Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency January and February 2023.

The January meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate was dedicated to examining the NHS Innovation Agency Website with a view to improving it by making it more user-friendly and accessible. More work needs to be done over the next couple of months in order to achieve this goal.

There were two presentations at the February meeting.

• The first one was about brain and body training for pain relief. The speaker demonstrated how the App, through the use of an avatar overlay, patients can compare and improve the quality of their movements without supervision by a physiotherapist. It shows movement in three planes. It is able to create individualised exercises for patients.
• https://postureinmind.co.uk/rehabilitation_with_recovery
• The second presentation was from someone who is setting up a system whereby people who are able to work as carers for people in their own homes can be introduced to those needing care. The carers would be self-employed, therefore the need for the employer or person needing care to deduct tax and National Insurance from the carers would be removed. There was a discussion around how the carers would meet the requisite standards, the need for proof of DBS checks etc. would have to be considered.
• https://independentcarers.youcanbook.me/
• The Patient Safety Ambassadors did not meet in January.

In February they reviewed a questionnaire that will be used for patients who have participated in a Flu Test and Treat Pilot Programme. This programme has been trialled on the Wirral and in Yorkshire and involves GP practices contacting patients who would be at risk of more serious illness if they contracted flu, to ascertain if they would like to register for the project. If they do develop flu-like symptoms, they are advised to notify the practice. They will then be provided with a test kit similar to that used for Covid-19 and if the result is positive, antiviral treatments could be offered. The questionnaire is to determine how well the process worked from the patients’ point of view, so that if necessary, improvements could be made in the future.

Julia Bate
February 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency March 2023

The March meeting of the Patient and Public involvement Senate was addressed by a presenter from Interrupt Digital (https://www.limitapp.io/)

This was regarding the use of mobile phones, both by adults and also by young people and about how most of us probably spend too much time looking at our phones.

Research has shown that many parents of young children are aware that they spend too much time on their phone instead of concentrating on their children, and also that many students when they leave home spend time on their phones rather than socialising with their peers.

The company has developed an App which can set limits for phone usage that parents can set for their children and themselves, and other adults can just set for themselves. One way that this happens is that the pages being viewed online will change to being displayed in black and white, which causes the user to become bored more easily.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors Group also met and were updated on the work on patient medication reviews and the reduction of prescribing of opioid drugs which had been discussed previously. The group has assisted in the development of the patient information leaflet, which is being used for the medication reviews. Specialised training is being given to healthcare professionals to ensure that the reviews are of a very high standard.

Reviews of patients prescribed high dose opioids over a long period of time are beginning to take place in the Morecambe Bay area. It is hoped that nationally almost 500 deaths will be prevented by reducing the number of atients prescribed these drugs long-term by around 30,000.

Julia Bate
March 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency April 2023

The April meeting of the Patient and Public involvement Senate was addressed by a presenter from Zun Told which provides mental health therapy through fiction. https://zuntold.com/

The website is currently being updated, but the principle is that it has a team of counsellors, bibliotherapists and therapeutic practitioners who work with creative writing. Through the fiction as therapy programme people can talk about what is going on in their life and write about it. They then work with them to help them to understand themselves better and help with any changes they want to make and sort through any feelings or worries they might be having. This is done through therapy writing templates, story -telling, poetry and reading.

The April meeting of the Patient Safety Ambassadors Group was cancelled.

Julia Bate
April 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency May 2023

The May meeting of the Patient and Public involvement Senate hosted two speakers.

The first talk was about KiActive®( https://kiactiv.com/)

This is a digital physical activity hub, with the aim of bringing about self-care for rehabilitation using an online mentor to create a plan of activities best suited to someone’s own personal needs. Activity can be measured via an activity monitor from which the data can be uploaded to the KiActive® app. The system is aimed at the NHS, but some Trusts are unable to pay the costs involved, in which case patients are asked to self-fund to use it.

The second talk was about Liberate Pro™ ( https://liberate.com/liberate-pro-product/ch ) is an app for supporting clinical consultations. The consultation can be recorded and then a link to the recording can be sent to the patient via email. The advantage of this is that the patient may well not recall everything that was said during the consultation and they can play the recording as many times as they like. There is also advise on disease management which can be downloaded by the patient.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met later in the month.

There was a demonstration of the Breathing Point website which is now nearing completion. It is aimed at patients in Cheshire and Merseyside who have one or more lung conditions. The website offers a comprehensive range of information and advice and is well worth a look. https://breathingpoint.co.uk/

We then were asked to review two potential patient surveys which had been submitted to the Innovation Agency for comment. It was felt that both needed significant modification to make them user-friendly, so we will probably look at them further at a future date.

Julia Bate
May 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency June 2023

The June meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate hosted three presentations.

The first talk was about dementia-friendly photography workshops which have been set up with the aim of assisting patients with dementia to use their creativity in photography which it is also hoped will help to integrate them back into society. Patients can attend the workshops with their carers who can assist them with their projects.

