Pervasive wireless systems to facilitate universal, real time, ‘patient-to-clinician feedback’ services in hospitals

The Project aims to explore the opportunity for deploying universal & continuous real time
user feedback, thereby enabling quality of service improvements, in healthcare services via a
‘control loop’ between patients & clinicians.
The specific focus is hospital care but the concept is generally applicable in other areas where
users are divorced from control & implementation of service delivery (care of
elderly/disabled, local GP services, education etc.).
Enabled by constant improvements in communications infrastructure & user devices, Proof of
Concept trials are now technically realistic, within limited patient groups & locations.
The Project will address the value chain for the delivery of information, interaction &
engagement with end users (patients); earlier studies clearly identified the issue of platform
fragmentation as an obstacle to guaranteed universal delivery of information & services (TSB
Feasibility Study 2009/10: Gateway Navigator). Patients are well disposed towards
engagement, being a captive audience with a normal desire to ‘get well asap’. This will be
augmented by using the same platform to deliver focused patient information media targeting
their specific conditions, lifestyle & other relevant issues (age, culture, language etc.).
Evidence shows that feedback & information have significant value, improving both short &
long term health outcomes, thereby reducing costs &/or improving efficiency.
Moving from feasibility to Proof of Concept trials, this Project represents a whole new
innovative ecology for the creation, distribution & use of information & services. The Project
will focus on trialling the concepts in the area of health, approaching the ultimate target from
top down (using existing multimedia devices) & bottom up (low cost custom devices for
longer-term cost reduction). User/practitioner engagement models, service platform needs &
commercial metrics for further & wider deployment over the next few years will be explored.