Open Medical has been engaged to use its PATHPOINT Referral Management platform to improve the quality of information in referrals to the service and determine the priority of requests.

The outcome should be a digitally enabled occupational therapy triage pathway that reduces the amount of time occupational therapists spend chasing and assessing referrals, releasing clinical capacity to address waiting lists.

The RCE is funded by the Moray Growth Deal in Scotland to support inward investment and jobs and, in line with this, the project should also create a new asset that Open Medical can commercialise for other services that need to balance rising demand with limited resources.

Marie Simpson, a programme manager at Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, and a registered Occupational Therapist herself, said: “The RCE is a £5 million project funded by the UK government through the Moray Growth Deal to drive economic growth, with a particular focus on digital health and social care innovation in rural areas.

“We are raising the profile of the Moray region as a hot spot for digital companies that want to develop and test their ideas and innovation for health and social care. We have partnerships in place with the public sector and citizens to act as a test bed for innovation. This project is a great example of how we work in practice.

“The local occupational therapy service, managed by Health & Social Care Moray (HSCM), has been experiencing a rise in requests for support, so we looked at the pathway and at where digital could help. Now, we are working with Open Medical to improve the service model – improving the quality of referrals and triaging them automatically.

“The project should help Occupational Therapists, because they will be able to do more of the work they trained for, instead of office admin and chasing information. It should be better for citizens, because they will be able to get the support they need, faster, and it will create an asset that Open Medical can take to other services supported by DHI’s international networks.”

HSCM’s team of community Occupational Therapists and occupational therapy assistants provides support to people who need home adaptations or equipment to help with daily living tasks, such as toileting, accessing bathing facilities or managing stairs.

Anybody can make a referral to the service with the citizen’s consent, which is screened by the access care team and triaged by a qualified Occupational Therapist. However, at times, the service receives referrals that may be incomplete or not fully appropriate, requiring additional clinical time for prioritisation and impacting routine work.

Open Medical and the DHI held workshops with Occupational Therapists to understand the challenges and what they wanted from a new innovative digitally enabled service.

The company has integrated PATHPOINT Referral Management with the Mydex CIC Personal Data Store – an RCE R&D project that makes it easier for patients to upload information about themselves and share it with local health and care and third sector services.

The integration allows patients to enter their data once to re-use to access other services, reducing the need to repeat themselves, while improving the quality of information in the referrals that the occupational therapy service and other services receive.

Open Medical will also use the automation tools in PATHPOINT Referral Management to screen out ineligible referrals, to signpost people who don’t need the service back to the local Community Connections service directory linking people to sources of help, and to determine whether users need a digital or face-to-face assessment.

Dr Tim Hoogenboom, head of research at Open Medical, said: “It is fantastic to see the DHI taking a pro-active approach to finding digital solutions to address the problems faced by health and care services, while supporting companies with innovative ideas that extend their R&D.

“Our own approach to research and development is always to start by getting a real understanding of workflow, and we have really enjoyed collaborating with the DHI and the occupational therapy team in Moray to determine how our referral management toolkit can evolve.

“At the end of the day, the systems we build must adapt to, and be supportive of, the way that clinical teams work – and not the other way around. So, if the occupational therapists need something that our technology cannot support, we’re committed to developing that functionality.

“The testing phase of the project is about to start, so we look forward to feedback from users and the occupational therapy team on whether this new solution will work not just for them, but for occupational therapy services in the UK and globally.”

Open Medical is a specialist provider of patient flow solutions. Its PATHPOINT Referral Management product has been developed as part of its work in trauma, dermatology and other clinical specialties.

PATHPOINT Referral Management improves referral quality and data capture, enabling more streamlined patient triage and reviews, and provides two-way communications along the referral pathway.

In Moray, Open Medical has completed the integration of the PATHPOINT platform with the PDS and is about to test the new referral pathway with trial users.

There will then be a process of refining the new system, before a decision is made on whether to adopt it permanently. If the project is successful, Open Medical plans to commercialise the work to create a new occupational therapy product.

The post Innovative Project uses PATHPOINT Referral Management to Improve and Triage Referrals appeared first on .

There could be a multitude of causes of chronic pain ranging from injury, surgery, musculoskeletal conditions, cancer or complications of diabetes, arthritis, and stroke. Irrespective of the root cause, chronic pain can have a debilitating effect. In addition, chronic pain also translates into decreased productivity, loss of wages, and increased dependence on the healthcare infrastructure. As a result, the burden of chronic pain falls both on the individual as well as the society. Therefore, good pain management practices are important since they help mitigate chronic pain and allow individuals to perform their day-to-day tasks smoothly.

The role of technology in chronic pain

While medication is an integral component of managing chronic pain, long-term management of chronic conditions also requires support to bring lifestyle changes through exercise therapy, nutrition advice etc. Technology can help doctors and healthcare professionals facilitate the right interventions for better long-term management of chronic pain conditions.

Equally important, it provides greater control to the patient by encouraging self-management. In turn, this can also encourage patients to share progress data voluntarily, which can provide valuable insights to develop pain management therapies.

There is ample scientific evidence to demonstrate the benefits of long-term exercise on conditions such as chronic low back pain, chronic neck pain, and neuropathic pain. Digital platforms can increase patient engagement by providing valuable information such as demonstration videos for exercises and tips for injury prevention, etc. This engagement is particularly valuable in the initial stages of exercise training when patients might experience a short-term exacerbation of pain. In the absence of close supervision at this stage, patients are more prone to abandoning the programs and reverting to their sedentary lifestyle that perpetuates a vicious cycle of increasing pain. Engagement and counselling can help alleviate long-term suffering.

