UHS informatics team garners multiple awards for transforming IT within the NHS to better serve patients and clinicians.
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND (PRWEB) DECEMBER 13, 2016
When the Get Real Health-powered “My medical record” platform at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) NHS Foundation Trust started radically improving patient experience and clinician workflow, UK health IT experts took notice. My medical record won the “Using Technology to Improve Efficiency” award during the recent Health Service Journal recognition ceremony in London.
That honor came only a month after the EHI Awards spotlighted the UHS team for “best use of IT to support treatment and care within the NHS.” Moreover, the trust was recently selected as one of the Department of Health’s 12 “digital centers of excellence,” which will bring £10 million to the trust over four years for further IT development.
Created using Get Real Health’s InstantPHR®, My medical record is being used by 3,000+ patients to gain instant access to information held in UHS’s clinical and administrative systems, including upcoming appointments, test results and healthcare advice—and share it securely with family members and healthcare providers. The platform also enables patients to keep daily health diaries, upload data from home medical devices, and communicate remotely with clinicians, often thereby saving a trip to the hospital.
“We’re so proud of our partnership with the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, and of our UHS colleagues who earned these much-deserved awards,” said Get Real Health President, CEO and Founding Partner Robin Wiener. “The My medical record platform highlights the power of health IT in advancing patient engagement.”
One especially impressive metric: In UHS’ prostate cancer service which uses My medical record for test results, patient information and interactive web access to the clinical team, a specialist cancer nurse can remotely review 20 patients per hour compared to six in a traditional outpatient setting. And those 20 patients do not then need to come in for an in-person visit with a clinician.
“Our aim is to provide a virtual hospital service which enables patients to have greater access to information and much more control over their healthcare and this innovation is a fantastic example of that vision evolving successfully,” said Adrian Byrne, director of informatics at UHS. “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.”
The NHS is exploring the possibility of expanding its use of the My medical record solution to include more medical specialties, and potentially even providing services to other trusts in England, according to program managers.
About Get Real Health
Rockville, Maryland-based Get Real Health empowers patients and providers through a collaborative approach to healthcare. Get Real Health’s products unite the disconnected worlds of digital personal health and traditional medical records – regardless of source – to create a comprehensive patient health profile. This innovative methodology helps large provider organizations, nonprofits and governments around the world meet a wide range of patient engagement needs. Get Real Health supports clients in the area of outcomes improvement, chronic disease management, population health management, patient activation, remote patient monitoring, Meaningful Use, and customer intelligence. Visit: http://getrealhealth.com/.
About University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust provides services to some 1.9 million people living in Southampton and south Hampshire, plus specialist services such as neurosciences, cardiac services and children’s intensive care to more than 3.7 million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands. The Trust is also a major centre for teaching and research in association with the University of Southampton and partners including the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust. UHS gained foundation trust status on 1 October 2011. Visit: http://www.uhs.nhs.uk
