DrDoctor in the NHS Test Bed Programme

We are thrilled to announce that DrDoctor is part of two of the NHS Wave 2 Test Bed Programmes. We will provide our technology for digital transformation in healthcare delivery for patients and carers alike. We are excited to serve as the Appointment Management and Patient Communications partner in both Test Bed projects.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has allocated £7 million to support the initiative of collaborative technology in pathway redesign suitable for real-world settings. Over 75 applications took part in the initiative and seven of these were selected for the programme.

The NHS Test Beds Programme will help an estimated 500,000 patients and aim to save the NHS £30 million.

Both of our Test Bed projects focus on the management of long-term conditions:

• Chelsea & Westminster- Developing a Schedule for Unscheduled Care
• Care City – Transforming How We Find, Treat and Manage Long-Term Conditions

Chelsea and Westminster

DrDoctor is working in collaboration with Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and three other health tech companies (Patients Know Best, Medopad, and Transforming Systems). The project focuses on giving patients with long-term conditions better tools for self-management and access to their specialist clinical team. The project will start with the Heart Failure pathway and expand to Chest Pain and Pre-Eclampsia.

Our project will enable patients to book themselves directly in to a specialist appointment in an urgent care setting, to reduce the number of patients seeking treatment in A&E. This is to remove some of the unnecessary demand on the A&E department and to ensure patients receive better, more appropriate care upon flare up of their symptoms. Research shows that when heart-failure patients end up in A&E, they often fail to be seen by a cardiologist. Our collaboration project works to develop a digital ecosystem to ensure these patients receive better management of their care in the most appropriate setting.

Care City

Care City have tasked us as part of a team of nine health technology innovators to improve the identification, treatment and management of long-term conditions in East London. DrDoctor are directly collaborating with TickerFit, an online heart failure rehabilitation app, in the ‘Management’ section of the Test Bed project to help heart failure patients to receive better heart rehabilitation.

Currently in this catchment area, 50% of patients who have heart failure do not attend their rehabilitation appointments. This directly leads to worse heart failure outcomes to those patients. Our collaboration looks to ensure that patients receive appropriate care for their condition by offering easier appointment management or the possibility of receiving care online. The aim is to provide fitting treatment to every needing patient.

Care City want to improve the health outcomes of their population but also want to upskill the healthcare professionals in the area. The aim of upskilling is to meet the increasing demand on health services but also to rejuvenate the local economy through the expertise of local professionals.

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DrDoctor are working as the Appointment Management and Patient Communications solution across both Test Bed projects. We are excited and motivated to apply our technology and expertise in new collaborative ways to solve new large-scale problems for the NHS. Although these problems are large and hard to tackle, together through collaborative partnerships we are even stronger in resolving them. Our hope is then to scale these solutions across the country as a result of the Test Bed Programme to enable better care for everyone.

By partnering with the NHS and other leading technology companies we will create digital solutions for a better patient experience and faster access to treatment.