Since direct supervision over pain management by a healthcare professional is often not practically possible, digital platforms play an increasingly vital role. While patients often seek support from their healthcare provider, the latter is limited by bandwidth as well as time. For instance, access to the provider might not be easily possible beyond traditional office hours. Digital platforms can help here since they allow patients to log their pain, mood, sleep, and activities and gain better insights into their own coping mechanisms. These records can also guide the development of a personalized treatment plan. Digital tools can be useful to set timelines to fulfil specific goals in a pain management plan.

Studies suggest that chronic pain patients and their families often seek knowledge about their condition and are keen to learn about lifestyle adjustments such as exercise, sleep, and nutrition. They also look for strategies and tips to cope with depressive and anxious thoughts, which are often associated with chronic pain. In fact, the lack of access to reliable information on their condition can be a source of distress, particularly in the initial stages. A digital platform can fulfill this requirement and eliminate the need to scour through the internet and dodge massive amounts of misinformation.

Given that chronic pain is a debilitating condition that can lead to physiological and psychological consequences, digital health platforms can provide crucial support in the form of on-demand guidance. Whether the platform acts as a virtual coach that assists patients with exercise therapy or as a digital diary for individuals to log their pain experience, the role of digital platforms can be valuable. For clinicians too, digital tools can generate useful insights to monitor patient progress and optimize pain management strategies.

Life sciences organizations must look to leverage digital technology for better patient outcomes when dealing with chronic pain. Apart from manufacturing compliant tools and devices, they should invest in integrated digital health platforms that will inform clinicians and doctors based on the data patients choose to share, the best pain management strategy for their needs.

By Subhro Mallik, EVP and Head of Life Sciences, Infosys

The post The Pivotal Role of Technology in Chronic Pain Management appeared first on .

The scaphoid bone has an avascular blood supply that means, depending on the location and size of the break, there is a real risk of bone death where blood supply is cut off. This leads to a loss of wrist function and dexterity, which can have significant financial implications for those who rely on their flexibility of wrist movement that the scaphoid supports.

This is why MRI and CT images have become the ‘gold standard’ for diagnosis. However, limited resources and long imaging waiting lists mean clinicians across the UK instead rely on X-rays in the first instance. If a scaphoid fracture is suspected, clinicians will typically request four X-ray views, versus two for other wrist injuries, but even that is not a guarantee that the fracture will show as the scaphoid bone can be easily hidden by other carpal bones in a 2D image.

It is easy to understand how scaphoid fractures can be easily missed then, particularly in overstretched A&E departments where there may not be sufficient scanner time or radiology cover to diagnose ‘minor injuries’ quickly. Clinical teams usually adopt a conservative approach therefore: Initially treating the injury as if the bone is fractured, with splinting recommended to protect it from further damage, and a follow-up appointment with the fracture clinic in 7-10 days’ time. By this point, if the patient is still experiencing pain, new X-rays will likely reveal initial bone healing more clearly than the original scaphoid break.

It is a sensible approach but one that ultimately causes several problems:

Firstly, where clinicians are concerned about the possibility of a scaphoid fracture but unable to confirm it during the initial visit, splinting the wrist while awaiting further imaging or specialist review means patients can find themselves unable to work unnecessarily, with significant financial implications due to lost earnings.

Scaphoid fractures are usually slow to heal because tiny blood vessels supplying nutrients to the site are often damaged at the time of injury. This means that even though the results of both surgical and non-surgical interventions are very good following diagnosis, both approaches require considerable time in plaster, with knock-on impacts for patients and their dependents, including inability to drive, work and earn normally. Should surgery ultimately be required, it is easy to see how treatment delays of just a couple of weeks can have a real impact on patients’ lives.

Finally, requiring all patients to attend follow-up appointments in fracture clinic has significant resource implications for a healthcare system already under pressure, not least in terms of clinician time and additional imaging requirements.

Accepting all of the above, how then can we improve diagnosis for these patients? How can we prevent patients with sprained wrists taking unnecessary time off work, while supporting those with scaphoid fractures to access faster treatment and limit injury-related loss of earnings?

One potential solution lies in a new imaging technology – already proven in the veterinary industry – which promises to bring affordable, more-detailed 3D imaging to the point of care in hospitals and clinics around the world.

This next-generation technology builds on the foundations of digital tomosynthesis (DT) imaging, which is widely used for breast imaging across the NHS. With traditional DT, a conventional X-ray tube moves through a range of angles to derive 3D data – providing better diagnostic information than 2D X-ray but, restricted by its limited depth resolution capabilities, creating difficulties localising some structures and elements.

Adaptix’s unique 3D X-ray technology ‘sweeps’ in two dimensions, enhancing the Z resolution relative to conventional DT. Images are quickly reconstructed – in under 20 seconds – providing  slice-by-slice images that can be analysed extremely quickly. This allows for slice thickness adjustments over regions of interest – a particularly important feature when looking for ‘tricky’ fractures, such as those to the scaphoid bone.

The result? A high-resolution 3D image that provides far greater definition and clarity than 2D X-ray techniques, at a cost and radiation dose similar to traditional X-ray. What is more, the compact design of the technology and low-radiation dose, mean it can be brought directly to the point of patient care – reducing time spent moving between hospital departments and allowing clinicians to obtain imaging ‘in clinic’ if needed.

It is an exciting development that promises to improve both health outcomes and clinical management alike: Providing faster, more-accurate diagnosis; reducing the need for expensive MRI or CT imaging; supporting clinicians to plan workflows, clinics and surgeries more effectively; and helping patients get the treatment they need more quickly, without unnecessary time off work and speeding their return, mitigating any financial losses resulting from their injury.

By Mark Thomas, BSc (Hons), PgC, HCPC Reg. 

