An innovative scheme using mobile technology to identify patients ‘at risk’ of developing CVD by effectively establishing smoking status has recently proved a great success in Hammersmith & Fulham PCT.  The scheme found that the use of iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to request a patient’s smoking status via text message, resulted in significantly higher response rates than other methods of communication previously used, enabling a patient’s medical record to be updated quickly and efficiently.

According to a study made by the British Heart Foundation, the risk of mortality from any cardiovascular disease is 60% higher in smokers compared to non-smokers, making the identification of this ‘at risk’ group a crucial element in the battle against CVD.

From searches made on their GP system, the surgeries sent out a text message asking patients to text back their current smoking status. Patients who received this message were able to text back their status via a reply text that arrived at the surgery as an email (to a pre-defined surgery email address).  The Brook Green Medical Centre, in Hammersmith & Fulham PCT, successfully used the platform and achieved response rates of 49% when requesting smoking status via text message.

Peter Dawson, Practice Manager at Brook Green Medical Centre said, “I found the campaign tool very easy to use. Response rates were much higher than expected and we have since received very positive feedback from patients who thought it a novel and efficient use of technology.”

The potential of this approach is considerable when new Department of Health data collection requirements are taken into account.  The Local Delivery Plan Return (LDPR) is a data collection undertaken by the Department of Health to monitor the progress of SHA’s, PCT’s, and NHS trusts in the achievement against the Local delivery plan ‘trajectory schedules’ and data collected for monitoring purposes in relation to government policy.

As part of the Local Delivery Plan Return (LDPR), each PCT is required to submit the total number of patients on the register aged 16 and over with smoking status recorded in the last 15 months.  The use of the iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to perform this task in GP surgeries in Hammersmith & Fulham PCT and elsewhere has proven to be very successful to support the achievement of this LPDR target.

Miles Freeman, Associate Director of Commissioning (Primary Care) at Hammersmith & Fulham PCT, said, ‘’Having the Patient Care Messaging capability within over 80% of our GP surgeries has enabled effective support of a range of PCT initiatives, including the accurate recording of Smoking Status on a Trust-wide basis and the subsequent improvement in referral to Smoking Cessation support and advice. Cost savings possible with this approach have also proven to be compelling, when compared to the cost of previous methods employed for similar ends.”

Funded centrally by the PCT, the service has been adopted by 85% of Hammersmith & Fulham PCT’s GP surgeries and is being used to address important Public Health concerns on an ongoing basis.

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Notes for Editors:

About Hammersmith and Fulham PCT

Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust (PCT) is the NHS organisation responsible for providing and commissioning healthcare for people living and working in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.  Our aim is to improve the health of local residents by providing access to high quality health services and encouraging people to make healthy lifestyle choices (for example stopping smoking, eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise).

All media enquiries should be directed to the Jan Adamson Primary Care Commissioning Manager on: 0203 313 7218 or at [1] jan.adamson@hf-pct.nhs.uk

[2] Patients of the Bush Doctors and Richford Gate Medical Practice in Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust will soon receive automated voice messages requesting information to update their medical record. The trial in two local GP practices, enabled by iPLATO, aims to improve the accuracy of core patient data held by GPs. The hope is that patients will like the new system and that it will save doctors time and money. If the trial is a success the PCT plans to roll out the system to 25 other practices using the iPLATO system.

The free service will send an automated voice message to a patient’s landline telephone asking them to confirm if they smoke or not. The automated messaging service clearly states that the call comes from the patient’s own GP surgery and will also specify who the call is for in case the phone is shared between people within the household. Patients are asked during the call to respond to the question via keystroke on their telephone keypad.

Dr. Susan McGoldrick GP at the Bush Doctors said, “We think our population is ready for this automated voice service, as it is a natural extension of the texting service we already offer to people who have their mobile telephone number recorded on the system here at the surgery. In this project we seek to streamline tedious but necessary tasks, such as continuously updating patient records, to free up staff to work with our patients. We know that this method will be more efficient than most other data collection methods, so what we are really looking at is establishing patient acceptance and satisfaction.

