Huma: Virtual Wards vital to help NHS tackle 'substantial' pressures

LONDON, Aug. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- We welcome the Government's announcement to accelerate the roll out of digital technology to provide an extra 2,500 virtual ward 'beds'¹.  They will be in place this winter in a bid to tackle the huge pressures facing the NHS with waiting list backlogs. 

We know that virtual wards can, and do, make a difference. They can double clinical capacity and improve patient safety. The evidence is coming in and there is huge support from patients and clinicians because virtual wards can help safely focus the care on those who most urgently need it, whilst helping to spot issues that might otherwise be missed.

Dr Arrash Yassae, Global Clinical Director at Huma, said: "Virtual wards can be crucial for the NHS. Patients say remote monitoring changes their lives and evidence shows there can be real improvements in health outcomes because clinicians can spot issues earlier. A well-designed virtual ward can also support earlier discharge and help avoid admission, which we know is going to be so important this winter."

Evidence:

Peer-reviewed research from across cardiac and respiratory care has shown how Huma's virtual wards have seen 3-4x reduced mortality rates², increasing oral medication adherence from 85% to 96% in patients with low baseline adherence³, can detect deteriorating patients with almost 90% specificity⁴, and required 40% less time needed to review patients⁵.

Separately, reports from NHS and government bodies have shown that when using Huma's virtual wards clinicians have been able to almost double clinical capacity⁶, and most recently, seen 19% reduction in outpatient appointments, and patients being medically optimised 76% faster⁷. This latest work resulted in two cardiac nurses winning the Nurse of the Year⁸ award and the project being shortlisted for an upcoming HSJ Award⁹.

Patient feedback:

"To me it saves jumping in the car, parking, walking in, sitting in a queue… She rang me up and she said, 'those new tablets that you're going to start tomorrow morning, stop. Don't do it because your blood pressure is consistently too low.' As far as I'm concerned, I'm on a daily checkup now without having to move from the house." (Alun Morgan, 80)."

"I was a bit sceptical of the app itself, but no problem - I think it's the most valuable app I've got on my phone at the moment." (Evan Dobson, 69)

"This app doesn't just give you the reassurance that you are being monitored by your nurse, it helps you to better assess yourself. One of my greatest joys has always been to play the drums. Thanks to the app, I'm well enough to play again." (David Watkins, 69)

Clinician feedback:

"It has been a fantastic innovation for my heart failure patients and the service as we have used Huma's digital remote monitoring technology to identify deteriorating patients. I have been able to change the medications and management of patients to keep them well and out of hospital." Viki Jenkins, Heart Failure Advanced Nurse Practitioner & echocardiographer at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

"We have a dashboard in our clinic where we're constantly monitoring all the patients and if anyone is deteriorating from their symptoms, or their temperature or their heart rate goes up or their oxygen levels drop, it immediately flags up on the system and the patient gets a call from a GP within 10 minutes." Dr Afsana Safa, GP Marylebone Health Centre and Clinical Director, West End & Marylebone PCN speaking about virtual wards run with Huma during COVID-19.

"I've been able to start interventions sooner than I would have done, to avoid hospital admissions"

For interviews with our clinicians, researchers or developers then please contact:

Sian Jarvis or Ed Sykes 

References:

1. NHS England letter to all NHS hospital trusts
2. Lim et al. (2022) doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac063
3. Sarraju et al. (2022) doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00622-9
4. Obika et al. (2021) doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab053
5. Shah et al. (2021) doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01594-7
6. NHSX Covid report The full report is available on request
7. Report by Digital Health Ecosystem Wales (available on request)
8. British Journal of Nursing, Cardiovascular Nurse of the Year 2022
9. HSJ Awards 2022 Shortlist - Digitising Patient Care

About Huma

Huma Therapeutics is a global digital health company headquartered in the UK that advances digital-first care delivery and research to help people live longer, fuller lives. Huma's award-winning modular platforms are used by more than 3,000 hospitals and clinics, with 1.8 million active users. Huma's offering works across different disease areas and powers:

• 'Hospitals at Home' 
• Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) solutions 
• DCT platform to support digital or hybrid studies

Huma's platform has been shown to almost double clinical capacity, reduce readmissions by over a third, enable better diversity, participant retention and protocol adherence, whilst allowing trials to run within weeks. Please visit www.huma.com and follow us on LinkedIn at Huma

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