Need a check-up? New app could do it by text message
FAMILY doctors are cutting unnecessary appointments by getting patients to take their own blood pressure and send it in by text message.
A new mobile phone app created by the NHS is being used to avoid routine checks previously carried out by nurses and GPs.
In the Western Isles, patients now take their blood pressure themselves, as well as checking their own blood sugar and weight.
The readings are sent using the app to a computer, programmed to react if they are too high or worryingly low. An alert is sent to a GP if so, with an advice text message sent back to the patient.
The ground-breaking initiative, named Florence after Florence Nightingale, has also been adopted in Lothian and Lanarkshire. It follows the use of Skype and FaceTime in other parts of Scotland, to avoid unnecessary travel to see the doctor.
Iain Trayner, diabetes service co- ordinator and home health monitoring programme manager at NHS Western Isles, said: ‘Using the Florence system, all they need is a mobile phone and most people have a mobile phone. If they don’t we can give them one.
‘The system itself is very cheap. It costs about £15,000 a year, which is peanuts. It is 8p a text message and it doesn’t cost the patient anything.’
Smartphones are already used by many people to keep an eye on their health, by plotting how many steps they take a day or using apps to add up calories.
The NHS is getting in on the act to save time for overstretched doctors. Diabetic and heart patients have been signed up and receive regular text messages asking for information such as their blood sugar or weight.
The messages are generated by a computer program but appear as though written by a real person. The results end up in a database that doctors can view.
If the readings fall outside agreed patient medical parameters, an alert will be sent to the patient’s doctor so they can provide advice and if possible avoid a visit to the GP or hospital.
The Florence system is also being used to prompt information from people who are giving up smoking through the NHS or receiving nutritional advice. It has been discussed at conferences in Australia and the US.
Mr Trayner said: ‘We’ve been quite successful. Although the numbers are fairly small, the impact is quite high in terms of quality of life and prognosis.
‘We have worked hard to get where we are with Flo in the Western Isles. We have witnessed some excellent results so far and we are looking forward to help- ing more people improve their self-management and confidence when living with a long-term condition.’
Phil O’Connell of NHS Simple, who invented the telehealth app, said: ‘Florence seems to have hit the mark. It motivates, energises and encourages patients to take a more active part with their clinicians in managing their healthcare. When they do that, they get better and better outcomes.
‘Patients know Flo is a computer but it doesn’t feel like a computer – it’s a warm, friendly, nonjudgmental persona.’
Dr Jean Turner, spokesman for Scotland Patients Association, said: ‘It all comes down to who is monitoring this and if there is a delay in the results being seen.’
‘All you need is a mobile phone’