Mark spent the first 10 years of his career working as a Radiographer in human healthcare both in the UK and Australia. Later, he focused on CT, managing the Neuro CT Service in Oxford in his final position. In 2008, Mark joined Toshiba/Canon Medical as a CT Specialist, and spent the next 15 years initially providing training, before managing the UK Clinical CT Team. With a strong team Mark drove the adoption of new technologies pushing clinical boundaries, maintaining high clinical integrity and importantly customer satisfaction. Mark’s background gives him real clarity on the future and opportunity for inclusion of Digital Tomosynthesis Imaging in a modern, forward thinking Imaging Service.

The post Reducing Misdiagnosis and Helping Patients Back to Work appeared first on .

Following a four-month procurement, the five-year contract with Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) will enable an important part of the organisation’s digital transformation. Once deployed, technology provided in the agreement will equip professionals in Ireland’s forthcoming new children’s hospital with the ability to instantaneously access imaging and reports as they deliver care for patients.

For the first time Children’s Health Ireland will have a single secure repository for all non-radiology DICOM images, reports and other key diagnostic information. Medical images will no longer be restricted to storage on individual devices on which they are captured, but will be consolidated into an accessible vendor neutral archive (VNA) and integrated with CHI’s electronic health record. CHI estimates more than a petabyte of non-radiology imaging will be managed with the new system during the term of the contract.

A new picture archiving and communication system, or PACS, specifically for ophthalmology will also be deployed, and will be configured to address discipline specific needs, whilst creating new efficiencies and enhanced worklist visibility.

Dr Cliodhna Byrne O’Shea, applications programme manager in the Department of Digital Health at Children’s Health Ireland, said: “Once implemented in our future children’s hospital, imaging technology provided by Sectra will be revolutionary for our professionals as they support Ireland’s youngest patients, and will be a key enabler of continuity of care.

“The VNA will mean that all non-radiology imaging and key related information will be catalogued correctly going forward, and linked back to the patient record. New interoperability will be a game changer for clinicians, with connected imaging devices providing instantaneous access to imaging during clinics. This will save countless hours for our professionals, who will no longer need to walk across a hospital to find imaging stored on a device or hard drive.

“Additional specialist functionality will also help to move away from disparate systems in ways that will make life so much easier for our staff, allowing full control over worklists, ordering, and scheduling.”

Patients and families will also be able to more easily gain access to their own imaging. Whilst parents will be able to securely send images and videos to healthcare professionals – for example footage of stutters and communication issues for review by speech and language therapists.

Sectra is known widely in Europe and in geographies around the world for deploying enterprise imaging solutions that help healthcare organisations to enhance both clinical collaboration and patient access to in-demand diagnostic expertise.

Jane Rendall, Sectra’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, said: “Interoperable technology may be the requirement in this contract, but there will be a very human story to tell in its delivery. Healthcare professionals, patients, and their families will benefit from this initiative at Children’s Health Ireland – an exemplar in Ireland’s healthcare digital transformation. This is an exciting initiative that expands Sectra’s footprint in Ireland, and we look forward to working with teams to ensure technology delivers against their workflows and needs.”

The post Children’s Health Ireland to Transform Diagnostic Imaging Access with Sectra appeared first on .

Individual doctors saving an hour each day on admin. Nurses halving the time spent on handover preparation. And informed staff leveraging key information, whilst eliminating paper. This describes just some of the immediate impact witnessed on the shift from paper records to digital noting at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: results that are enduring as digitisation continues to progress.

“The general ward state is undoubtedly more efficient and safer because we now have availability of standardised, legible, and complete notes,” says Dr Andrew Adair, an emergency department consultant and the chief clinical information officer for the trust. “We have links into regional systems, all accessible through one window. Our healthcare teams are not having to leave the electronic patient record to look at x-rays, radiology reports, endoscopy, outpatient letters, or to look at other hospital attendances on the Great North Care Record.”

His comments reflect benefits being realised following a South Tees Hospitals decision to deploy Alcidion’s Miya Precision platform as a trust-wide electronic patient record.

Patient flow, e-observations and assessments, electronic prescribing and medicines administration, and clinical messaging were some of the first priority areas to be digitised in the EPR programme, with significant positive implications for patient care.

But the digitisation of clinical noting that Adair describes has become one of the most significant achievements in the programme to date.

“It’s that visibility right across the system of information for the people who need it, when they need it,” says Niki Idle, digital business change manager.

The trust has so far prevented the creation of 1.8 million paper documents as a result of digitised clinical noting. “That’s 1.8 million documents through the system so far, including 102,000 discharge letters that can automatically be sent to GPs electronically,” says Idle. “We are not building up notes that require physical storage. And other than for business continuity purposes, specialist notebooks that were used to capture notes are not being printed.”

‘I can’t believe we have never had this before’

South Tees Hospitals has worked with Alcidion to effectively reinvent noting at the trust. Intuitive technology has helped with clinical buy-in.

“Compared to other digital systems I’ve used, it just looks nice. It has been laid out with clinical teams in mind. It seems like a little thing, but this is important as your first impression of the system as a clinician,” says Adair. He describes Miya Noting, a component of the EPR platform.

Deeper under the hood, nurses and clinicians at the trust have fed back positively on a system built, configured, and deployed around their needs.

“All grades of medical staff, the nursing body, and allied healthcare professionals have all been really receptive of it,” says Dr John Greenaway, a consultant gastroenterologist and the trust’s deputy CCIO.

He recalls that in other trusts clinicians had left their positions at the thought of an EPR deployment. At South Tees Hospitals one clinician who was approaching retirement had voiced similar reservations.

“As we went live, she realised that there wasn’t much she was going to have to do, she saw the advantages of it, and there were big smiles over the next few days,” says Greenaway. “‘I’m not going to retire”, she told us.”

Another nurse, initially fearful about being able to cope with new technology, changed her mind by the end of her first shift. “I can’t believe how we’ve not had this before,” she said.

