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How Health Tech Could Solve The Sexual Health Crisis
Sexual health is in crisis. Last week saw record demand for sexual health services in the UK, amid funding cuts. We are seeing a rise in new super-bugs STI’s, like drug-resistant gonorrhoea, along with the return of old diseases like syphilis, with the largest number of diagnoses since 1949. While the headlines are bleak, we have a real opportunity to disrupt the way we treat this problem in the 21st century. And health tech is undoubtedly the cure, not just for patients, but for the NHS. Despite the high demand for sexual health services, a report from Public Health England shows that between 2016 and 2017 there was an 8% decline in the number of chlamydia tests. In addition, at a patient level, the current way sexual healthcare is provided can feel inconvenient, confusing, or even daunting: many do not want to wait weeks for an appointment, do not have time to wait in the waiting room, and feel scared at the prospect of face-to-face conversations about their sex life with a doctor. People fear the experience will be uncomfortable and embarrassing. As a doctor, I would say there is no need for this fear, of course. I would never judge a patient and, like me, most doctors have “seen it all”. However, we have to take the stigma people feel around sexual health really seriously. This fear is paralysing and dangerous. Suffering in silence can cause long-term damage for people. An easily treatable infection like chlamydia, when undiagnosed and untreated, can cause long-term problems with fertility, and can spread throughout the population. It means that men experiencing erectile dysfunction delay going to the doctor, facing untold anxiety and putting them at risk of the effects of underlying health conditions going undetected. In many case, erectile dysfunction is also a symptom of problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, all of which have serious long term health consequences. Health-tech presents a huge opportunity to radically improve access to sexual health conditions. For example, we know that about 70-80% men with erectile dysfunction delay seeking help, but when they do want information, they go online. To the tech native GenZ – often the target of sexual health campaigns – online is their natural entry point for most services. It is the obvious pathway to improve the way that sexual healthcare is reached and accessed. Being able to access compassionate, caring, advice and treatment from a doctor, at a time that suits you, from your computer or smartphone, with tests and medication couriered to your door, removes the barriers to healthcare that most patients experience. It is not only more convenient, but removes that nagging fear of judgement. For people living far away from a sexual health clinic, this makes all the difference between the chance to be treated, or leaving symptoms unchecked. Far from being impersonal, I find patients share more detailed information about their symptoms and concerns, when I talk to them online or on the phone. They are also far more likely to be honest about their sexual behaviour. They feel comfortable to open up, and the richness of information that I can gather is like nothing I experience when practising medicine face to face. Of course, this helps me to treat the patient much more thoroughly, effectively, and even more compassionately, as I can reassure them about the worries and concerns they could never bring themselves to tell another doctor. In my own online GP practice we have performed over two million consultations, and are able treat at least double the number of patients each day than our colleagues in GP surgeries can. The benefits for the NHS to embrace digital health is massive, from a cost and efficiency perspective. The tech focused Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock has pledged £400 million in tech transformation for the NHS. He would be wise to invest in re-inventing the way that we deal with sexual health in the UK through digital. It really is the best medicine for the current crisis.
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Liva Healthcare's Chief Commercial Officer, Jonas Hjortshøj, has been featured in Pharma Times latest 'smart people' feature discussing his role at Liva Healthcare
Liva has tremendous potential to revolutionise the healthcare industry. Liva also has an impressive team of senior healthcare leaders. Over the past 10 years Jonas held a number of commercial and finance roles in Novo Nordisk, building a deep understanding of patient and…
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Mediaplanet are launching the Digital Health campaign
Mediaplanet are launching the Digital Health campaign which will be distributed with the Guardian newspaper and online at Businessandindustry.co.uk. The campaign will explore the potential digital technology has to improve healthcare with editorial insights from ABHI, techUK, the World Economic…
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Are you excited about the new #podcast coming 25th August 2020?
Today we’re happy to announce the official launch date. ♦♦♦ GIANT Thinking ♦♦♦ Tuesday, 25th August 2020 Make a note in your calendar and stay tuned for more information.
