Hospital trust shares digital initiatives with government's top technology adviser

Hadley Beeman, chief technology adviser to the secretary of state for health and social care, Matt Hancock, visited University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust to meet staff to discuss progress in a range of areas.

UHS is one of 16 centres of excellence – known as global digital exemplars – selected by the Department of Health and Social Care to develop and share innovations.

The four-year programme, which was launched in 2016, will see the trust receive a total of £10 million to lead technology projects to improve safety, quality and efficiency that could go on to be rolled out nationwide.

Ms Beeman, formerly of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is working closely with the new tech transformation unit NHSX to help modernise the NHS and care system through a major technology and digital transformation.

During her visit she was given an insight into developments including an app – digiRounds – which allows mobile device users to access key clinical information including observations, drug charts, laboratory results and handover notes on smartphones and tablets.

Staff demonstrated the benefits of Medxnote, a WhatsApp-style messaging app which enables staff to exchange confidential patient information and photographs quickly but securely and is designed to replace pagers.

Ms Beeman also found out more about MetaVision SafeTrack, an electronic observation system which sees staff input information on patients via mobile devices to calculate an early warning score to highlight changes which require escalation and Sample 360, an electronic blood tracking system which involves scanning patients’ barcoded wristbands and labelling samples on the spot to prevent errors.

Among other innovations discussed included new interactive whiteboards which display information taken directly from a patient’s electronic record, including clinical alerts such as existing medical conditions, length of admission and predicted discharge date, and My Medical Record, a personal online health record which allows patients to access their health record from home.

“We were delighted to welcome Hadley to the trust to see what we have been doing with the investment in digital projects across the organisation,” said Adrian Byrne, director of informatics at UHS.

“We have and are introducing a range of clinical systems, computer systems and world-leading medical technologies as part of a dynamic programme and are always grateful for the opportunity to show what has been achieved and what we are working towards.”

Jo Watts, global digital exemplar programme manager at UHS, added: “Hadley’s visit gave us the chance to demonstrate how we have developed a digital strategy which connects a range of products and suppliers based on the principles of open data to make information more accessible for patients, their clinicians and other healthcare providers.”