Now deployed across nearly all of the trust, and with plans to soon deploy to a remaining four areas out of 38 wards, clinical noting has had widespread engagement – with further configuration ongoing to respond to the evolving needs and requests of specialty noting. In the early stages of deployment, Idle recalls how clinical educators who were there to support staff, were told they could leave early because wards intuitively understood the system.

“We’ve been fairly swept away by how people have taken to this”, adds Greenaway. “We’ve not really had the ‘hard time’ often faced in large healthcare IT deployments. That’s partly a testament to the system and partly because clinicians do not find it too painful to input the electronic information that will be so beneficial further down the line.”

Collaboration to reinvent noting

A collaborative approach between the trust and specialists at Alcidion in designing how data is captured, has helped.

The design process delivered alongside frontline clinicians has meant that the noting has been configured around user needs from day one. Comments from staff that the system “lightens the workload”, that it has “made life a lot easier” and has released “far more time to care”, have resulted.

“It feels like you are in it with your mates,” says Greenaway. “We have a common goal, working through things together.”

The intention is that around 70% of the data required on many forms could eventually be auto-populated, either from existing parts of the patient record such as demographics, or pulled through from notes captured at earlier points of the patient’s hospital encounter.

For example, ‘pull through’ of comorbidities data is not only expected to save time, but aide in clinical decisions, and in accurate coding for financial purposes, says Idle: “Every time the patient is admitted, the system will present the clinician with a list of comorbidities, asking ‘are these still all valid and present?’ It’s prompting the clinician with information that already exists.”

“We are taking the brain power out of remembering what to do and where. We get to concentrate on important patient care decisions,” adds Greenaway.

The system has been configured to create efficiencies beyond the point of care too, for example supporting data requirements for national clinical audits. This is expected to prevent the need for clinicians to manually search for information for mandatory audits, so that they can then spend more time on quality improvement.

“We can just pull that data out of the system,” says Idle. “We’ve designed forms to ensure we collect as much pertinent information as possible, rather than somebody sifting through notes to then type into another computer system. This is freeing up time to ensure audits are complete and to address concerns raised in audit data.”

The availability of data for reporting is also supporting patient safety. “Within 14 hours of an emergency admission patients should have a senior clinical review,” Idle explains. “We’ve never been able to quantify that before without searching manually through paper notes. Now we can, just as we can examine where VTE assessments have been completed. We can now pull that data, see where it’s happening, where it isn’t, and then follow up with education.”

AI: The near future

Despite positive results, Greenaway insists more is to come and soon. “I don’t think we are anywhere near realising the benefits of the Alcidion system,” he says.

AI and other smart technologies are expected in the “near future”. “I don’t think this will be long,” says Greenaway. He refers to demonstrations already made to the trust, where a clinician can dictate a summary into a microphone for AI to then populate a form, or a plan, for clinicians to approve. And he describes “ambient listening”, where AI tools can listen to consultations in the background to generate notes.

Initially the trust intends to structure options to allow staff to ask AI to generate a handover document, or a discharge letter, or to pull through certain information from multiple encounters.

Adair concludes: “What we have now is already undoubtedly so much better. Now we are planning to introduce robotic process automation to be able to bring in additional data from our comorbidities system. And we are working to integrate more data from pathology. Not having to go into a separate system for that information – for our clinicians, that’s massive.”

The post Accelerating NHS Digital Maturity: Paper to Digital is only the Beginning for South Tees Hospitals appeared first on .

“The only thing that was impossible was to do nothing.” These are the words of Terry Pirovolakis, CEO of Elpida Therapeutics, and father to Michael who was diagnosed as an infant in 2019 with an ultra-rare neurological condition, SPG50. Despite being told there was no cure, Terry moved mountains over four years to find a breakthrough gene therapy that his son and other affected children all over the world could benefit from.

Michael, Terry, and their family are not alone in facing a long, daunting journey to access life-enhancing therapy for a disease with no cure. In the European Union, less than five percent of rare diseases have at least one approved treatment.[1] It can take up to five years for adults to receive a diagnosis, and half of patients will receive a misdiagnosis first.

By 2030, the goal is to support the development of 1,000 new therapies in Europe.[2] However, rare diseases challenge traditional ways of doing business. Once a medicine is approved, organizations must launch and scale quickly, often across multiple markets. Field medical teams must keep track of complex science at a time when the volume of medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days.[3] They need to identify, engage, and provide education to relevant healthcare professionals (HCPs) and experts even though they’re harder to reach via traditional methods (Veeva Pulse data shows that in-person meetings with physicians have declined in Europe in the last 12 months).

Despite these difficulties, life sciences organizations are improving how their teams organize market access and educate prescribing doctors on new medicines. Companies with comprehensive, accurate healthcare ecosystem data and insights relating to medical experts can prepare the market pre-launch and hit the ground running to accelerate execution after launch. This helps all customer-facing teams to deliver a consistently high-value scientific exchange in which every interaction builds off the last.

Greater agility during launch

Emerging biopharmas play a key role in delivering treatments for affected patients. Of the 192 orphan medicinal products (OMPs) authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 2010 and 2022, one in ten successful applicants was designated an ‘SME’.[4] Facing more resource constraints than their competitors (which may have sales organizations multiple times their size), early-stage companies are increasingly seeking the best customer reference data and key opinion leader (KOL) insights to become more nimble when launching new treatments.

Rich information on experts, available in CRM, supported Sweden-headquartered Sobi to launch the first and only medicine for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) — a rare, hyperinflammatory condition affecting one in 50,000 resulting in a two-month life expectancy. In the U.S., MSLs at the company now routinely use real-time intelligence to find the right KOLs, understand their interests, priorities, and activities, and consolidate scientific information and updates. “90% of MSLs found new insights for their next engagements, which is critical for a rare disease company with lean teams,” says Rich Palizzolo, executive director of CX and advanced commercial capabilities at Sobi.