Tom Stevenson, spokesperson for the PCT, said, “We are excited about the opportunity to improve communication with our patients through innovative technology. Doctors need to collect information on all their patients’ smoking status every 15 months; but there are plenty of people who won’t see their GP that often. This new system makes it quick and convenient for both doctors and patients, and will hopefully increase the number of people we can offer stop smoking support to.”

This trial is an extension to a series of text messaging services with a similar aim conducted by Hammersmith and Fulham GP surgeries, Hammersmith and Fulham PCT and iPLATO over the last year.

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Notes for Editors:

About Hammersmith and Fulham PCT

Hammersmith and Fulham PCT is the NHS organisation responsible for planning and commissioning all NHS services on behalf of the 171,500 residents of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. There are 30 GP practices across the borough.

Press contact:
Tom Stevenson
020 8846 6572 / 07852 435637

Recent results from a text messaging campaign for calling hypertensive patients in for periodic blood pressure reading ran by the Lea Surgery in City & Hackney tPCT has delivered response rates of 76%.

From searches made on their GP system, the surgery sent out a group text message to selected patients inviting them to call the surgery to make an appointment. Within three weeks of sending the text invitation, 149 out of 197 patients had had their blood pressure checked. These results have highlighted just how effective iPLATO Patient Care Messaging can be for health promotion campaigns.

Having high blood pressure is one of several ‘risk factors’ that can increase your chance of developing heart disease, stroke and other serious conditions. Treatment includes a change in lifestyle risk factors where these can be improved - losing weight if you are overweight, regular physical activity, a healthy diet, cutting back if you drink a lot of alcohol, stopping smoking, and a low salt intake. If needed, medication can lower blood pressure. Periodic monitoring of patients blood pressure is essential for supporting them reducing the risk for serious complications and conditions.

Dr Goel, GP at the Lea Surgery said: “Getting hold of the right patients for periodic reviews at the right time is often cumbersome. The system makes it a lot easier.”

Jonathan Mason, Head of Prescribing and Pharmacy at City & Hackney tPCT, said, ‘’The recent use of the iPLATO system by the Lea Surgery to support their hypertension campaign is another good example of the healthcare initiatives that are currently being positively supported by iPLATO Patient Care Messaging within City & Hackney tPCT.  As the majority of City & Hackney GP surgeries now have the iPLATO capability, we look forward to more success stories to come.”

Funded centrally by the tPCT, the service has been adopted by 41 of City & Hackney tPCT’s GP surgeries and is being used to address important Public Health concerns such as Smoking, Flu, Childhood Immunisations, Breast Screening and Obesity.

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Notes for Editors:

About City and Hackney

City and Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust is responsible for improving the health and well-being of local people by ensuring that appropriate services are available in the right place and at the right time. The PCT does this by entering into agreements with health care providers, such as hospitals, to provide a wide range of different health services, ensuring that patients have a choice about where they go for treatment. It also directly provides community-based health services such as health visiting, physiotherapy and district nursing, and is responsible for developing primary care services in conjunction with GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists. City and Hackney Primary Care Trust was set up on the 1st April 2001 and employs around 560 staff.

Tens of thousands of people in Oldham will now be receiving text messages from their GP.

These will include everything from reminders about GP, jab and breast screening appointments to health messages about quitting smoking.

This new and innovative scheme is rolling out across the borough - with several practices already signed up and ‘running with it’.

Karen Smith, practice manager at St Chad’s Medical Centre, Limeside, said: “People are so busy today it is easy to forget an appointment.  An estimated 82% of the UK adult population own a mobile phone - so this is an ideal way to do our bit to help people manage their busy lives.

“We’ve had such positive feedback from patients and people are actually asking to be signed up.

“We are proud to be one of the first practices in Oldham to sign up for this and welcome any queries or comments from our patients.”

Shauna Dixon, director of clinical leadership at Oldham Primary Care Trust, said: “We are pleased and excited to be offering this service to our patients.  A fantastic benefit of this system is being able to send out messages in a number of languages.

“Not only will this scheme benefit patients - it will also help to save more than £750 million of taxpayers money - which is wasted on missed appointments every year.

“We would like to reassure people that we have strict guidelines in place to ensure the safety of patient’s details.  Patients are able to opt out if they wish by simply telling their GP or any practice staff.”

