Tech firm trains NHS staff to check patients for Covid
A BRITISH tech start-up is helping to train front-line staff at the NHS’s new emergency hospital in London to detect the coronavirus.
Software developed by Intelligent Ultrasound allows healthcare workers to simulate looking for symptoms of the Covid-19 respiratory disease in patients’ lungs, using a dummy.
The Abingdon-based firm has released the upgrade to customers for free and is teaching staff how to use it at the temporary 4,000-bed NHS Nightingale Hospital, which has been created at London’s Excel conference centre and was officially opened by Prince Charles yesterday. A spokesman said: ‘To help in the fight against Covid-19 the Bodyworks training simulator, combined with our staff operating at the Nightingale, is helping train clinicians to rapidly acquire and practice lung ultrasound skills.
‘The [software] is provided free of charge for all existing and new Bodyworks customers and was made available to the market last week, to help with the training of healthcare professionals working in the front line of this global emergency.’
Shares surged by 35.4pc after the announcement, but eventually closed up 20.5pc, or 2p, at 11.75p.
Lung ultrasound scans are particularly useful in the fight against the coronavirus, Intelligent Ultrasound said. This is because they are cheap to do, safe, easily repeatable and free of the radiation used in other types of scans.
The firm said ultrasound equipment was also easier to disinfect than similar types of technology - a key consideration when good hygiene has been cited as the best weapon against the virus’ spread. Technology firms across the UK have been stepping up to help efforts to combat the pandemic. For example, Londonbased Benevolent AI and Oxford-based Exscientia have been using software to highlight existing medicines that may be effective in treating Covid-19, while video services such as Babylon Health and Doctify have allowed patients to speak to their GPs from home.
Gerard Grech, chief executive of industry group Tech Nation, said: ‘Not in living memory have we seen something that has united the world so quickly and with one common goal.
‘From testing and vaccinating, to producing life-saving equipment, all sorts of businesses big and small have registered their willingness to help, with many adapting their areas of expertise to do what they can.
‘Health tech in particular has come to the fore.’