An added complexity is that rare diseases often involve several specialties. MSL teams have to get up to speed quickly on multiple areas before meeting experts — while also being responsible for other (more mainstream) therapeutic areas. ADVANZ PHARMA, which focuses on specialty, hospital, and rare disease medicine, found having scientific resources and activity data in one place helped MSLs use their time efficiently. Head of CRM and Digital Solutions for Global Commercial Excellence, Andy Eeckhout, notes: “Our customer-facing teams need to be agile communicators and effectively switch to a more patient-oriented, in-depth scientific discussion than with generics. Pre-call planning is crucial for MSLs before and after launch. The more data they can find, including on past interactions, the better.”

Other companies use customer reference and patient data to improve operational agility as they launch and scale their first products across Europe. For example, one late-stage biotech leveraged its data on the healthcare ecosystem to get a head start on launch by identifying market access roles in Spain, Benelux, and the Nordic countries.

One voice to the physician

After identifying the right experts, teams can engage them more effectively by ensuring that each HCP interaction builds off the previous one. However, sales, marketing, and medical teams often use disconnected technology. As a result, 65% of HCP engagements are not synchronized.

When these teams are connected in the same system handovers are smoother, and HCPs can find answers quickly or connect with MSLs if needed. ADVANZ PHARMA introduced a pre-launch module in its CRM to help market access, medical, and commercial teams share information compliantly. Eeckhout explains: “Physicians need a direct line to the industry, so they know who to contact when they have questions. Medical and commercial teams need to talk to each other and remain agile across customer conversations.”

ANI Pharmaceuticals, which delivers treatments for certain rare autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, only had 75 days to commercialize following swifter-than-expected regulatory approval. By using an industry-specific CRM with master data management, it consolidated its view of each HCP to include interactions with medical and sales reps. “Having this information accessible within the CRM system facilitates more thoughtful and helpful conversations with providers, as well as sales teams’ success and high click-through email rates,” explains Bob Acropolis, executive director of operations and analytics at ANI.

The foundation of successful interactions is accurate reference data — on physicians, healthcare organizations (HCOs), or affiliations. If applied across functions as part of a complete life sciences-specific CRM, it helps companies speak with one voice. In most cases, data change requests (DCRs) can now be made (and resolved) in hours, so reps and field medical don’t duplicate attempts to modify account information and instead work from the same database. With greater trust and confidence in reference data, teams save time so they can focus on high-value scientific exchange.

Sharing medical content that engages

Europe’s fragmented regulatory landscape and evolving local requirements intensify the pressure on marketing teams: they must provide highly personalized, compliant medical content that field teams can share at scale with scientific experts and physicians. With a single view across the entire content lifecycle, biopharmas can streamline and speed up medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) reviews.

To deliver highly personalized content across a large rare disease portfolio, marketing teams need clarity on which content to recommend, and when. One global biopharma uses data analytics on its global repository of promotional and medical engagement tools to support content use across 17 areas of focus (and a growing global footprint). As its head of marketing and customer engagement noted, “How we engage with HCPs is critical. We need to know what percentage of our content is being developed and relevant to support different HCPs, whose patients rely on them for their rare disease diagnosis and management.”

As a new generation of digitally-savvy HCPs comes through, companies are considering the most effective tactics to engage them. More scientifically active than their peers and four times more likely to adopt a new treatment, younger HCPs require a different mix of scientific channels and content. They seek medical insights to inform their clinical and commercial decisions, which requires close coordination between medical affairs and field medical. “Gone are the days when medical could just focus on the top-tier scientific thought leaders. The range of stakeholders has broadened, and it’s imperative to expand our engagement strategies beyond traditional experts,” says Angela Smart, director of global medical excellence and operations at ADVANZ PHARMA.

Defying the odds, then beating them

Scientific discovery continues to bring hope to patients affected by rare diseases and their families. Life-changing conditions will eventually become chronic illnesses, thanks to the efforts of organizations willing to launch in a high-risk commercial environment. Companies ranging from emerging biotechs to global biopharma are using high-quality customer reference data, deep data on scientific experts, and connected technology to identify, engage, and provide medical education to the most relevant HCPs and KOLs.

Every rare disease patient faces a daunting journey. When Terry Pirovolakis’ son, Michael, was diagnosed, his family was told he was the only child in Canada with SPG50. Life sciences will do its part to help patients defy overwhelming odds — and eventually beat them.

By Chris Moore, President, Veeva Systems Europe

References

[1] “The building blocks to make rare disease treatments more common,” European Commission, February 2022

[2] “What is Rare Disease,” EURODIS, 2024

[3] “Challenges and Opportunities Facing Medical Education,” American Clinical and Climatological Association, 2011

[4] “Trends in orphan medicinal products approvals in the European Union between 2010–2022,” Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 2024

The post Defying the Odds: Speeding Patient Access to Life-Changing Treatments in Rare Disease appeared first on .

AI is transforming medical treatment in many areas and across many diseases, not just cancer. Within oncology however, which is a particularly complex and challenging disease, AI is making an even more significant difference.

Technology is accelerating the way molecules are designed and developed in new approaches against cancer, allowing us to invent innovative molecules that could work better and safer in a shorter amount of time. This stands to bring improved treatments faster to patients.

Findings published by the WHO last year revealed that in 2022 there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths. Globally, about 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, and approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease. This is the scale of the challenge.

Pharmaceutical and biomedical companies are now using increasingly powerful computational methods to fight this battle, strengthening their discovery efforts with AI to help find new compounds for killing cancer. In this early-stage, pre-clinical setting, AI is being used to search for, analyse and develop compounds aiming to eliminate the disease. As such, these new computational methods are gradually increasing accuracy, speed and reliability of treatments.

