EmailThe largest of these schemes is the roll out of a programme in Edinburgh and the Lothians of a programme to support 400 patients with long term conditions, including heart failure, diabetes and strokes, backed by £700,000 from NHS Lothian and the Scottish government.
The extended scheme, which follows trials over the last nine months with about 30 patients in West Lothian, Midlothian and Edinburgh, aims to allow patients to monitor their own conditions on a daily basis at home. It uses touch screen technology and can test for blood pressure, breathing, blood glucose and oxygen levels.
Scotland's health secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced 16 pilot projects to extend the use of IT in the NHS and treat patients more quickly and closer to home. The Scottish Government has allocated £1.6m for the pilots, including £564,000 from NHS contractor Atos Origin. They include:
- £200,000 investment between NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Tayside to develop a multidisciplinary IT system to share key patient information;
- £175,000 to NHS Ayrshire and Arran to develop an online patient portal for people living with long term conditions;
- £140,000 between NHS Tayside and NHS Fife to use real time management technology to help meet waiting time targets for patients;
- £140,000 to NHS Orkney to develop remote medical patient monitoring;
- £136,000 to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to develop new ways of supplying clinical information directly to consulting rooms;
- £122,000 between NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside to develop a Child Health Summary;
- £100,000 to the West of Scotland Heart and Lung Centre at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital to replace cardiac databases with more up-to-date solutions;
- £100,000 to NHS Forth Valley to develop patient information systems to improve mental health care.
Sturgeon said: "Using technology in innovative ways like this can transform people's lives. This touch screen technology... will save hundreds of people from making repeated trips into hospital, making a huge difference to their quality of life."
Dr Brian McKinstry, a GP in Blackburn and lead clinician in the Edinburgh and Lothians pilot study said: "This initiative offers excellent benefits to patients by allowing them more control of their condition. It allows the patient to carry out self-monitoring while still being supervised by a clinician. This ensures the safe management of the patient, provides added reassurance and more frequent patient, clinician contact."
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