Text messaging is one of several initiatives that are being rolled out to improve patient’s access to primary care services.  This includes extended opening hours and the ability to book appointments and order repeat prescriptions over the internet - which is already being offered by many practices.

The recent results from the Patient Experience Survey show that overall most people are happy with access to primary care services in Oldham.  However, practices and the PCT are always looking for ways to continually improve.  These new initiatives are in the early stages of life and it is hoped that as more practices adopt the ideas and patients begin to reap the benefits, the satisfaction rate will increase even more.

If you would like to find out more about these services contact your GP practice.

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Pharmacies in London will launch a text messaging service to validate smoking status and invite ‘quitters’ for smoking cessation services in addition to using the system for ‘follow-up’ over the next year. The adoption of the Patient Care Messaging service, provided by iPLATO, has been driven by the successful use of the system for similar campaigns in GP surgeries across 34 PCTs. 

The pharmacies using iPLATO’s Patient Care Messaging for Pharmacies service, will receive support via best practice techniques for launching the text messaging service, enabling them to fulfil their growing role in Public Health.

A representative from one of the pharmacies said, “We are excited about the opportunity to improve engagement with our patients through innovative technology. For any broad patient communication solution we are always concerned with privacy and data protection. The PCT has developed guidelines to ensure patient safety that we adhere to. According to these guidelines, patients can opt out of the service at any time by simply telling their pharmacist or any staff. We would encourage all customers to hand in their mobile number so that we can reach them with this new service.”

“We are delighted to support pharmacies delivering public health services” said Tobias Alpsten, Managing Director for iPLATO. “Through our technology and knowledge we can let pharmacies benefit from our experience of overseeing dozens of mobile smoking cessation campaigns. This will enable them to better serve their communities and improve their businesses. In the first stage we aim to enable targeted smoking cessation campaigns. In the future, we expect to grow the platform to automated services such as repeat prescription and medication reminders. We hope to create revenue share based partnerships with pharmacy management systems to achieve this goal.”

- Ends -

Phil Sissons - Non-Executive Director

Phil Sissons joined iPLATO as a non-executive director in January 2006 bringing over 30 years of experience in the international IT Services industry to the company.

Phil’s experience includes five years leading Oracle Corporation’s Healthcare Division. In 1994 Phil moved to SMS United Kingdom to sharpen his focus on Healthcare information systems and in 2002 Richard Granger chose Phil to represent the National Programme for NHS IT to Industry.

Phil supports the Intellect UK trade association, particularly in the Healthcare Interest Group. For the years of 1995/96 and 1999/2001, he held the role of Chairman of the Healthcare group and is currently on the Intellect UK Board and the Health Council.

Over the course of an intense career, Phil has represented the Health Computing industry on many issues (including standards, procurement, and PFI) with the Health Service.

Newham residents are to benefit from receiving GP appointment reminders and health information on their mobiles phones via text message. Newham Primary Care Trust (PCT) has funded 47 GP surgeries to launch and operate iPLATO Patient Care Messaging. This new service has already been rolled out in some GP practices in Newham.

The text messaging service aims to reduce non-attendance to booked GP appointments by giving people timely reminders. This service will also be used for informing patients about critical NHS services such as cancer screening and immunisation.

According to Imperial College researchers, non-attendance to appointments cost the NHS - and the tax payer - more than £750 million per year. The iPLATO system has proven to reduce non-attendance at booked appointments in General Practice by 26% to 40%. In addition to reaping financial benefits through increased efficiency, the PCT hopes to establish an effective communication channel for health information.

With an estimated 82% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, participating surgeries will be able to reach a significant number of their patients through this scheme. Text messages are free to receive for the patient. If patients choose to respond, they will be charged standard operator rates depending on their individual contract. To achieve optimal uptake of and benefits from this service surgeries encourage their patients to give their mobile phone numbers and make sure that their details are updated.

Dr Rafiq of Boleyn Road Medical Practice said: “Mobile phones are used by most of our patients and so text messaging is an effective way to communicate with them. This service has the potential to significantly increase the number of patients attending clinics as well as saving on surgery administration costs. We are encouraging our patients to give their mobile number at reception to take advantage of this new service.”

