Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded a share of £7 million of government funding so we can try out new innovations to reduce missed appointments and duplication of clinical activity.
The Trust are one of four sites chosen nationally as part of the Test Beds programme to tackle some of the biggest opportunities and challenges in healthcare by testing combinations of innovations in real world clinical settings.
The goal is to use the potential of digital technologies to positively transform the way in which healthcare is delivered for patients and carers.
As part of the work patients will be given access to their health record—for example, the scheduling of their appointments, the visibility of their waiting times, and the remote reporting of their health status. The aim is to reduce missed appointments and the duplication of clinical activity.
The initial focus will be on specific urgent care pathways in cardiology and maternity, with a view to introducing effective interventions to new clinical pathways and areas across the country.
The sites receiving funding from government are:
- Care City in London, which is bringing together market-ready diagnostics, smartphone applications and management tools to support patients with long-term conditions;
- East Midlands Radiology Consortium (EMRAD), which is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve breast cancer screening;
- Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, who will be providing patients with access to their digital health records with the aim of reducing missed appointments and duplication of clinical activity; and
- Royal Stoke University Hospital, who will be using new market-ready digital technologies to coordinate community-based clinical interventions for patients with heart failure, to reduce hospital re-admissions.
