Global healthcare technology company Clanwilliam has announced the full launch of Pippo, an innovative patient focused app designed to streamline and simplify interactions between patients and GPs in Ireland. The roll out of the application is enabled by a multi-year seven figure investment with several hundred thousand euro already invested in the solution.

Pippo reduces the burden of managing healthcare administration by simplifying the management of repeat prescription requests, appointment bookings, and other patient requests. A pilot version of the app enabling the management of patient bookings was rolled out across GP practices nationwide last year. An average of 40 hours every month in administrative duties was saved by practices using Pippo over the course of the successful pilot scheme.

The full launch of Pippo includes the introduction of a new online repeat prescriptions functionality into the app. This functionality is expected to save participating practices an estimated 15 to 30 minutes per prescription and unlock valuable clinical capacity.

Many GP practices currently manage repeat prescription requests, patient appointment bookings and other requests via time intensive channels, such as phone calls, consuming valuable practice capacity. Pippo streamlines the management of these administrative functions through a fully digital and easy-to-use platform that enables patients of participating clinics to manage requests online.

Designed with stringent security standards, the platform ensures the secure end-to-end protection of patient data and is fully interoperable with existing GP practice management systems including Socrates and Helix Practice Manager.

Commenting on the full launch of Pippo, Eileen Byrne, Managing Director of Clanwilliam Ireland, said, “The nature of healthcare is rapidly evolving in our digital age. Increasingly, digital technologies have a crucial role to play in making existing healthcare services more agile, flexible and responsive, for the benefit of both healthcare professionals and their patients.

“We are delighted to now be able to offer repeat prescriptions functionality through the app, providing another seamless, patient-led interaction that creates efficiencies for practices.

“With its capacity to deliver seamless, secure and efficient interactions between GPs and patients, the roll out of Pippo is an important step forward on this journey of transforming healthcare. By increasing the efficiency of GP patient interactions including appointment booking, payments, and refilling prescriptions in a simple and easy to use way, we’re helping to unlock significant benefits for both doctors and patients.

Through Pippo and the ongoing development of our range of pioneering healthcare innovations, we hope to continue our progress in improving healthcare delivery and realising our vision of a fully connected healthcare system for all.”

For over 25 years, Clanwilliam has forged successful integrations and partnerships with healthcare technology providers and worked with key stakeholders such as the Department of Health, ICGP, and the HSE to help shape the future of the digital healthcare space in Ireland. Pippo is the latest in a series of healthcare innovations aligned with the HSE eHealth programme of work, including digital health initiatives such as Chronic Disease Management, e-Referrals, electronic prescriptions, the newly launched STC Analyser, and Covid vaccinations.

Pippo is part of Clanwilliam, founded in 1996 in Dublin, when Howard Beggs established Medicom Medical Computer Solutions to help doctors utilise technology to deliver better care. It has grown into a global healthcare group of more than 25 technology products and services committed to improving healthcare across the world. It has 19 offices and more than 1,050 staff in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and India.

To request more information about Pippo, contact +353 1 463 3000. 

 

[News published on the Irish Times 2/4/24: https://www.irishtimes.com/technology/2024/04/02/clanwilliam-unveils-new-app-to-streamline-gp-practices/) 

Chief information officers can make future-proof investment decisions to support their clinical colleagues, drive efficiency and improve outcomes, even when budgets are tight and a general election is on the way.

We talk to Rebecca Wise, sales director at Clanwilliam UK, the home of theatre management expert Bluespier, about the challenges, and how specialist systems with good integration can address them.

This is a difficult and uncertain time for healthcare technology. Central funding has been cut repeatedly over the past two years and there is a general election coming.

Chief information officers are understandably wary about approving investment, even if their clinical colleagues are clamouring for systems that can address the pressures they are facing and deliver a better experience for patients.

“That is certainly the case in theatres,” says Rebecca Wise. “A modern, interoperable theatre system can integrate with patient portals, digitise scheduling, and generate the data required to keep teams operating at maximum capacity. Yet the replacement of legacy systems and paper-based working is on-hold up and down the country.”

