A new partnership between two digital health companies is set to deliver a step change in cardiac services in the NHS – making it easier for clinicians to monitor at-risk patients and prevent thousands of strokes.
Helicon Health – a University College London spin-out led by leading cardiologist Professor David Patterson – has joined forces with digital healthcare specialist Inhealthcare to integrate its HeliconHeart service with GP clinical systems across the UK – making it available to hundreds of thousands of NHS patients.
HeliconHeart combines clinical management software with clinician and patient education – allowing clinicians to manage patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) in the community instead of hospital, and enabling patients to self-monitor. Research has shown the unique service could help prevent stroke in at-risk patients*. HeliconHeart is compliant with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on anticoagulation and self-monitoring, and cited as a learning exemplar in NICE’s guidelines for atrial fibrillation.
More than 7,000 patients are now benefiting from the integrated service, which is currently delivered from 33 community sites and 2 hospitals across 5 CCGs.
The partnership with Inhealthcare means:
- Through its N3-compatible Clinical Aggregator Platform, HeliconHeart software can be integrated with all UK GP systems and a wide range of other clinical systems – ramping up availability across the NHS;
- Reduced costs for NHS organisations using the service – with no up-front cost for the NICE-recommended CoaguChek patient self-monitoring device (supplied by Roche);
- For self-monitoring patients, the introduction of multi-channel flexibility to upload their results online or send them to their clinician via SMS or IVR (Interactive Voice Response).
Professor David Patterson, chief executive, Helicon Health commented:
“By joining forces with Inhealthcare, we are able to overcome two key barriers that have hampered progress in stroke prevention, namely interoperability to support the wider adoption of our service and affordable access to an approved self-monitoring device. It is a significant milestone for our service and I believe could lead to a step change in how the NHS cares for people at risk of stroke.
Simon Jones, Commercial Director, Inhealthcare added:
“We are delighted to be able to combine our digital healthcare expertise with Helicon Health’s extensive clinical experience to help healthcare providers improve outcomes of patients at risk of stroke. Our familiarity with GP systems and access to the NHS spine unlocks HeliconHeart’s full potential to improve the management of anticoagulation patients and encourage more patients to self test.”
One of those benefiting from Helicon Health’s services is AF patient Grace da Silva from Crouch End in London. She said:
“The self-monitoring device has made a huge difference; I now do my finger prick test in the comfort of my own home and simply call in the results, which are uploaded to HeliconHeart for the clinic to review. I get comfort from knowing that all my clinicians have access to a single electronic health record for me and I like playing an active role in my treatment because I worry less about my AF.”
The expanded HeliconHeart package that results from the new strategic partnership with Inhealthcare features:
- Real-time web based electronic health record (EHR) shared with clinical colleagues and patient
- Anticoagulant advisory system
- Interoperability with existing GP systems and other clinical systems
- Affordable patient self-monitoring, using BP monitor and Roche’s Coaguchek
- Hosted on NHS spine via N3
- Education for clinicians
- Education for patients
Ends
Further information:
Libby Howard/Ruth Devlin, Judge & Howard
Tel: 0161 212 1611
libby@judgeandhoward.co.uk
Editors’ notes
- Stroke is the third leading cause of death in England each year and the leading cause of disability. More than 150,000 people have a stroke every year in the UK but, according to The Stroke Association, up to 10,000 of these could be prevented if more people were aware of the symptoms and sought out emergency treatment.
- HeliconHeart is compliant with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on anticoagulation and self-monitoring, and cited as a learning exemplar in NICE’s guidelines for atrial fibrillation.
- Impact: an urban CCG saved an estimated £592,000 after implementing HeliconHeart’s AF and stroke package:
- Population: 320,000
- Population aged >60 years: 57,290
- Number of strokes before using HeliconHeart: 101
- Number of strokes with HeliconHeart: 64
- 37 strokes prevented
