Working with the Health Innovation North West, January and February 2024

There was no meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate meeting in January, meaning that the February one was the first for this year.

In February, there were two topics on the agenda:

• Aspedan. This is a mobile phone app that is being developed to enable people to improve
  their health. It will accept data such as blood pressure readings from a monitor or
  smartwatch and also measurements such as steps taken in a day, again from a fitness
  tracker. Personalised goals can be set, and it is hoped that healthcare professionals will be
  able to access the inputted data to enable them to support patients. Some members of the
  group have been asked to trial the ap for a month and report back on how user-friendly they
  find it. More information can be found at https://aspedan.com/
• Opioid awareness. There is a planned campaign in the Northwest to reduce the use of
  opioid painkillers because there is little evidence that these are of benefit after three
  months of use, and it is thought that some patients have become addicted to them. The aim
  of the campaign will be to try to assist patients with other forms of pain management in the
  hope of enabling to reduce their use of these painkillers but of course this reduction will
  need to be carefully managed.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors did meet in January but not in February and were shown the final
version of the Happy Hearts website and it was clear that many recommendations that had been
made by the group were taken into consideration:
https://www.happy-hearts.co.uk/

Julia Bate
February 2024

Working with the Health Innovation North West, March and April 2024

At the meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate in March, we reviewed a survey
questionnaire for a company called ‘Beyond Blood’, which is developing finger prick diagnostic blood test for a number of conditions. We made
suggestions as to how the layout and wording of the survey could be improved.

At the April meeting we heard about an App called Talk It Out (https://www.talkitout.app/ ). This is
an app designed to help with mental health issues and the user talks to it about their concerns and a
form of AI then responds to the subconscious thoughts elicited by creating a written summary. In a
small pilot study, a reduction of 37% of anxiety symptoms was demonstrated.

The rest of the meeting was given over to us being informed about upcoming projects that we are
likely to be reviewing in the coming months.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met in March, but unfortunately, I was unable to attend. The topics
discussed were ‘Transfer of Chemotherapy Treatments from Hospital to Hospice’ and ‘Update on
Medicine Safety, Opiate reduction work’.

At the April meeting, there was a presentation about an App for Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation used to be a course of face-to-face sessions for patients with conditions
such as COPD. These sessions were mainly physiotherapy but there was also some teaching around
medicines and practical means of keeping the condition stable. Since Covid, these courses have had
to be online. This App is intended to demonstrate exercises to patients, so that those unable or
unwilling to attend group sessions can carry them out online. The group have been asked to review
a patient questionnaire which is in development, and this will be sent to members over the next few
days for comment.

Julia Bate
April 2024

Working with the Health Innovation North West, May – November  2024

At the May meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate, there was a presentation about a ‘Photobox’ project. The aim of the project is for people to create a memory box about themselves which includes recording their voice as well as photographic images, so that their heirs have not only pictures but also audio memories of their loved one.

There was then also a brief presentation about the Light Ox project. https://lightox.co.uk/ , which is about light-activated drug treatments for early stage oral cancers and pre-cancers. It is hoped that this treatment would reduce the need for surgery in the future. At the July meeting of the Patient Safety Ambassadors, it was mentioned that the company are now extending this form of treatment so that it can be used for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, potentially reducing the need for bandaging etc.

The June meeting was cancelled, but then in July, at the meeting that again, I was unable to attend, there was a talk on Patient and Public Involvement in Genomics, and also one on a new NHS platform to assist people in mental health crises within the Cheshire and Wirral NHS partnership.

In September, the Digital Communications Company, Redmoor Health asked the group to review information they were going to provide to GP practices about the road towards Net-zero carbon emissions, how to conduct a baseline assessment of the current position of the practice and steps needed to be taken to improve. The impact on patients would mainly relate to travel and to the need to switch some inhaler devices to ones with lower carbon emission.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met in May (I was unable to attend) but the presentation was regarding Danibu, https://damibu.com/, which is a company which helps to keep NHS websites up to date, reducing the need for healthcare professionals to spend time on such administrative roles.

The June meeting of this group was also cancelled.

In July, in addition to Light Ox, there was a talk about how healthcare inequalities are beginning to be addressed by tackling fuel poverty in target patient groups. It is well-known that respiratory diseases can be exacerbated by living in cold, damp situations, so patients who meet certain criteria are being referred for help with home insulation and with fuel bills in the hope that this will help to improve their respiratory health.

Working with the Health Innovation Northwest, November 2024

At the November meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate, we learned about a research project that is going to take place into blood pressure monitoring devices that do not involve using an inflatable cuff (e.g. smart watches) and comparing their accuracy with the standard machines. The group was asked to provide a project manager to oversee the project from a patient perspective.

We also had a presentation about a Mental Health App entitled ‘Talk It Out’ https://www.talkitout.app/ which uses AI to spot what causes a person’s anxiety by recognition of a change in voice tone.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors Group has since been amalgamated with the Patient and Public Involvement Senate.