Dr Frances Haste, Acting Director of Public Health at Newham PCT and London Borough of Newham said: “We are excited about the opportunity to improve communication with our patients through innovative technology. The text messaging service will help to remind patients about their GP appointments and help promote health improvement initiatives. Newham PCT has developed guidelines to ensure that patient data is protected. Patients can opt out of the service at any time by simply telling their GP or any practice staff.”

-Ends-

Notes for Editors:

About Newham PCT

Newham Primary Care Trust (PCT) directly provides a range of primary and community health services, purchases healthcare on behalf of the local population and is responsible for developing GP, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry services. We directly employ around 1,300 staff based across 23 sites.

Contact for Newham Primary Care Trust:
Ian Thorpe, 020 8586 6329

About iPLATO

iPLATO is a privately owned limited company founded in London in the autumn of 1999. In 2003, iPLATO was awarded a SMART Feasibility Grant by the Department of Trade & Industry to study the feasibility for national implementation of a system to remind outpatients about scheduled appointments using text messaging technology.

Since completing the study, the company has invested substantial resources towards overcoming the barriers to entry of the healthcare market and now provides successful healthcare solutions to NHS organisations throughout the United Kingdom - building a promising business around its flagship service ‘Patient Care Messaging’.

The European Venture Contest, organised by the European Commission, recognised iPLATO as one of the top ten early stage technology ventures ready to “reshape their industry and to conquer the global market” and featured on the Red Herring Europe Top 200 of companies to watch in 2006. iPLATO began 2008 with extensive (PCT funded) roll out of Patient Care Messaging to GP surgeries across 10 Primary Care Trusts.

Press contact:

Julia Hanley
020 3178 4676
[3] julia.hanley@iplato.net
One Lyric Sqaure, W6 0NB, London, United Kingdom
[4] www.iplato.net
Pictures available on request

Two-way Messaging

Reply texts from patients are automatically directed as emails to a predefined email address.

Targeted Campaign Messaging

Patient Care Messaging enables the creation and sending of manual text messages to individuals and/or groups of patients for targeted health promotion campaigns (excellent for QOF).

Automated Appointment Reminders

Automated appoint reminders can be sent to patients by text message at a pre-defined time before the surgery visit, significantly reducing the number of missed appointments.

National Read Code Functionality

The unique National Read Code functionality enables the Patient Medical Record to be automatically updated with the relevant Read Code, indicating a text message has been sent. In addition, a relevant ‘campaign specific’ Read Code can be attached to the outgoing message and the Patient Medical Record updated accordingly.

N3 Connection (NHSnet Hosting)

Patient Care Messaging is a secure solution and the only text messaging service to integrate to all major GP administration systems and also to be hosted within NHSnet.

Multiple PAS Integration

Patient Care Messaging fully integrates to all major GP Administration systems (including EMIS PCS & LV, INPS Vision, iSOFT).

Reporting Module Functionality

• User / administrator access to real time gateway status with visual status indicators.
• Advanced reporting wizard for generating customisable reports on: messages sent, messages received, pending, undelivered, invalid or failed numbers.
• Full messaging history with reports.
• All reports can be printed or exported into downloadable formats.

Voice Messaging

Automated voice messages can be sent to a patient’s mobile phone, stating who the call comes from and also who the call is for, in case the phone is shared between people within a household. Patients can be asked to respond to questions during the call, via keystroke on their telephone keypad. Voice messaging should be viewed as a natural extension of the iPLATO texting service, providing an additional channel of communication.

PATIENT CARE MESSAGING FOR PHARMACIES - SYSTEM FEATURES

Two-way messaging

Reply texts from patients are automatically directed as emails to a predefined email address.

N3 Connection (NHSnet Hosting)

Patient Care Messaging is a secure solution and the only text messaging service to integrate to all major GP administration systems and also to be hosted within NHSnet.

Reporting module functionality

• User / administrator access to real time gateway status with visual status indicators.
• Advanced reporting wizard for generating customisable reports on: messages sent, messages received, pending, undelivered, invalid or failed numbers.
• Full messaging history with reports.
• All reports can be printed or exported into downloadable formats.

