Hospital-Q
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development and Implementation of an innovative shared patient-clinician information management system: 'Can the Hospital-Q App deliver improved service efficiency, patient experience, continuity and integration of care in the field of inherited cardiac conditions?'
IRAS ID
230618
Contact name
Hugh Watkins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The NHS bases complex care in a handful of national centres to ensure that there is sufficient workload to develop and maintain staff expertise. Patients must travel to those centres, but often recommended investigations or interventions (particularly medical therapy) can be undertaken locally. Patients prefer this where possible, particularly when tests require multiple visits. Currently information sharing between national centres and local providers is paper based, which can be error prone. National centres don’t know if requests have been seen or actioned. Local centres don’t know if reports have been received, interpreted, and fed back to the patient. This state of limbo often only comes to light during follow up visits, which become inefficient, and risk loss of patient trust.
Patients with a diagnosed cardiomyopathy require risk stratification involving numerous tests. In one year the Inherited Cardiac Conditions Clinic (ICC) at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, made over 1600 patient contacts and requested almost 4000 investigations. Our project proposes to develop, and study, an innovative shared information management system in the form of an App within the setting of this ICC clinic. Our patient population is relatively young (mean age 45) with high smartphone ownership, and needs such risk stratification testing on a non-urgent basis. Investigations like 48hour cardiac Holter monitoring are particularly disruptive as they require two hospital visits to fit and return the device. We will see if the App allows us to ensure that requests made in clinic are followed through, with the aim of improving service efficiency, patient experience, and overall continuity and integration of care. The current paper based system will continue in parallel with the App.
This work is supported by a research grant obtained from the Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee, which is a charitable trust. The project will run live over a four month period between December 2017 and March 2018.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0638
Date of REC Opinion
3 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion