We’re delighted to present our finalists for the category of “Patient portal project of the year”:
Health and Care Innovations Limited: CONNECTPlus – reducing demand through patient information
Overview: CONNECTPlus is an HCI patient portal empowering individuals through their healthcare journey. It offers 24/7 access to information, enables patients to share data, and provides clinicians with actionable insights. This “For, From, About” model improves efficiency, reduces NHS demand, and enhances patient engagement.
What happened? CONNECTPlus provides patients with 24/7 access to structured program content, including on-demand videos, educational resources, and structured treatment programs that mirror in-person curricula. Information covers areas such as pulmonary rehabilitation, DMARDs education, ADHD support, and more. Patients actively engage with CONNECTPlus by providing data through various in-app features. This includes daily activity check-ins, symptom trackers, feedback surveys, and completion of forms. Ongoing interaction allows for tailoring support to individual needs. CONNECTPlus provides healthcare professionals with real-time data through dashboards, offering visibility on patient condition and progress. This enables proactive intervention, better allocation of clinical resources, and improved population health planning. Implementation has shown significant positive impacts across various case studies, including in pulmonary rehabilitation, where patient-reported outcomes show improved mobility and reduced reliance on in-person sessions. Service benefits include reduced demand for face-to-face appointments, the ability to support patients during staff shortages, and lower cost of delivery.
Think Healthcare (Focus Group): The patient portal you can call
Overview: Horizon Healthcare turned the idea of a “patient portal” on its head, launching the UK’s first voice-based portal fully integrated with SystmOne. Patients use any phone, 24/7, to book reviews, request prescriptions or fit notes and chase referrals – cutting 1,500 calls a month while boosting Google ratings to 4.3.
What happened? Virtual Care Navigator (VCN) delivers by phone integration, with prescription requests and queries, a spoken menu that walks patients through options, and tasks written to EPS prescriptions queue SystmOne. Fit note (Med 3) request captures details, creates task in “Admin – Med3” slot. Clinical coding is applied automatically. For long-term condition reviews, an SMS with PIN link routes patient to protected booking slots with Pharmacist Diary slots exposed to VCN. Call audit confirmed 60 percent of traffic was administrative. The solution resulted in 1,500 fewer inbound calls every month – freeing two WTE receptionists for patient-facing work. The Google rating climbed from 2.1 to 4.3 stars, whilst 24/7 self-service now handles 60 percent of admin demand, meaning zero queue time for those tasks. The reception team reports lower stress and fewer complaints about “not getting through”. The portal is fully integrated with major clinical systems (SystmOne, EMIS), and automates admin, not triage – freeing humans for nuanced access decisions. It’s also configurable to local workflows and is scalable, with rollout already underway to other Think Healthcare sites and PCN booking and vaccination modules next to be developed.