Voice messaging

Automated voice messages can be sent to a patient’s mobile phone, stating who the call comes from and also who the call is for, in case the phone is shared between people within a household. Patients can be asked to respond to questions during the call, via keystroke on their telephone keypad. Voice messaging should be viewed as a natural extension of the iPLATO texting service, providing an additional channel of communication.

Recent ’iPLATO’ media coverage:

• [5] London’s LBC Radio speaks to iPLATO MD, Tobias Alpsten about the recent roll-out of Patient Care Messaging in Ealing, West London
• [6] e-Health Insider : Ealing PCT uses text message technology
• [7] Medical News Today reviews Ealing PCT’s text messaging roll-out to 22 GP surgeries
• [8] IT Pro analyses Ealing PCT’s decison to implement text messaging
• [9] Silicon.com “Ealing PCT chooses iPLATO and the Orange network as text messaging partners”
• [10] e-Health Insider looks at the INPS and iPLATO Partnership
• [11] Lewisham PCT chooses iPLATO for SMS reminders
• [5] BBC Essex: Interview with Dr Paul Husselbee, Nov 7, 2005
• [12] NHS Magazine: ‘…cut missed appointments and also promote public health’
• TimesOnline: ‘Bleeping sickness’
  
• HES Magazine: ‘Phone messaging to cut missed appointments’
  
• PublicTechnology: ‘NHS Mental Health Trust improves service with Patient Care Messaging’
  
• PublicTechnology: ‘Patient Care Messaging system cuts missed appointments for Islington NHS PCT’
  
• BJHC: ‘Patient no-shows cut by automatic messaging system’
  
• [13] e-Health Insider: ‘SMS reminds patients of upcoming appointments’
• [14] SMS appointment reminders get language boost

Reliable, Robust Technology The M-Site is hosted on a secure web server provided by iPLATO. The iPLATO M-Site does not require any additional hard or software for the participating surgery, pharmacy or dentist. The m-site will not contain any confidential patient information. Set-up and management of the M-Site requires PC access to the internet for the participating surgery, pharmacy or dentist.

Easy to set-up - Template Driven Content

M-Site contains healthcare provider information:

• Healthcare Providers Contact Details
• Telephone Numbers, website addresses and relevant contact email addresses
• Maps relevant to the location which can be scrolled and zoomed into
• Details about out of hours services
• Ability to cancel appointment and order repeat prescriptions directly on the phone (feature under development )

Patients can access the M-Site by…

• Typing in the address into their mobile phone browser, e.g. wap.iplato.net/val
• Opening the m-site via a link contained in the body of an SMS reminder e.g.

“From the Vale Medical Centre: Reminder of your appt on 06 Nov at 10:50am with Dr Jones. Reply ONLY to cancel. For info wap.iplato.net/val”

• The M-Site can be accessed via a WAP push, triggered through an assigned gateway number.

These numbers can be printed on collateral e.g. “Text the word ‘val’ to 078 0000 1265 and we will send you instructions for accessing further surgery details.”

For further information regarding iPLATO M- Site, contact iPLATO on the details below:

1 Hammersmith Grove

London

W6 0NB

Tel. 020 3178 4680

[15] [Contact Us]

[18] Click here to replay demonstration

[19] Recent GP led text messaging campaigns have highlighted the effectiveness of iPLATO Patient Care Messaging for the identification of smokers in Barking & Dagenham PCT. Results from the first 10 surgeries to run the campaign have revealed average patient response rates of 46% - a major improvement when compared with alternative methods of collecting the same information.The Smoking Status ‘update’ campaigns were run with the aim of reducing Smoking prevalence in a patient population, by effectively establishing smoking status to subsequently refer ‘quitters’ to Smoking Cessation support and advice From searches made on their GP system, the surgeries sent out a text message asking patients to text back their current smoking status. Patients who received this message were able to text back their status via a reply text that arrived at the surgery as an email (to a pre-defined surgery email address).

Jim McManus, Associate Director of Health Improvement at Barking & Dagenham PCT, said, “The iPLATO platform is proving to be an invaluable tool for the support of health promotion initiatives. Without the effective identification and engagement of at risk groups in the community, it can be difficult to direct relevant services successfully. These recent results have shown how effective Patient Care Messaging has been at supporting GP led Health Promotion campaigns. Compared to other potential approaches these campaigns have also proven to be cost effective.”

