Digital firm wins funds to start COPD care project

Edinburgh-based digital agency Storm ID is part of a project awarded £750,000 to develop care for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients, with hopes of saving the NHS more than £1 billion.

The project, with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Seattle-based risk prediction platform Kensci, aims to reduce hospital admissions by remotely monitoring COPD patients’ symptoms, physiology and treatment in their homes.

It will then use machine learning algorithms to target patients at high risk of a COPD exacerbation, the second most common cause of emergency hospital admissions in the UK.

If the service is successfully scaled across 20 per cent of the highest risk patients, Storm ID forecasts it could save the NHS £1.4bn by reducing one emergency hospital admission for each patient per year.

Paul Mcginness, director at Storm ID, said he hoped the consent-driven exchange of patient data would “act as a catalyst for other digital health innovators in future”.