How does AI drug discovery work?

Our computational platform, called Synth AI, achieves acceleration by computationally producing molecules that meet three key objectives simultaneously.

Firstly, the platform ensures that prospective molecules can be synthesised using known chemical methods. Many computational approaches suggest potential drugs candidates that can’t actually be made or have significant challenges in their synthesis. Synth AI avoids this, ensuring the molecules can be not only made but also scaled using known technologies. This significantly boosts the chances of these treatments being successful when they reach clinical or commercial use.

The third key criterion is that Synth AI optimises the chances that these molecules have the desired biological effect. The platform delivers molecules that are not only synthesisable and scalable but also stand to be biologically effective, critically increasing the overall accuracy, speed and reliability of the drug discovery process.

These three metrics – ensuring the molecule can be active biologically, that it can be made in the laboratory, and that it may be scaled cost-effectively – are making these treatments more likely to come to market. This potentially more cost-effective drug development is a positive prospect for both patients as well as for investors in the space.

Balancing efficacy with side effects in oncology

AI drug discovery is playing a crucial role in improving efficacy, dose response and toxicity in cancer treatment as well.

Considering the unmet need and the lethal consequences of cancer, efficacy is typically prioritised, namely how effective the treatment is at killing cancerous cells. However, the market is being populated with an arsenal of anti-cancer agents which have side effects that remain a major burden for patients.

Our efforts, through the use of AI, are focused on improving efficacy while overcoming the side effect disadvantages that plague many existing treatments.

This comes back to the precision of AI.

As a concrete demonstration of how computationally sourced molecules are being validated, our initial tests against cancer in mice have produced clear evidence of tumour regression and a good safety profile. Remarkably, this is being achieved with a drug candidate that has not even been optimised in the lab.

This points to the chemical scaffolds identified using the proprietary AI computational component already producing molecules with significant advantages that would normally be far behind in the optimisation curve. The benefit for patients, physicians and also investors, is that because treatments are starting their journey to the clinic at a more advanced point, the time and capital at risk during the optimisation phase is reduced overall, speeding up the process and prospectively providing faster economic returns.

The fact that AI drug discovery can achieve such superior results with an unoptimised drug candidate means that we’ve jumped ahead in time compared to what would have normally been required to reach this point.

What AI means for patients and cancer treatment

AI is therefore getting better, more effective and safer treatment to cancer patients more quickly with the associated reduced risk for investors.

When such a validated, strong technology is devised and applied by a leading scientific team, the result can be potential treatments which begin their life cycle as if they’ve been optimised over many months or years. The saved time and valuable resources for drug discovery and development companies means investment then goes further and money can be used more efficiently within the industry.

Importantly, this new approach can positively impact disease areas beyond oncology. Within our own pipeline we have additionally demonstrated the versatility of AI in creating new potential treatments also against resistant infections.

And it isn’t just us. Drug discovery efforts of other pharmaceutical and biotech companies in numerous other conditions are demonstrating the broad applicability of AI computational technology in drug discovery.

Many novel AI methods being utilised within the industry today have already been found to work for a diversity of targets, independently of the therapeutic area or the nature of the target itself.

By Dr. Alan D Roth, CEO of Oxford Drug Design

The post How AI is Transforming the Future of Cancer Medical Treatment appeared first on .

In healthcare we often talk about digital transformation, but what truly matters is how these changes impact patient care and experience. At the Humber Health Partnership, one of the new Group structures within the NHS, we’re embarking on an ambitious journey to revolutionise how patients interact with our services, starting with one of the most fundamental aspects – appointment booking.

Our upcoming patient-led booking system represents a significant shift from traditional methods. Currently, patients receive letters and face the often frustrating experience of making phone calls to arrange appointments, leading to high rates of non-attendance. By implementing smart booking solutions that integrate with the NHS app and use text messaging, we’re putting control back in patients’ hands while ensuring we don’t digitally exclude those who prefer traditional communication methods.

This initiative goes beyond mere appointment scheduling. It’s about creating a comprehensive support system that provides patients with information about managing their health while waiting for procedures, ensuring they’re better informed and engaged in their healthcare journey.

Embracing AI responsibly

One of our most exciting recent initiatives was a hackathon exploring the potential of Microsoft Copilot, which brought together over 150 staff members from various roles – clinical, operational, leadership, and frontline nursing. The event generated remarkable insights into how AI could transform our operations while maintaining our commitment to responsible innovation.

We’re taking a measured but ambitious approach to AI implementation. While acknowledging the legitimate concerns around data protection and privacy, we’re also recognising AI’s immense potential to streamline administrative processes and enhance patient care. From generating initial drafts of discharge summaries to improving patient communication, AI presents opportunities to reduce administrative burden on clinical staff while maintaining safety and quality.

Building system-wide integration through digital innovation

Digital innovation in healthcare isn’t just about implementing new technologies within hospital walls – it’s about creating a connected ecosystem that benefits the entire healthcare system. We’re expanding our virtual ward capabilities, looking at ways to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and improve capacity management across the system.

Our approach to digital transformation is guided by two key principles:

• Focus on foundational improvements while planning for strategic change
• Deliver continuous improvement rather than waiting for perfection

This is exemplified in our Electronic Patient Record (EPR) programme. While we’re working towards procuring a new system, we’re simultaneously implementing improvements that can benefit patients and staff today. This dual approach ensures we maintain momentum while building towards larger strategic goals.

Data as a strategic asset

Understanding the critical role of data in modern healthcare, we’re investing in new data warehouse infrastructure to improve our analytical capabilities. This investment will enable better decision-making and support our broader digital transformation initiatives, ensuring we can effectively measure and improve patient outcomes.