Funded centrally by the PCT, the service has been adopted by over 80% of Barking & Dagenham GPs and is being used to address important Public Health concerns such as Smoking, Flu, Childhood Immunisations and Obesity. The system works by integrating with the GPs’ clinical system where patient records are stored. Surgeries can use the clinical information they hold to target specific patients for health promotion campaigns and send groups of patients text message invitations to clinics.

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Notes for Editors:

About Barking & Dagenham PCT

Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust is responsible for improving the health and well-being of local people by ensuring that appropriate services are available in the right place and at the right time. The PCT does this by entering into agreements with health care providers, such as hospitals, to provide a wide range of different health services, ensuring that patients have a choice about where they go for treatment. It also directly provides community-based health services such as health visiting, physiotherapy and district nursing, and is responsible for developing primary care services in conjunction with GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists. Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust was set up in April 2001 and employs around 640 staff. For more information, visit [20] www.bdpct.nhs.uk.

Press contact for Barking & Dagenham Primary Care Trust:
Rowan Taylor, Head of Communications, 020 8532 6220, [21] rowan.taylor@bdpct.nhs.uk

It is iPLATO’s policy to not sell, trade, exchange or otherwise make available any personal information to any other company or organisation.

Sales & Marketing
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3178-4676
Mob: +44 (0) 79 8351-3395
E-mail: [22] tom.fletcher@iplato.net
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3008-6161

Outcome and Delivery Service
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3178-4675
E-mail: [23] alex.dasgupta@iplato.net
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3008-6161

Business Development

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3178-4675
E-mail: [23] sheena.macpherson@iplato.net
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3008-6161

LONDON OFFICE

iPLATO Healthcare Ltd
One Lyric Square
London W6 0NB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3178-4675
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3008-6161
E-mail: [24] info@iplato.net

Please click on PDF for a list of relevant Transport Links or follow the link for a ‘google’ map.

[25] [View Map]

[26] [Travel Links]

CZECH REPUBLIC OFFICE

iPLATO Healthcare Ltd
Pardubice, Sladkovského 767
Pardubice, 530 02
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 46661-6440
E-mail: [27] jirka.orlik@iplato.net

Please follow the link for a ‘google’ map.

[28] [View Map]

iPLATO takes the evaluation of outcomes achieved by the use of mobile technology in preventative care very seriously. Most research we conduct seeks to evaluate and identify best practice in three areas: 1) Health Education 2) Identification of people ‘at risk’ and 2) Engagement with people at risk to support lifestyle change, medication, screening or immunisation. [29] [Request Info]

Please see below a selection of useful links:

• [30] NHS Choices
• [31] Department of Health
• [32] NHS Immunisation
• [33] NHS Smoke free

Partnering is at the heart of iPLATO’s business strategy.

Within our commercial partnering programme we work with mobile network operators, consultants, systems integrators, telecommunication infrastructure manufacturers and software providers to reach healthcare organisations and patients all over the world.

Effective mHealth solutions operate in a healthcare ICT ‘eco system’ which includes electronic patient records, patient administration systems, medical devices, mobile and fix line telecommunication networks, security and cool applications. Within our solutions partnering programme we work under the guiding principle that all components of the overall mHealth solution must be fairly rewarded for their contribution.

Please find a selection of partners we work with to deliver mHealth in the United Kingdom.

iPLATO has partnerships agreements with the following companies:

[34] Orange

[35] INPS

ORANGE

The Orange group is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies, with over 40 million customers in 21 countries across Europe and beyond. As at the end of June 2002, Orange was the largest mobile operator in both the UK with over 12.8 million active customers, and France with over 18.6 million customers. iPLATO has been working with Orange since the end of 2000 in a fruitful partnership, conceiving and developing valuable services for Orange’s business customers. iPLATO is also a member of the Orange Developers Forum; Orange’s development platform at the forefront of the development and testing of new mobile voice and data applications, utilising mobile technologies and enablers.

