Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and technology company Babylon has announced a 10-year partnership to develop a new ‘Digital-First Integrated Care’ delivery model.
Staff and patients at the Trust will use a single free app, which will connect primary and secondary care.
The app allows patients to access clinical consultations with doctors and specialist nurses, giving them full control of appointment booking and prescriptions. They can also access the ‘Personal Clinical Records’ and see their medical history and lifestyle.
The NHS Trust, which runs three hospitals, expects the app to benefit 300,000 people across Wolverhampton and its surroundings with faster treatments and fewer trips to the hospital.
“As medicine transforms over the next 10 years, and cutting-edge technology improves, it is critical that the NHS develops a digitally empowered workforce. With the Trust’s end-to-end care portfolio this is a huge opportunity for us and Babylon to constructively tackle all of these things together,” said David Loughton, Trust Chief Executive.
“I am confident that this won’t be just good for our patients, it will benefit the wider NHS through early prevention, treatment and the sharing of our learning.”
Babylon’s artificial intelligence-underpinned personalised care plans will also offer proactive care of patients with chronic diseases and give users medical information and triage advice.
Ali Parsa, CEO and Founder of Babylon, said: “We have over 1,000 AI experts, clinicians, engineers and scientists who will be helping to make Digital-First Integrated Care a reality and provide fast, effective, proactive care to patients. Together with RWT, we can demonstrate this works and help the NHS lead healthcare across the world”.
The first new services are expected to go live before the end of 2020.
