Provision of secure two way messaging and video consultation between clinical team and relatives of patients

In normal times staff in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are not just there for the care of the patient, but also to provide care and support for relatives. Important discussions take place about what they can expect to see when they visit, and what is happening to their loved one.

This includes difficult discussions about the diagnosis, how ill their relative is and how likely it is they will survive. This leads to discussions about ceilings of care i.e. just how intensive and invasive attempts will be to save the patient. These meetings form part of the daily care of the individual patient and their family and are documented to ensure the wider clinical team deliver and provide a consistent message. Naturally, the ICU nurse's bedside role caring for the patient includes spending more time with the family than other members of the clinical team. This gives relatives valuable time to ask questions and seek reassurance. The end point is that relatives are helped along a difficult pathway which can include the demise of their loved one.

The current crisis now raises a very important question - how do we maintain this human touch, and the caring side of Intensive Care, in the face of the human tragedy which is unfolding within our hospitals, as they deal with ever increasing numbers of seriously ill patients who require ventilation, and more importantly isolation, due to their infective nature.

In many cases hospitals are now having to turn away relatives, that travel with them to hospital; unfortunately, the heartbreak of this situation is elevated when their relative is admitted to ICU.

Refero wants to help connect relatives to the clinical team. Providing a system that is secure, that links the family to the patient and allows simple communications such as messaging and video consultations. Our vision is that relatives can provide information about the life of the patient, perhaps encouraged by a simple questionnaire and the ability to upload a picture of the patient when well. This will allow the relatives to 'paint a picture' of the patient which is a vital step in reinforcing the identity of the patient as a person, not just a diagnosis.

The clinical team can send regular message updates, the relatives can send messages enquiring about their loved one and importantly the software allows users to easily move to video consultation when needed.