Success in digital transformation requires more than just implementing new technologies though. It demands careful alignment with organisational strategy while maintaining focus on immediate improvements. We’re ensuring that digital considerations are embedded in all strategic conversations, particularly when discussing new models of care delivery or system-wide changes.

Our group strategic framework, published in July, represents a comprehensive approach to digital integration across our healthcare system. At its core, we’re focused on eliminating system duplication and ensuring interoperability between our various platforms. This goes hand-in-hand with our vision of moving towards a single architecture that can support our entire organisation efficiently and effectively. We’ve made it a priority to engage users in setting these priorities, ensuring that our digital transformation reflects the real needs of those delivering and receiving care.

A key component of our strategy is enabling virtual hospital models, which we believe will be crucial in meeting future healthcare demands. As we look ahead, our focus remains on delivering tangible benefits to patients while building the foundations for future innovation. The integration of AI, expansion of virtual care and implementation of patient-led booking systems are just the beginning of what promises to be an exciting period of digital evolution in healthcare.

As we continue this transformation journey, our focus remains on delivering tangible benefits to patients while building the foundations for future digital innovation.

Don’t miss the opportunity to hear more about our digital innovation transformation journey and participate in the discussion about the future of healthcare technology. Join me at Digital Health Rewired 2025, where I’ll be sharing detailed insights about our experiences and the lessons learned along the way.

By Andy Haywood Group Chief Digital Officer at NHS Humber Health Partnership

The post Transforming Healthcare Through Digital Innovation: A System-Wide Approach appeared first on .

Now available across Europe for the first time, the technology is supported by AI that has been tested on hundreds of thousands of samples. Leading haematology specialists have welcomed the technology, that is designed to help laboratories carry out more accurate and efficient platelet counting – a key process in the detection of many serious illnesses.

Accurate platelet count testing is one of the major challenges facing laboratories. Inaccurate counting can lead to misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis, and delayed treatment of a range of potentially deadly conditions – including acute massive haemorrhage, coagulation problems, infections, autoimmune diseases, and cancers.

A false low platelet count, known as pseudothrombocytopenia, can occur during platelet aggregation or due to improper sample handling. It may also arise in samples with large or giant platelets that conventional methods cannot identify. As a result, test results may show low platelet levels while the actual count remains normal.

Such misdiagnoses can lead to unnecessary anxiety, additional diagnostic tests, and potentially inappropriate medications or transfusions. Surgical delays may also occur if procedures are postponed based on inaccurate results.

Conversely, pseudothrombocytosis, or a false elevated platelet count, typically happens when red blood cell fragments or microcytes are miscounted as platelets. This can cause low platelet samples to be reported as normal or high, and normal counts to be falsely identified as elevated.

If low platelet counts are reported as normal or high, risks of bleeding in the patient may not be detected in time, delaying treatment and potentially posing life-threatening risks. Normal values being reported as high may lead to incorrect diagnoses or inappropriate treatments.

Mindray has now launched technology into European markets, designed to help laboratories respond to these challenges and overcome accuracy risks, with significant efficiencies also expected for laboratories facing rising demands.

Through the CAL 8000 Cellular Analysis Line, the company has combined platelet technologies to support high quality reporting. The technology automates platelet analysis, and also means that aggregated samples could take laboratory professionals as little as 30 minutes to report – rather than a typical two hours.

Huan Qi, Director of Clinical Research, Medical Affairs, Mindray, said: “Abnormal platelet counts are sometimes a precursor to life threatening illnesses, including cancers such as leukaemia or lymphoma. Inaccurate platelet counting can lead to significant and potentially deadly consequences.”

“Through innovative technology, we are now equipping laboratories with modern tools to enable efficient, high-quality, and cost-effective blood cell analysis. Through a combination of innovative tools, automation, and sophisticated algorithms, laboratories have the potential to enable 99.9% of samples to be reported with accurate platelet count results, without the need for manual intervention.”

The cellular analysis line includes PLT-H, a new platelet detection technology that uses high-precision optics and innovative algorithms to exclude interference and improve count accuracy without additional cost.

Self-de-aggregation technology, which involves heating, stirring and de-aggregation, is also able to disintegrate most ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid induced platelet clumping.

Samples flagged as abnormal by Mindray’s cost-effective technologies, can also be analysed using PLT-O. This fluorescent staining method for platelet detection is able to provide laboratories with accurate low-value results. When optical methods detect low platelet samples, laboratories are able to use the PLT-O instrument to automatically increase particle counting eight times without the need for re-sampling. This can greatly improve the detection accuracy of low platelet counts.

Mindray’s PLT-M technology, which is integrated into its digital morphology analyser, can be used to automatically estimate platelet counts through an advanced morphological imaging method.

Technology available in the line also includes high-definition, high-speed scanning to identify platelet aggregation samples by detecting platelets in the body, edge and tail of blood smears. Called PLT-Pro, this technology is able to scan slides in less than a minute – 30 times more efficient than traditional methods.

Research into effectiveness has been highly positive, with findings on platelet counting technology presented by specialists from France and Poland at the International Society for Laboratory Haematology’s 2024 International Symposium on Technical Innovations in Laboratory Haematology.

Professor Marie Christine Béné from the Faculty of Medicine at Nantes University, said: “The latest developments in platelet counting technology could help a lot of people in treating haematology disorders. We are getting more and more help from machines able to count cells with minimal supervision, alerting us and providing us with more time to spend looking after patients.

“Accurate evidence behind low platelet count could allow patients to have neurosurgery, or inform clinicians if patients don’t need a blood transfusion.

“Mindray has evidently listened to customers in the development of its latest technologies. Its disaggregation protocol and optical staining of platelets will help with productivity – reducing the time medical scientists need to spend examining low platelet counts to identify platelet clumping. Removing that process will be good for everyone – scientists, clinicians and patients.”