We then received a presentation from a representative from the company Healum Ltd (https://sbrihealthcare.co.uk/companies/?company_name=healum) who have developed a mobile phone App linking GPs (and other healthcare professionals) to patients whereby long-term conditions can be managed using goal-setting, for example for people with diabetes to adjust their diet and develop and exercise plan, and steps towards the goal can be recorded on the app for the healthcare professional to see and monitor. It also gives patients access to test results.

The last presentation was from a representative from Philips regarding their portable ecg monitor which can be worn for up to 14 days to help to detect atrial fibrillation, which could lay undetected if only brief ecg monitoring is used. More information is available on the website: (https://www.philips.co.uk/healthcare/resources/landing/epatch)

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met later in the month.
The first topic was regarding a system for assisting patients following knee surgery (https://www.bodii.uk/). The idea is that physiotherapists can monitor patients’ progress with the exercises they prescribe via a device which is strapped to the leg below the knee which measures how far the leg can be bent and records the information on a mobile phone app. This data can then be transmitted to the physiotherapist or doctor. The system is only limited in its availability on the NHS, so the disadvantage is the weekly subscription of £9 for the patient if the NHS does not fund the service. It is hoped though, that because patients are able to see improvement in their movement after completing the exercises, they will be more likely to continue these exercises. The second discussion was around a patient survey that is going to be carried out with patients who have been provided with devices to monitor their blood pressure at home, to assess how they found the use of home-monitoring, and the advantages and disadvantages. The review of the questionnaire is ongoing.

Julia Bate
June 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency July 2023

The July meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate hosted two presentations.

The first talk was from a representative from Telehealth. Telehealth systems support people with Long Term Conditions (LTCs), such as COPD, Type 2 diabetes and chronic heart failure to self-manage their conditions, remain more independent, reduce hospital stays, allow early hospital discharge and also reduce the dependency on primary health and GP services. Telehealth services usually consist of a smart hub which allows the patient to enter vital signs data or have the data collected by various devices (blood pressures readers, pulse oximeters, and blood glucose monitors) which automatically transmits the readings to the hub. This data is then transmitted to a monitoring service where the patient’s health is monitored, and any alerts addressed by the appropriate service.

The second presentation was regarding a system for assisting patients following knee surgery (https://www.bodii.uk/). The presenter was due to attend the last meeting of the Patient Safety Ambassadors but was forced to cancel due to illness. Details of the product are available on the June report as they were presented by the meeting organiser, but at this meeting, the patient instructions were discussed as to format and means of distribution. The group was also asked to discuss how likely they would be to use the device.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met and were given details of the new Innovation Agency Patient Safety and Care Improvement Team structure and membership. There was then a talk about the connection between deprivation and ill health. The most common areas where inequality manifests itself are:

• Maternity
• Severe Mental Illness
• Chronic Respiratory Disease
• Early Cancer Diagnosis
• Hypertension Identification

A national cardiovascular disease prevention programme has been set up in attempt to minimise risk factors for this, an example being the Agency’s Heart Heroes who visit popular venues testing blood pressure and for atrial fibrillation and raised cholesterol in members of the public. It is now planned that the Heart Heroes will move to work in the most deprived areas of the region.

Julia Bate
July 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency August 2023

No meetings.

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency September 2023

Two topics were discussed at the September meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate.

The first was related to the Healum mobile health app. (https://www.healum.com/bespoke-mobile-health-apps-for-patients) The group was asked to review and suggest modifications to a planned questionnaire which would be sent to patients following their use of the app. Several modifications were recommended, and members of the group will be asked to complete their review when the remainder of the planned questions are emailed out to them.

The ARCNWC (Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast), (https://arc-nwc.nihr.ac.uk/improving-population-health) is in the early stages of devising a means of attempting to combat loneliness by trying to bring together people with similar interests without contravening any GDPR rules. This would be via a website group whose members or anyone wishing to access the group would only be allowed to do so after being ‘vetted’.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met later in the month, and the purpose of the meeting was to prepare for the October meeting which will be dedicated to discussions on polypharmacy and medication reviews.

Julia Bate
September 2023

Working with the Health Innovation North West Coast October and November 2023

The NHS Innovation Agency for this area has been renamed as Health Innovation North West Coast https://www.healthinnovationnwc.nhs.uk as from the beginning of October this year.

In common with most of the former Academic Health Science Networks, the name has been changed as part of the relicensing process by which NHS England mandate the Patient and Public Involvement Senate and the Agency to carry on its work for a further five years.

The October meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate meeting was very brief with just the changes above being discussed.

The Patient Safety Ambassadors met during October and were given a presentation on moving forward with Patient Medication Reviews in Primary Care. The group were asked to review publicity and information materials that have been drafted to be given to patients prior to their appointment. There were several suggestions for amendments which the project leaders were keen to take on board.

The purpose of the November meeting of the Patient and Public Involvement Senate was to review the draft of the new version of the Cheshire and Merseyside Happy Hearts website. https://www.happy-hearts.co.uk/
The link above is to the old website as the new one is only in draft form and the group did suggest some modifications to it. The partially revised form of this website was again discussed by the Patient Safety Ambassadors at the November meeting and we now looking forward to seeing the finalised version up and running very soon.

Julia Bate
November 2023

Working with the NHS Northwest Innovation Agency December 2023

No meetings