Local healthcare professionals nominated for national award
Healthcare professionals from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire will find out tonight (21 September) if they have won a national award for an innovative service designed to support people with lung conditions.
The team has been shortlisted for the Collaboration with Industry award at the national Innovate Awards for a project to promote a smart device app to help patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The Digital Health Champions service, which rolled out the MyCOPD app, was created and evaluated with the support of NHS England in partnership with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, My M Health, the West of England Academic Health Science Network, North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and Sirona care & health, as well as clinicians and staff working in primary care.
Dr James Dodd, Clinical Lead for the project and Respiratory Consultant at Southmead Hospital, explained:
“We developed a new way of supporting busy clinicians and patients to get the best out of the MyCOPD self-management app. It was part of a pilot project to offer people suffering with long-term lung conditions a new way to manage their condition.
“The app is full of useful advice on managing breathing difficulties associated with the condition, including inhaler technique videos, education from experts and a complete online pulmonary rehabilitation programme.
“We used Digital Health Champions to help patients set up and use the app, and patients have told us they felt supported and able to engage with accessible digital technology with the support of the Digital Health Champions.
“Our aim was to help people with COPD manage their condition more effectively themselves and thereby reduce the number of healthcare visits they need.”
There are currently more than 700 patients from across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire signed up to the app.
Hannah Layton, Head of Programme Management Office (PMO) at Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB), added:
“The MyCOPD app has been a cornerstone piece in the transformation work of the ICB to help reduce the number of COPD hospital admissions, and due to a number of interventions, including the app, we have seen a big reduction in hospital admissions for COPD.
“We are absolutely thrilled for our work to have been recognised and to be shortlisted for a national award. We’re looking forward to finding out the results on Thursday.”
The Innovate Awards is a collaboration between the Academic Health Science Network, which operates as the innovation arm of the NHS in England and acts as the collective voice of the 15 AHSNs, and the NHS Confederation, which is the membership body representing healthcare in the UK.
Winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony in London on Thursday 21 September.