Development of prototype management system for COPD and Diabetes

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The ageing UK population is putting an enormous strain on the NHS. As the population growsolder, the number of people living with a long-term condition (LTC) that affects their healthincreases steadily. The proportional costs to the NHS in treating these conditions isstaggering: 70% of the entire NHS budget is spent managing the LTC’s of 30% of thepopulation. Monetarily, this amount was calculated to be £77bn per year spent managing15.4m patients.As 80% - 90% of all care for people with LTCs is undertaken by patients and their families,improvements in self-management methods will result in a reduced number of GP visits andadmissions to hospital, and increased compliance with treatment regimens. This project willdevelop a prototype system to monitor biometric signs, such as blood pressure and oxygensaturation levels, and transmit the information back to the NHS, to aid management of longtermconditions (LTCs) and improve patient outcomes, whilst reducing costs of care.To achieve this, Spirit Healthcare (SH) will build upon a successful system, the ‘Clinitouch’,which they have already implemented in Leicester for the management of 50 patients withchronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). This trial proved that Clinitouch was able toreduce emergency hospital admissions by 65-95%, saving in excess of £353,000 in 26 weeksby averting 87 hospital admissions. It was so successful that SH have been commissioned toroll out the service to more patients across Leicester.SH will transform their Clinitouch patient interface platform from a bulky and cumbersomeunit into an intuitive platform that will run on a tablet computer that interfaces (via Bluetooth)with various biometric-monitoring peripherals. For the purposes of this development ofprototype project, SH will target patients with COPD or diabetes. If the 65% reduction inunplanned admissions was achievable on a national basis, the £407m bill for unplannedCOPD admissions would reduce to £142m.