare industry is the amount of time, technical expertise, and financial resources it takes to implement a new system. Blockchain technology can provide the distributed framework to secure and manage data across a range of uses and stakeholders.
What happened? These applications, referred to as Care.Networks on the platform, can be made quickly and at minimal cost meaning that they can be ‘authored’, brought to market, and adjusted quickly enough for any situation. Care.Labs takes advantage of Solve.Care’s decentralised healthcare platform and provides a place for anyone who wants to improve healthcare, to start building robust digital ecosystems for their practice, clinic, or community with effective healthcare administration, transparent transactions and payments, and timely communication and treatment, with the patient in the centre of the experience.
Looking ahead. Care.Labs will continue to work with clinicians and users worldwide to enhance capabilities and streamline the delivery and access of healthcare.
