The creators of a free software app which took top prize at the first ever NHS Hack Day believe the product has the potential to save the NHS more than £3M per year.
NHS Hack Day brought together doctors, programmers and software developers to create innovative and high-tech solutions to everyday problems within the NHS. In just 24 hours the winning team created a browser-based “Patient List” system to improve the handover of patients.
Replacing the traditional task-list method usually used by staff, the application uses a feed from the hospital’s electronic medical records to provide doctors with a list of all their patients, allowing them to create task lists, update a patient’s record of care and better manage the handover of patients between shift teams and hospital departments.
Paul Wilson, MD of New Context Scotland, says: “I’m delighted to announce that we are developing our winning idea into a free open source product that can be easily downloaded and installed by any NHS hospital trust. Our solution will reduce the errors that occur during shift handovers and when patients move between departments. We estimate that this innovation has the potential to save £3.6 million worth of time – time that can then be devoted to frontline patient care.
“We’re currently working hard to get the product beyond the proof-of-concept stage and our efforts so far can be viewed online by the public.”
The application has attracted the attention of Professor Sir Liam Donaldson who, in a recent interview with E-Health Insider, said: “So many of the problems in healthcare, the errors, the mistakes, the lapses in standards of care occur during handovers of care from one team to another.”
The inaugural NHS Hack Day was held in late May, with 10 teams submitting their applications to an expert panel of senior clinicians and IT advisors, chaired by the former chief medical officer of England, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson. The winning team was made up of New Context Scotland’s Paul Wilson and Adrian Mowat, ValueDecision’s Eckhard Schwarzat, Tactix4’s Rob Dyke and Dr Colin Brown of the Health Protection Agency and St Thomas’ Hospital.
Formerly known as EdgeCase UK, New Context Scotland is part of New Context, Inc, a global consultancy, which includes Silicon Valley tech guru Eric Ries as a general partner. New Context provides web and mobile software development for startups, corporations, and governments in North America, Asia, and Europe.
For more information and to view product development to date visit: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/561741.