This seems strange, when there is a political imperative to get waiting lists down. So how did we end up in this position? And how can CIOs look to change it?

Waiting – and waiting – for an EPR strategy

The outlook for NHS IT was brighter quite recently. The Budget in October 2021 identified £2.1 billion over three years for innovative technology to make hospitals and other care organisations as connected and efficient as possible.

However, a year ago, financial commentators calculated that just half of the money remained. National programmes and the frontline digitisation programme, aiming to complete the roll-out of electronic patient records, had been scaled back and delayed to divert money to the frontline.

Then, in November, NHS England cut the budget further, as part of an £800 million package to cover some of the cost of last year’s strikes. “One impact is that trusts hoping to swap their legacy EPRs for ‘next generation’ systems have been unable to do so,” Rebecca says, “and that has affected the theatre pathway.

“Radiology and pathology services have been able to access national cash to upgrade their PACS, LIMS and order communications, as part of programmes to create networks across the country. Nothing like this exists for theatres, so there are few alternatives for trusts that were hoping to upgrade as part of their EPR strategies.”

Legacy means inefficiency

This matters because many trusts are using legacy theatre systems. In some regions, that means software dating from the days of the National Programme for IT, which installed basic systems whilst new EPRs were delayed.

These systems have no integration or scheduling, so theatre teams have to co-ordinate diaries, slots, and consumables by juggling paper files. They have no pre-op modules, so patient availability, pre-assessment forms and real-time patient status isn’t always available when it’s needed most.

“Bluespier can change all this,” Rebecca says. “Our specialist theatre system has strong integration capabilities – we can set up bi-directional feeds to at least 30 administrative and clinical systems.

“That means hospitals can use real-time information to make sure theatres are used to their maximum capacity. We also have a mobile app to enable clinicians to access that information easily, where and when they need it.”

Make use of PEPs to sort out pre-op

Bluespier also has a pre-op module that supports scheduling by taking a data feed from the patient experience portals that NHS England is funding trusts to deploy by the end of the financial year.

“Bluespier is agnostic when it comes to portal providers,” Rebecca says. “All of the technology products within Clanwilliam UK embody an open, collaborative and interoperable approach, so we integrate with any of the well-known suppliers, and use their data to pre-populate our forms.

“One immediate benefit is that consultants no longer have to wait for notes to arrive, which all too often means getting them taxi-ed over at the last minute. And their teams can see whether patients have had all the necessary checks and preparation done, to reduce the risk of cancellations on the day.”

Generate data for improvement

The benefits of a modern, well-integrated theatre system don’t stop there. Post-operative care can be improved because nurses can see what has happened in theatre.

Recalls are much easier to handle. Staff can simply search the system to generate a list of the patients affected, instead of spending days trawling through paper notes. And data is available for reporting and analysis.

“It’s helpful for Trusts to know which theatres run slow and get an insight into why” Rebecca explains. “Our system can generate a real-time track of patient activity that shows when activity drops during the day. Want to get a handle on cancellations? Our system will generate a report that lets you drill down into the reasons.”

Help your theatre teams – nobody is going to stop talking about waiting lists 

NHS finances are not going to improve in the short term. Diverting money to ‘the frontline’ has not stopped the centre from overspending its Treasury limits, and large trusts are reporting significant deficits.

Meanwhile, a general election must be held by January 2025, and most commentators are expecting one to take place in spring or autumn this year. The likelihood is that a new party will take power and, for the moment, it’s health and tech policies are still under development.

The temptation for CIOs will be to avoid spending commitments until there is more clarity on how NHS finances will be recovered and less uncertainty about the future of big, national IT programmes, like frontline digitisation.

Yet, as Rebecca says: “There are things that IT leaders can do now that will address immediate challenges and put them in a better position for the future. One is to bring in specialist systems with good integration and theatres are a particularly strong candidate for attention.