The post New Platelet Counting Tech from Mindray to Help Labs Prevent Diagnosis Errors appeared first on .

As healthcare continues evolving at an unprecedented pace, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in clinical settings presents extraordinary opportunities and significant challenges. Drawing from our experiences at one of London’s largest acute NHS trusts, I have witnessed firsthand how AI can transform healthcare delivery—but only when we carefully consider the human elements alongside the technological capabilities and promises.

Like many healthcare leaders, we were initially captivated by AI’s potential to revolutionise patient care when we began our AI journey. However, we learned that successful AI implementation in clinical practice requires much more than sophisticated technology. It demands a balanced approach between innovation and cultural adaptation.

For example, our implementation of speech AI for clinical letter dictation at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust represented a significant shift. The traditional process involved clinicians dictating letters after patient consultations, which required medical secretaries to transcribe, format, and process them before sending them to general practitioners (GPs). This workflow could take over a month to complete. The initial pilot showed remarkable promise, reducing letter delivery times to GPs from 37 days to just four days. This success could be attributed to the clinicians’ enthusiasm for the pilot.

However, as we scaled the solution, we encountered significant operational doubts, cultural resistance, and varying adoption rates among clinicians. Some staff expressed concerns about job security, as their roles were deeply embedded in this transcription workflow. Others were hesitant to change their established documentation practices and worried about losing essential administrative support.

AI in clinical practice – The adoption curve: a journey of persistence

We’ve discovered that the adoption of AI typically follows a natural curve, which includes initial resistance, gradual acceptance, and, ultimately, meaningful integration. During the initial implementation phase, we observed an increase in average letter delivery times attributed to cultural barriers and a phenomenon known as ‘AI aversion.’ However, sustained support led to a stabilisation of delivery times at 19 to 23 days—an improvement from our initial starting point, though not as dramatic as the results suggested by the pilot.

Key factors contributing to our success included strong clinical foundations, operational partnerships, and perseverance. Over the course of a few months, we were able to reduce delays from 37 days to 21 days, with some letters being sent out on the same day as the clinic visits if they contained brief text.

This experience emphasises an important lesson: the success of AI in healthcare relies not only on the technology’s capabilities but also on our ability to manage the human aspects of change. As I often say, even the most advanced solution for a complex NHS issue is likely to fail if we do not adequately address how people will adopt it.

Ethics and accountability in AI implementation

One of our most important initiatives currently is to establish an AI and analytics ethics group. This is not merely a bureaucratic exercise but a fundamental step in ensuring that our AI implementations serve our entire patient population fairly and effectively. We have found a way to navigate this with thorough governance discussions. The ethics group will help us address complex ethical challenges, particularly in the context of population health-based AI, where biases can significantly impact equality.

The ethics group acts as a crucial checkpoint, ensuring that our clinical practice AI solutions not only solve technical problems but also align with our values as healthcare providers. This is especially important when working with diverse patient populations, where accountable organisations must carefully assess AI systems for potential biases or limitations.

Cultural change and professional impact

The impact of AI on healthcare professionals is a sensitive yet crucial aspect of its implementation. When we launched our stroke imaging AI solution, we received such a strong response that it was jokingly said that we needed to wear a helmet and shield when walking past our colleagues. This reaction highlights healthcare professionals’ genuine concerns about AI potentially replacing their roles. Initially, this was met with doubt; discussions focused on the allure of the product and the need to compare different solutions.

Fortunately, AI has become so integral to the stroke care pathway that regional clinical workflows cannot function effectively without it. Our experience demonstrates that successful AI clinical practice implementation involves more than mere replacement; it requires enhancing existing processes. We have built greater acceptance and trust in these technologies by actively engaging with staff, addressing their concerns, and showing how AI can support—not replace—their expertise.

Looking ahead: a five-year vision

As we look to the future, our vision for AI in healthcare is ambitious yet rooted in practical reality. We focus on developing clear problem statements before implementing AI solutions, ensuring that we use technology to address specific, well-defined clinical needs rather than adopting AI merely for its own sake. One important lesson I have learned is to avoid “shiny toys” and overhyped AI products.

In the next five years, I envision a healthcare system seamlessly integrating AI into clinical workflows, supporting decision-making while preserving the essential human elements of healthcare delivery. This vision includes robust ethical frameworks to guide AI implementation. Enhanced clinical decision support systems will complement professional expertise, streamline administrative processes, and free up clinicians for patient care. Additionally, AI-enabled tools will improve access to specialist expertise.

Implementing clinical AI is not a sprint but a marathon. Success requires patience, persistence, and a deep understanding of both the technical and human factors involved. As we continue to advance in this field, we must remain focused on our ultimate goal: improving patient care and outcomes.

The lessons we have learned about the importance of cultural adoption, the need for ethical oversight, and the value of clear problem statements will be crucial as we continue to develop and implement AI solutions in healthcare. By sharing these experiences and insights, we hope to contribute to a broader dialogue on effectively and responsibly advancing healthcare through AI implementation.

Our experience at Barking, Havering, and Redbridge shows that while AI holds tremendous promise for healthcare transformation, its successful implementation depends on navigating the complex interplay of technology, human factors, and organisational culture. I reflect on my background, where academic or scientific publications of AI and relevant degrees contrast with the real-life human aspects of AI implementation and delivery. While both are important, I later realised that balancing these perspectives is the key to success in implementation within the NHS. As we continue this journey, maintaining this balanced approach will be crucial for realising the full potential of AI in healthcare. I look forward to sharing more of these insights and experiences at the upcoming Digital Health Rewired Conference on 18-19 March 2025.

By Devesh Sinha, Chief Clinical Information Officer, Stroke Physician, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

The post AI in Clinical Practice: How to Balance Innovation with Cultural Evolution appeared first on .