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Healthtech firm receives Innovate UK backing for diabetes research
ealthtech company Cognitant Group has won a grant from Innovate UK to conduct a diabetes research programme in Colombia, as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The aim of this project, in partnership with Oxford Brookes University and the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio in Bogota, Colombia, is to improve the self-management of health among people with diabetes in Colombia by delivering avatar-based educational experiences. This project was developed to address the growing number of adults with diabetes in Colombia, estimated at nearly 3 million in 2017 by the International Diabetes Federation. The health costs of diabetes in Colombia now exceed $2 billion a year. Research indicates that many of the long-term complications associated with diabetes are preventable by optimising glycaemic control. This project will therefore run a feasibility study to evaluate the potential of an avatar-based educational programme to improve patients’ awareness of their health, including understanding of their condition, the effects of treatment, and strategies for effective management. Dr Tim Ringrose, CEO of Cognitant Group, said: “We are thrilled to be working in partnership with Oxford Brookes University and the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio in Bogota, Colombia on such an important project. The growth in prevalence of diabetes with its significant impact on health outcomes and healthcare costs is a huge concern. We are keen to see whether immersive educational experiences can help to tackle this issue in Colombia and to explore how this could be extended to other regions.” It is hoped that, by offering clear and engaging clinical information, the project will see a positive impact on patients’ self-management and, consequently, their health outcomes. Dr Clare Martin, co-investigator from Oxford Brookes University, added: “We are delighted to be working with Cognitant Group on this exciting new project. It is also an excellent opportunity to continue our diabetes technology research collaboration with the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio.”
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A new podcast - GIANT Thinking
GIANT Health is launching a new podcast GIANT Thinking Our vision is to improve the health and well-being of people around the world. By supporting #innovation in #healthcare and promoting #healthtech entrepreneurs. We are a mission driven organisation whose goal…
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Smartphone-based care home training given Innovate UK backing
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, care home residents and those receiving community-based care are recognised to be at great risk from the virus. Although highly experienced in general care of frail patients, care home staff are under tremendous pressure to keep up-to-date with new medical and government guidelines as they learn to safely manage patients. Technology and business innovation has a key role to play in supporting care staff in managing these difficult circumstances. Cognitant will be developing and delivering training for all care staff to access via smartphones. The programme will be shared amongst care staff by care organisations and by staff themselves using peer-to-peer networks and social media. It also includes a self-assessment component and a certificate of completion to ensure quality training. This new innovative approach will support and train care workers with minimal disruption to their time and work duties. The smartphone-based approach makes the content accessible and creates a mechanism to provide updates to care staff as policy and procedures adjust over time. As part of the development of the training programme, Cognitant is conducting a survey of care workers to ensure that the training addresses the areas of greatest need. Cognitant will also be delivering the support and training for care workers to assist them in acquiring essential new skills. This includes: Support care home staff as they care for patients affected by COVID-19 in care homes and in the community. Up-skill care home staff to be able to carry out clinical observations for the monitoring of patients (inc. blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, as recommended by the British Geriatric Society). Ensure that care staff are equipped to be able to liaise effectively with remote clinical teams (GPs and 111) Improve the confidence of care staff in managing patients Reduce anxiety of patients, their relatives and staff Cognitant’s chief executive Dr Tim Ringrose said: “The pandemic has put enormous strain on care home staff, who are caring for the most vulnerable members of our society. This programme aims to ensure that each member of staff has easy access to trustworthy information and training. We will be working closely with the network of care homes to support care home staff in their vital role looking after our loved ones”.
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Have you downloaded Vinehealth app?
Have you downloaded Vinehealth app? It's free to use. If you haven't yet you can download it here.