“It’s not just that their teams are crying out to replace their legacy IT. A modern, mobile, patient-focused theatre system can improve efficiency and help to tackle waiting lists, by making the best possible use of the theatre slots available.”

If one thing is certain in the current environment, it is that the elective backlog will remain the focus of political and public attention. No government is just going to ignore waiting lists. So why not use proven technology to make the strongest possible progress on reducing them?

Bluespier will be exhibiting at Digital Health Rewired show on 12-13^th March 2024, stand G08.

Changing Healthcare Data Landscape
The healthcare data landscape is evolving. Increased data digitisation and emerging technologies means that interoperability and data security have never been more in focus.

With new EU legislation on the horizon and several significant national e-health initiatives such as the Summary Care Record and e-prescribing high on the agenda, it is imperative that the building blocks of success are in place for the healthcare sector to collectively work together to unlock the true potential of digital health and health data.

While the European Health Data Space (EHDS) will have far-reaching impacts, the health-specific data sharing framework builds upon GDPR and other directives. It introduces security criteria for interoperability and electronic health record systems, thereby enhancing patients’ control over their data.

The Programme will further strengthen cyber security across Clanwilliam’s suite of products by managing third party access through a centralised service, built on cutting-edge cloud technology with a “privacy and security by design” approach. The Clanwilliam Connect service will streamline and add additional security to the data exchange process, ensuring governance throughout all data extraction.

As part of its commitment, Clanwilliam is making substantial investments in our Connect Service to ensure our readiness for upcoming interoperability regulations and projects.

Strategic Interoperability
For over 25 years, Clanwilliam has forged successful integrations and partnerships with healthcare technology providers and worked with key stakeholders such as the Department of Health, ICGP, and the HSE to help shape the future of the digital healthcare space in Ireland. We continue to proudly support the HSE eHealth programme of work and in the last 10 years have worked with the HSE and ICGP to deliver a number of digital health initiatives such as Chronic Disease Management, e-Referrals, electronic prescriptions, and covid vaccinations.

“Collaboration and interoperability have always been at the heart of our approach, and our partnerships not only foster a more connected e-health ecosystem, they provide additional value to our customers, too.”

We also work with various trusted partners such as Cyber Fortress Security, backup and disaster recovery provider, Billink, online payments, Swiftqueue, online patient appointments and numerous e-referral providers, to name just a few. These partners add significant value to the workflow of our customers, bringing together powerful and agile technology innovations and ensuring they work seamlessly with our practice management systems.

Setting the Security Standard
While interoperability is key to overcoming numerous challenges in the healthcare sector, clearly there must be robust measures in place to minimise security and data protection risk.

More broadly with healthcare data, huge concern sits with the significant risks around invasion of privacy and loss of data control. Within primary care, we’ve encountered some bad practices in the market and with the increased risk of cyber-attacks and data breaches, “we, at Clanwilliam, have a responsibility as a trusted data processor to provide the highest levels of security and assurance to our customers.”

We take this responsibility extremely seriously when it comes to safeguarding patient and practice data, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, and adhering to the highest industry standards.

With this in mind, we are currently completing the roll-out of a security upgrade across our practice management systems that increases the security posture of the systems and inhibits unauthorised access. We expect to successfully complete the roll out by October this year.

To further strengthen security within the ecosystem, our robust partner assessment and assurance protocol within the Clanwilliam Connect Partnership Programme ensures that all third-party vendors and suppliers comply with rigorous standards.

While we are actively engaged with a number of partners through the Clanwilliam Connect Partnership Programme, we openly invite collaboration with all healthcare providers who share our dedication to security and innovation. Further, we will continue to collaborate with key healthcare stakeholders and customers as we navigate greater regulation around interoperability, security and patient access to EHRs.

We understand that partnering with other healthcare software vendors in the market not only aids interoperability but also accelerates innovation and we, at Clanwilliam look forward to unveiling these innovations throughout the coming year.

To find out more about our Clanwilliam Connect partnership programme, visit: clanwilliamhealth.com/products/clanwilliam-partner-programme/