The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMs) service helping to connect patients with the Trust through their cancer journey. The 24 ePROMS forms have been launched across 10 cancer pathways, with another 10 planned by the end of 2022. The digital service was developed using Better’s low-code environment, part of openEHR digital health platform.
The rollout of the ePROMs is a part the trust’s five-year strategy to modernise its electronic health record underpinned by openEHR data standards. ePROMS are the first in over 680 forms that will be digitalised by the Trust using Better’s low-code tools.
Development of the ePROMs application took only four months with a major part of the process including joining up and structuring siloed data to be used in the forms. Completed data is pre-modelled using low-code tools and feeds seamlessly into the Better platform which enables both patient and clinicalally captured to be stored longitudinally and instantly available to present back to clinicians across the Trust
Clinicians are already seeing the huge advantages of the service and clinical staff patients have noted the ease of entry in the new forms as well as transparency of data and improved patient communication as a result of more efficient workflows. Other benefits recorded include:
- 66% of time taken to conduct telephone review saved
- 28% of total review time saved
- 97% of patients found ePROMs easy to complete
- 99% of patients found ePROMs easy to understand
In parallel, the digital team at the Trust has simultaneously developed a new patient scheduling module within the EHR which allows clinicians and researchers to schedule questionnaires faster and more reliably. Taking less than three months to develop, the app sends notifications to patients to complete forms that support their care.
Better’s platform with low-code environment provides the data capture elements which are open format and accessible in real-time, supporting the trust’s plans for transformation and its ambition to access the potential of data for clinical as well as research use. In the long term, the Trust plans to integrate Better platform with other applications into the vendor-neutral data layer.
The accelerated rollout of ePROMs and the wider EHR program is facilitated by the engineering efforts of Aire Logic who were perfectly placed to deliver ePROMs at pace.
Alistair Reid-Pearson, Chief Information Officer, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Better’s openEHR platform and low-code tools are helping us modernise our EHR and refining how we collect data with high quality, high user experience and high security. The use of open storage standards will support integration with regional and national partners as more data streams are connected.”
Professor Janelle Yorke, ePROMs SRO & Executive Chief Nurse and Director of Quality, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The seamless integration of patient captured ePROMs with the Trust’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) was a key objective of the programme to close the loop between remote monitored patients and clinicians on the frontline. The Christie ePROMs initiative is key to the ambition of becoming a world leader in real world outcomes research.”
Matthew Cox, Managing Director of Better for the UK and Ireland, said: “The new digital forms have transformed data entry and recording at the trust, and we are delighted The Christie has selected Better for its new digital health platform. We’re pleased to see momentum now towards healthcare organisations choosing open data and open standards, and The Christie is leading the way for acute NHS providers in England.”
Better’s solutions enable organisations to take control of their data and transformation plans. OneLondon has recently gone live with the End of Life care planning solution also developed with Better’s low code funtionality.
Discover more about Better:
Better is a leading technology company that transforms healthcare organisations with Better Platform, their market-leading open data platform, the Better Meds electronic prescribing and medication administration solution, and Better’s low code Studio, which allows applications to be built rapidly at a fraction of the cost. The company’s solutions are putting organisations in control of their data, workflows, and transformation plans, all with the aim of simplifying the work of care teams and improving lives. In the last three decades, Better has provided solutions to more than 150 clients across 16 countries, and Better Platform securely supports over 22 million patients.
