We want to actively support patient self management, empower patients and improve their experience of our service. We hope this will then improve their health and patient outcomes.
We aim to do this by improving education about these important conditions, making sure all relevant information is in one easily accessible place.
We also want to enable patients to access our service easily, gain advice and guidance quickly, and as we work across a number of sites, know where their clinic locations will be, and how to get there/park easily etc.
The project began in January 2018 as a partnership between the Rheumatology Department at Torbay Hospital and Health and Care Videos.
We worked together to develop a Rheumatology App to encompass many of the Rheumatology conditions we treat (rather than concentrating on just one disease area)
22 videos produced by Health & Care Videos, commissioned and written by
Dr Kirsten Mackay, were included in the app that provide information on taking medication such as Sulfasalazine, Methotrexate and Leflunomide, as well as videos that explain certain conditions such as Ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Kirsten Mackay was assisted by a number of other members of the Rheumatology team including Rian Penford, Rheumatology specialist nurse, Mark Clemence, Rheumatology specialist physiotherapist, and Zoe Weller, Rheumatology OT.
Once much of the content was written and the app planned we then showed the 'draft app' to a number of rheumatology patients at a focus group who reviewed, discussed and advised changes. These were the committee members of the local NRAS (national RA society) group.
We are soon to start phase 2, aiming to develop it in to a much more interactive app to aid medicines management, self-monitoring and pain management as well as develop more videos for advice and support about diet and exercise.
We are also in discussions as to whether version 2 of the app might link with Patients Know Best so patients can also access their own health records.
The main beneficiaries are rheumatology patients. They will benefit by having access to better information about their conditions in one easily accessible place. Once they are better educated about their disease and the medications they are taking, they should be better able to self-manage and feel more empowered to manage their disease, rather than their disease manage them.
They will also benefit from easier access to our department via telehealth, and have better information where their clinic will be held (so they don't end up in the wrong place and miss their appointment)
Now the first stage of the app has been developed we are using it in our general rheumatology practice.
We have had very good feedback from a number of patients and everyone has said how useful it is, including both recently diagnosed patients and those who have long standing disease.
We have had many patients using the click to call contact us function, and using it to access clinic details.
The app was launched in mid June and since then we have had 283 downloads.
