Connecting Healthcare through Mobile In partnership with Mobile Monday Manchester and Apadmi

Last week pro-manchester in partnership with Mobile Monday Manchester and Apadmi held the first Mobile Monday event of 2018 at the cool new HQ of PwC in Spinningfields, Manchester.

Titled ‘Connecting Healthcare through Mobile’, we were joined by five speakers who shared their unique stories and expertise around how mobile technology is transforming the industry:
Tim Ng, COO of Now Healthcare Group, showed how mobile is changing the way over 20 million patients interact with GPs and pharmacies
Laura Ellis-Morgan, Specialise Nurse with NHS Blood and Transplant, explained how their digital transformation is helping to save precious time and money within the NHS, as well as countless lives
Alex Casson of the University of Manchester talked us through some of the most exciting technological developments in the healthcare field
Jayne Goble of PwC chatted about how businesses can stay ahead of the tech curve and avoid data security breaches
Dom Raban, Managing Director of Corporation Pop, told us how his 13-year-old daughter’s battle with cancer inspired him to create an AR programme that would reduce the fear children feel when being admitted to hospital

Live video GP consultations, providing everything from self-test kits to back-to-work certificates, and prescriptions delivered to your home or office in as little as four hours – welcome to the future of Healthcare according to Tim Ng, COO of Now Healthcare Group.
They’ve developed a series of mobile platforms to solve persistent issues across the NHS. These include reducing huge GP waiting times, cutting the £300 million spent on over-ordering repeat prescriptions, and reducing the resources wasted on unused prescriptions.

Key takeaways from Tim:
Patient care should always be paramount, with the protection of confidential information at the forefront of people’s minds using encryption and advanced security systems
In future, the use of chat bots will ensure a smooth yet personalised experience for all patients
Big Data, IoT and AI will eventually work together to collect and analyse richer sets of patient data, determining trends and associations hidden in patient behaviour
A combination of advanced Voice Analytics and ZeroUI will work together to enable voice-powered devices, apps and solutions to interact with patients on an emotional level, providing valuable analytical data about an individual during a call
“I’d often have to grab a hand towel or write on my scrubs”

Laura Ellis-Morgan feels more at home in her scrubs uniform than a suit – she’s a Specialist Nurse with NHS Blood and Transplant. Although she might not be familiar with technology (we think she is!), she knows her field inside-out, and spoke about the benefits she’s seen from their internal app.

DonorPath is an app (built here at Apadmi) that’s formed part of the digital transformation initiative across the NHS. Created based on the feedback of Specialist Nurses like Laura, it’s given them a platform to record all information about an individual, from blood type to exact circumstances of death, quickly and easily.

DonorPath has reduced the risk of error, saved money and time, but most importantly lives. The length of the organ donation process was reduced from roughly 36 hours to 31, meaning Laura and other nurses get to spend more time with the people that need her attention, like patients and their families.

Alex Casson of the University of Manchester is passionate about what recent advances in technology mean for health services. He focused on the idea of personalisation in medical monitoring – and what’s going on in Manchester to make it happen…
One size doesn’t fit all – we need to focus on creating devices and that can be tailored to each patient if we’re to provide better one-to-one patient care
App-based intervention will provide a form of personalised non-invasive brain monitoring
Monitoring systems can be tailor-made using graphene, which can be directly printed onto clothing and skin – less painful procedures for patients and more accurate readings for professionals
Tailored monitors would deliver data-based responsive feedback; over time, care plans can be modified to reflect a patient’s response to treatment

PwC’s Jayne Goble talked the room through cyber security, highlighting how confidential data is being increasingly shared across digital devices and equipment – not just in the medical field, but across all industries.
How can the risk of a breach be reduced? Here are her 6 key takeaways for health organisations:
It’s impossible to protect everything – identify your most sensitive assets and focus your security enhancements there
Out-of-date security means an easy way in for hackers – ensure your systems go through regular updates
Make use of the Information Governance Toolkit provided by NHS Digital for privacy and protection
Run through different scenarios where you’ve undergone a data breach, create a response procedure, and conduct regular tests to ensure your system is as safe as possible
Educate your staff about the risks involved with their personal devices and data breaches, training them in security best practice

Our final speaker of the night ended things on an emotional note.
Upon learning that his 13-year-old daughter had a rare form of cancer, Dom Raban of Corporation Pop didn’t just sit on the side-lines when he realised how poor the provision of information was for youngsters undergoing serious medical procedures.
While her treatment was second-to-none, only Dom and his wife were given an explanation about Isabelle’s illness. But Isabelle herself received next-to-no information about her condition, her procedures, or the symptoms she was likely to experience. She was terrified.

Dom wanted to make things better – not just for his daughter, but for all children going through this experience. He built a child-friendly augmented reality app, combining powerful artificial intelligence with gamification to make an educational platform feel fun to use, rather than like reading a medical brochure.

Children would be able to create and talk to their own personal avatar about their condition. Not only would this reduce their anxiety, but by engaging children in a conversation, better feedback could be gathered about their experience, allowing medical professionals to improve hospital environments, and ultimately the clinical outcomes of each child.

The app has secured funding and is undergoing further development – more importantly, Izzy made a full recovery.