By Nadine Miles on November 15, 2018
Clinitouch Vie recognised for its proactive approach to reengineering NHS pathways to improve clinical outcomes for patients with LTCs and multi-morbidity
SPIRIT DIGITAL FINALIST IN HTN AWARDS 2018 ‘DIGITAL AT POINT OF CARE’ CATEGORY WITH ITS CLINITOUCH VIE REMOTE MONITORING PLATFORM
Spirit Digital has been recognised as a finalist in the 2018 Health Tech Newspaper (HTN) Awards in the ‘Digital at the Point of Care’ category.
An enabling, connecting and empowering digital point-of-care solution, Spirit Digital’s CliniTouch Vie supports CCGs in reengineering NHS pathways to cope with the growing problem of multi-morbidity, keeping patients out of hospital. Judges praised the platform’s proactive approach to tackling symptoms, preventing exacerbations and slowing health deteriorations, resulting in reduced NHS costs and improved clinical outcomes.
The number of people with LTCs and multi-morbidity continues to grow, placing intolerable pressure on services and pathways. More than 15 million people in England have at least one LTC, while the number with three or more is forecast to reach 2.9 million this year. The implications are significant. LTC patients already account for 50% of all GP appointments, 70% of all bed days and around 70% of acute and primary care budgets in England. As the population ages, those numbers are only going to increase.
In collaboration with the NHS, CliniTouch Vie increases the access patients have into their care service beyond the clinic and provides educational information to empower them to self-manage their condition more effectively. Through integrated 3G for intensive monitoring, education and empowerment with integrated direct messaging and video support, combined with evidence-based algorithms that automate the triage process, the system helps clinicians quickly identify when a person exhibits health deterioration and helps patients to know what to do next to help maintain their long-term health and wellbeing.
CliniTouch Vie was rolled out across the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) as a digital community service to support patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who had more than two emergency admissions. It was rolled out over a 12-month period to 66 at-risk COPD patients, aged between 47 to 88, to enable, connect and empower them to regain control of their condition. The digital COPD service took daily biometric readings which were provided directly to a clinician web-based management portal. Specialist clinical staff remotely connected with patients, also daily, to provide health and wellbeing advice in line with the local care pathway.
The results showed marked improvement in quality of life indicators for LPT’s COPD patients and considerable cost savings associated with trying to keep patients out of hospital.
The measured improvements were significant and as follows:
- 59% reduction in emergency COPD admissions
- £161,459 admission avoidance savings
- 13% improvement in CAT scores
- 4167% increase in number of symptom observations
- 7250 interventions delivered
- 286 tailored educational material accessed by patients
- 300%increase in case load and no additional workforce required
Dr Sudip Ghosh, Research Clinical Director, Leicestershire Partnership Trust, comments: “Maximising clinical resource is increasingly critical to both the healthcare economy and patient outcomes. We were particularly interested in digital health to achieve this because when you look at the literature, the research based around digital health solutions for chronic disease indicates that telehealth and telemonitoring are one of the solutions shown to be effective. The findings of this project highlighted that the simple use of mobile technology did empower our patients and clinicians with tools to support the safe, proactive and efficient management of COPD.”
Emma-Jane Roberts, Managing Director, Spirit Digital, adds: “We are delighted that CliniTouch Vie has been recognised in the ‘digital at the point of care’ category at the HTN Awards. As an organisation, our vision is for digital technology to be part of clinical pathways to facilitate earlier discharge, prevent readmissions, reduce risk of future exacerbations and improve self-management, whilst maximising clinical capacity. Spirit is committed to helping make the nation healthier and happier one patient at a time by empowering people to better manage their healthcare in line with their chosen lifestyle choices.”
