Virtual outpatient clinic for remote follow-ups post-acute myocardial infarction

The Barts Heart Centre is the largest cardiac centre in the UK, with 3,500 outpatient appointments and diagnostics weekly. Timely follow-up of patients post-acute myocardial infarction enables identification of symptomatic recurrences or late complications in patients.

Situation

St Barts Hospital in London was experiencing some delays in follow-up and low rates of uptitration of medication following a heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI).

Aspiration

Digitise the pathway to reduce the proportion of cancelled appointments, remotely monitor patients and reduce follow-up time.

Solution and impact

Barts deployed Ortus-ihealth, which helps patients and their clinicians to connect through virtual appointments using a computer or mobile phone, rather than face-to-face.

It aims to make it easier for patients to take control of their health, while reducing NHS costs and the number of appointments that go unattended.

Ortus optimises the follow-up pathway by offering:

• remote video follow-up to reduce cancellations of appointments for patients
• remote monitoring which allows clinicians to access biometric data and patient subjective data (PROMs) and intervene if needed by communicating directly with patients through video or messaging service
• the ability to keep track of a ward of patients safely using the app, making it easy to manage large patient lists
• patients immediate access to medical documentation and clinic notes so they can act on treatment advice
  

Barts noted the following results after the introduction of Ortus:

• Prior to Ortus only 11% of patients were at appropriate medication levels; after Ortus 88% are at the recommended dose
• 87% of patients were very satisfied with the app
• Follow-up times reduced from 3 months to 8 weeks
• Continuous monitoring reduced appointment times from 20 minutes to 6 minutes
• Use of the portal increased attendance rates to 88%
• 12 outpatient pathways across six departments are being digitised at Barts Hospital: cardiology, cardiothoracics, endocrinology, oncology, respiratory and general surgery
  

Functionality

• Helps patients and their clinicians to connect through virtual appointments by computer or mobile phone, rather than face-to-face
• Aims to make it easier for patients to take control of their health while reducing NHS costs and the number of appointments that go unattended
• Clinician portal allows management of high volumes of patients remotely and safely
• Captures biometric data including blood pressure, heart rate and PROMs
  

Capabilities

• Supporting remote healthcare
• Monitoring vital signs
• Virtually connecting with a healthcare practitioner

Scope

To monitor vital signs and conditions at home.

Key figures/quotes

The digital solution helped reduce follow-up time from 3 months to 8 weeks.

Find out more

Oxford Academic website has more on the Ortus system in this article

Key contact

Dr Debashish Das, consultant cardiologist, Barts Heart Centre, CEO & director, Ortus-iHealth.com

dd@ortus-ihealth.com