Healthcare App To Enhance Patient Care and Save GPs’ Time
In collaboration with INPS, we have developed an iPad application allowing GPs to access their registered patients’ records wherever they are. Whilst the main goal is to improve patient safety by reducing prescribing errors, the app is also saving GPs precious time as consultation notes are updated during home visits, rather than back at the practice.
The Vision Anywhere app utilises Read v2, (UK GP’s standard clinical terminology system) and Gemscript, (a set of data from NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices) when recording clinical events to provide decision support that reduces prescribing errors. The app also has full access to the entire patient list, connecting directly to the INPS Vision database, giving GPs all the information to hand necessary to make informed decisions.
Where internet connection is not available it is possible to ‘briefcase’ the existing notes and add new consultation notes offline. The encounter will then synchronise back to the database as soon as connectivity is re-established, making the app ideal for home visits in any location.
David Jehring, former GP and CEO of Black Pear said, “GPs on home visits can respond to emails, chat on social media or do some online banking, but they can’t share the information necessary to coordinate our care. At Black Pear we see it as imperative that this gap between other IT services and health IT is bridged, especially due to the ever-increasing demands on the NHS and GPs in particular. We believe Vision Anywhere is the first step along this path and, with thousands of preventable deaths each year coming from misdiagnosis, it is a vital one.”
The app has generated huge interest since hitting the AppStore during the summer months and is well on its way to rolling out to the first 200 GPs. This is not least due to the interactivity the app offers with patient notes.
Dr Cheek, a GP at James Street Group Practice in Workington who has been using the app said, “With Vision Anywhere I have a three dimensional view of the patient record. For example, when I’m visiting patients I can now look at aspects of their record that relate to one condition such as blood pressure and then consider how that could relate to CKD. When you reflect on the fact that most housebound patients have complex medical conditions, using paper printouts is potentially dangerous.”
With GPs’ hours increasingly squeezed in recent years and the Prime Minister proposing seven-day GP cover by 2020, Vision Anywhere could prove crucial in saving GPs’ time when they need it most.
The National Vision User Group (NVUG) are hosting their 30th annual conference on 13th/14th November where a demo of Vision Anywhere can be viewed.