Get Real Health’s esteemed client, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, was honored at the 10th Annual EHI Live Awards, September, 29th
The winning solution, My Medical Record, was developed by Get Real Health on the InstantPHR platform. It was deemed the best solution in the “Best Use of IT to Support Clinical Treatment and Care” category, besting two other finalists and countless entries.
“We are so proud of our team here at Get Real Health as well as the team at Southampton. They are terrific partners and wonderful to work with,” said Get Real Health President, Robin Wiener.
My Medical Record’s initial phase targeted maternity and gastroenterology patients to track health and improve outcomes. The innovation, which is currently being used by more than 2,000 patients in specialties including cancer, gastroenterology and children’s services, gives caretakers the opportunity to make information which is held in clinical and administration systems, such as upcoming appointments, test results and consultant advice, available to patients electronically in an instant.
Additionally, patients can keep daily diaries on their health, upload data from medical devices used at home and communicate with their clinicians, including consultants and specialist nurses, without a hospital visit.
Adrian Byrne, director of informatics at UHS is pleased with the early results, “By improving accessibility to medical information, increasing the flexibility of communication with clinicians and allowing patients more independence, we are seeing reductions in the need for hospital appointments, admissions and readmissions while actually increasing access to specialists.”
A second phase widened the patient base and enhanced the portal to include personalized data feeds and more robust journaling capabilities. Following its success, My Medical Record was adapted for the TrueNTH project, a global initiative led by the Movember Foundation to improve critical areas of prostate cancer care. In the UK, the TrueNTH is being managed by Prostate Cancer UK, which is now funding self-management for patients using the Southampton system at hospitals across the country.
Within the prostate cancer service at UHS, where the solution is used for surveillance, test results, patient information, signposting and interactive web access to the clinical team, a specialist cancer nurse can remotely review 20 patients per hour – who do not then need to attend a clinic appointment – compared to six in a traditional outpatient setting.
My Medical Record has also been shortlisted for two national Health Service Journal awards – Improving care with technology and Using technology to improve efficiency – with the winners set to be announced at a ceremony in London on November 23rd .
The EHI Live Awards are the UK’s only dedicated healthcare IT award program and as such features a rigorous application and judging process with the winners garnering immense industry respect.