Swedish medtech startup, Doccla, has announced a partnership with Northampton General Hospital NHS trust (NGH) to trial remote smart patient monitoring, which will aim to free up NHS capacity.

Doccla is providing virtual wards, built around the use of connected medical wearables in the home, to allow NGH clinicians to remotely monitor the vital signs of recovering COVID patients and those living with chronic illness. 

Patients are equipped with smart devices to wear at home which send information to NGH clinicians to support decision-making.

Every day each patient’s device will send automated readings of routine measurements, such as pulse and oxygen levels, via Doccla to NGH clinicians who will review and take action.

WHY IT MATTERS

Doccla uses the latest wearable devices to allow medical staff to monitor the vital signs of a patient remotely, through a secure web browser, while the patient is at home. Its virtual wards allow NHS trusts to reduce the number of vulnerable patients required to remain in hospital, increasing capacity to look after patients.

The objective is to help certain patients to stay at home and, avoid the need to be admitted to hospital unless they experience a deterioration in their condition. All clinical responsibility remains with NGH, with Doccla providing a service that makes it possible to monitor patients remotely.

For patients, the virtual ward reduces anxiety and the need for hospital visits. The breadth of data gathered by the wearables gives the patient assurance that their care team will be alerted if their condition deteriorates. 

THE LARGER TREND

Doccla was originally chosen by the NHS to lead on a project to demonstrate the feasibility of Smart Home Care. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, NGH has worked with Doccla to develop a remote monitoring system for recovering COVID patients as well as the chronically ill.

A recent survey among the first 40 patients, as well the clinical team at NGH, shows very strong support for the Doccla Remote Patient Monitoring model.

Wearables have surged in popularity in the last few months due to remote care becoming the new status quo in the coronavirus crisis. They have proved to efficiently enable seamless RPM during COVID-19 and some studies have shown that they prove reliable in determining mortality risk in adults.

Recently, Philips launched a wearable biosensor to help reduce COVID-19 transmission risks.  

ON THE RECORD

Chris Pallot, director of strategy and partnerships at NGH said, “We are using Doccla’s solution to add capacity and improve clinical support, while enabling certain patients to stay at home who otherwise may have been admitted. This is one of the approaches that the hospital has taken to address the COVID-19 outbreak.”