Anoto, creators of digital pen and paper technology, and DevelopIQ, Anoto Platinum Solution Provider, announced that the Gwent Consortium - comprising Aneurin Bevan Health Board (ABHB) and the five local authorities - has deployed an electronic data capture system implemented by DevelopIQ; giving them the potential to save over £600,000 per annum. This is the first stage of a National Frailty Programme across Wales that Gwent has been selected to lead and it is rapidly delivering improvements in the quality of care to patients.
Prior to the rollout of the new solution, carers would use paper forms for recording patient information, paper diaries to manage appointments and mobile phones for communicating when out in the community. The electronic data capture system being used to replace this is comprised of DevelopIQ’s PaperIQ technology, Anoto digital pen technology, and BlackBerry smartphones.
In addition to the potential operational cost savings, the new solution has saved carers an average of around ten minutes per patient visit as well as a significant reduction in travel expenses. In the past, carers needed to return to the office after each patient visit to do necessary administrative tasks, fill out required forms and pick up new referrals. It has also given ABHB peace of mind when it comes to patient security, no assessments are missed and no visits are duplicated as the staff can keep to their daily patient visit schedule as carers do not need to return to their office in between visits. Additionally, the resource team co-ordinator can track the referral workflow through every stage of the process, ensuring that patients receive the highest quality of care.
"One of the issues we face is that we have to keep patient identifiable information in the boundaries of the Health Board, and one of the things that the solution provides is our own BlackBerry Enterprise Server that's contained within our firewall," said Jon Holmes, head of health informatics at ABHB. "The patient information that's been sent in and out has very strong encryption and meets the stringent security standards required. It also ensures the information stays within our network boundary at all times."
With the new solution, carers fill out the patient forms using their digital pen on each patient visit. The Anoto digital pen sends an encrypted copy of the forms via Bluetooth to the BlackBerry smartphone, which pushes the information to the secure back-end patient database. This enables the original form to be left with the patient at their home and so underpins the objective of citizen empowerment whereby patients have access to their own notes which they can share with family and other carers. The care teams also use BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instead of texting to communicate in near real-time.
"When dealing with patients, providing the highest level of care and attention to their needs is paramount," said Joakim Nydemark, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Anoto. "The work undertaken by DevelopIQ with ABHB shows the innovative ways that Anoto digital pen and paper technologies can be deployed and the associated cost benefits healthcare providers can achieve through streamlining their processes."
The innovative solution saw ABHB placed runner up in the Innovation in Public Sector category of the highly sought after BlackBerry Global Wireless Achievement Awards.
"The work that ABHB has undertaken with this project underlines the importance of digital and mobile communications when it comes to patient care," said Robert Bakewell, CEO of DevelopIQ. "We worked closely with ABHB to provide it with a solution that would enable its community resource teams to provide excellent care, whilst reducing overheads and streamline the data capture process. By using our PaperIQ technology and combining it with the digital pen technology from Anoto and the secure elements within BlackBerry smartphones, we were able to build a bespoke solution that would allow data transfer into a secure electronic format as soon as the care team wrote it down on paper. ABHB coming runner-up at the Global BlackBerry Wireless Achievement Awards is a great endorsement of the work ABHB has done."
Despite the service being in its infancy, there is growing evidence that the new community model of care is reducing admissions to hospital and in Gwent, it is anticipated that this model of care will be deployed to multiagency community healthcare teams across Wales over the next few years.
About Anoto Group
Anoto Group is the company behind and world leading in the unique technology for digital pen and paper, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text into a digital format. Anoto operates through a global partner network that focuses on user-friendly solutions for efficient capture, transmission and storage of data within different business segments, e.g. healthcare, bank and finance, transport and logistics and education. The Anoto Group has around 100 employees and is headquartered in Lund (Sweden). The company also has offices in Guildford and Wetherby (UK), Boston (US) and Tokyo (Japan). The Anoto share is traded on the Small Cap list of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the ticker ANOT.
About Develop IQ
Founded in 2005, DevelopIQ Limited is an Elite Member of the BlackBerry Alliance Program focused on developing enterprise and consumer mobile applications for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook. The company also provides application development services on other mobile platforms, including Android and Apple’s iOS. The award-winning PaperIQ data capture solution developed by the business is acknowledged as a leading digital pen solution for the BlackBerry platform. The business has a strong track record in the NHS as wellas other public sector environments and has successfully delivered the largest digital pen deployment to date in the UK, which was to 4,000 users in the police service.
DevelopIQ is now listed in the UK's National Purchasing Framework for digital pens operated by Solent Supplies which enables public sector organisations to purchase Anoto technology without a lengthy and costly public tender.
About Gwent frailty Consortium
Gwent Frailty Programme is a partnership between Aneurin Bevan Health Board and Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire and Newport councils and has received funding from the Welsh Government.
The organisations employ a total of 16000 staff comprising Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, professions allied to Medicine and community staff and serve a population of approximately 600,000.