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GIANT Thinking
Something new is coming from GIANT.. We’re excited to announce the official launch of GIANT Thinking, a new podcast that tells the stories about world-class experts from #healthcare, #Industry and #technology. Stay tuned on our social media channels in the…
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Healthtech Acquisition Worth $16 Million Signals Shift In Clinician-Patient Communication
In June 2020, Induction Healthcare, the group behind the Induction and MicroGuide apps acquired fellow healthtech company Zesty, which enables integration between a hospital’s electronic patient record (EPR) and patient administration system (PAS) in a deal worth £12.7 million ($16M). Induction, used by over 119,000 clinicians in the U.K., boosts clinicians' productivity, enhances communication and has seen an almost 500% increase in usage during the Covid-19 crisis. On the other side, Zesty empowers patients to manage their hospital outpatient appointments, read their administrative and clinical correspondence, attend a video based consultation and store a personal copy of their records. Bringing together Zesty and Induction Healthcare’s technologies, the group will now be one of the first technology platforms to connect patients, clinicians and healthcare information across both multiple hospital sites and EPR platforms, which could represent a significant paradigm shift in clinician-to-patient communication. Dr Hugo Stephenson, CEO of Induction, said: “Zesty has solved the problem of integrating with different electronic patient record systems. Connecting the most used app by NHS doctors (Induction) and the most used app by NHS trusts (MicroGuide) with patients and their health records, has the potential to deliver the right resources to the right places at the right time - a transformational opportunity for healthcare.” James Balmain, CEO of Zesty, said: “I see the frustration that clinical teams and patients feel every day. Basic things, like updating a patient record or booking an appointment - are just not easy enough. So an app for doctors, connected to an app for patients makes total sense. Induction and Zesty coming together can help improve the way healthcare is delivered.” A better way to communicate? Communication between clinicians, patients and administrators has been a longstanding challenge, and many healthtech companies are trying to modernise existing, inefficient systems of letters, written notes and bleeps (pagers). Speaking to Balmain, he was keen to emphasise the potential of the new collaborative approach when it comes to clinician-to-patient communication: “We want to form a single communication channel right through from patient to clinician and administration, which provides a huge opportunity for speeding up so much of healthcare, making it more efficient, dropping the costs and making healthcare more sustainable.” Balmain went on to talk about his vision of asynchronous communication between patients and clinicians: instead of patients having designated time with clinicians and the amount of ‘healthcare’ being fixed by time (synchronous), a flexible communication channel could now be opened from the clinician to the patient, via an EPR, so communication could be ad-hoc and documented in their notes, i.e. asynchronous. In practical terms, it’s the difference between giving each of your friends 30 minutes per day to speak to you in person versus replying to them as and when, remotely on Whatsapp. Balmain sees the latter being used in healthcare to increase efficiency. And in the context of Covid-19, where backlogs mean healthcare providers are encouraged to look for ways to increase efficiency, one might expect new healthcare systems that include asynchronous communication to be favourable. Usurping the usual barriers It will be interesting to watch the next move from Induction Healthcare Group following this acquisition. Their Induction app securely shares useful information for clinicians and their MicroGuide app is a platform for clinician guidelines, supporting the likes of Barts Health NHS Trust in the Nightingale London project with antimicrobial and COVID-19 content. Seemingly very simple functionality in both cases. But their utility means Induction is the pocket of most clinicians in the U.K. and Microguide is used across approximately 75% of NHS trusts. Any app now bolted onto Induction Healthcare Group’s platform is a thumb’s width away from being used by 119,000 clinicians and/or 75% of NHS Trusts. In a sector where adoption of technology is what most-often claims companies in the so-called ‘valley of death’ between initial funding and product-market fit, this access to clinicians and NHS Trusts could prove very valuable.
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Digital Health: Identifying and Patenting Digital Health Inventions
Monday 17th August 2020, 2:00pm (London UK - BST) 45mins What will the talk cover? The current pace and scale of health care innovation has led to the emergence of a broad range of new digital health technologies which…
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Do you know why you should attend The Virtual Giant Health Event 2020?
Here are some reasons: Engage with leaders in digital health Abundant networking opportunities Free .health domain Full CPD points FREE IHM Annual Membership Buy ticket here.
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