INPS

INPS is a leading UK supplier of high quality clinical management systems with an enviable reputation for excellent customer service. The company is part of the CEGEDIM Group, which supplies healthcare technology and information solutions to over 30,000 GPs, pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers across Europe.

INPS develops, supplies and supports Vision - the most complete primary care solution available. Vision can be deployed within the practice or from a central server location, and has Connecting for Health compliance certification for Choose & Book, EPS and GP2GP. Vision is a key component of many LSP strategies.

iPLATO has partnerships agreements with the following companies:

[36] EMIS

[37] ISOFT

[38] Carelink [ioko][38]

EMIS

EMIS is the UK’s leading IT supplier in Primary Healthcare, hosting over 33 million electronic patient records (EPRs) within its systems. Around 55 per cent of doctors in the UK currently use EMIS software each day.

As an innovative IT provider, our corporate policies ensure realistic and objective appraisal of primary healthcare computing both for present and future needs. Comprehensive IT solutions and services are delivered to the NHS Primary Healthcare market.

iSOFT

iSOFT produces healthcare software solutions, and the company is a world leader in its field. The company’s products are used by more than 8,000 organisations in 27 countries for managing patient information and driving improvements in healthcare services.

IOKO

Carelink works with over 200 NHS and other health industry organisations, including private sector care providers. Carelink is especially known for providing N3 hosting services - connecting technology and solution providers with the NHS and giving trusts reach onto the public internet.

Carelink is also the leading provider of infrastructure, networks and service management to private sector providers in the UK.

In addition to connecting applications to the N3 network and the NHS Spine Carelink’s capabilities include developing and hosting sophisticated Internet, intranet and extranet sites; building and managing applications; supporting and developing infrastructure.

More than 700 GP surgeries, pharmacies and clinics use iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to offer quality mHealth services to their patients. Tightly integrated to EMIS, Vision and iSoft this market leading product has proven to deliver significant improvements to patient service and operational performance in areas such as data collection, call / recall, access and appointment management.

Key Benefits

• Streamline data collection through smart two-way messaging
• A free inbound mobile phone number for each site allows you to capture more mobile numbers, keep patient contact details up to date and improve access for groups of patients such as the deaf.
• Our experienced team provides you with support and best practice during office hours over the phone or via e-mail. Free of charge we also provide you with patient information posters and help with consent policies and issue resolution.
• Our system is securely hosted within N3. iPLATO is IGSoC approved and all members of the team are trained to help you deal with sensitive data.
• Tight integration to the most popular GP systems allows you to benefit from advanced read code functionality, sophisticated reporting and fully automated appointment reminders.
• Free surgery m-Site allows you to offer exciting interactive mHealth services to patients with Smartphones.

Some User Experiences

• [39] ‘Access’ DNA Rate Reduction
• [40] Smoking Cessation
• [41] BMI Data Collection
• [42] Childhood Immunisation
• [43] Flu-Jab
• [44] Hypertension
• [45] Breast Screening

iPLATO Healthcare is a London based company dedicated to mHealth since 2006.

iPLATO’s mobile health solutions have proven to transform patient services and reduce health inequalities across populations. Responding to international demand for mHealth the company is currently expanding into the United States, India and Europe.

Serving millions of patients and thousands of healthcare professionals every day iPLATO  has emerged as the leader in mobile health. Across this network, healthcare organisations use iPLATO solutions to promote smoking cessation, weight loss, childhood immunisation, vascular checks and cancer screening as well as offer mobile services for people with diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy and HIV.

iPLATO  Healthcare has a strong track record in working with healthcare professionals, payers, providers, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies to improve health outcomes and operational performance.

Tobias Alpsten - Managing Director (Co-Founder)

As iPLATO’s Managing Director, Tobias Alpsten is responsible for setting overall strategy and for overseeing business development, sales, innovation and service delivery.

Tobias works in partnership with leading academic institutions such as the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Imperial College on research in the area of mobile health. Tobias is a frequent speaker at events and conferences. He is also supporting the British government in setting national strategies for technology based innovation in healthcare through the Horizon Scanning initiative.

Tobias started his career at Accenture’s Paris office in 1996. Later based in London, he joined the ‘Internet revolution’ in 1997 specialising in e-procurement strategy and Business Process Outsourcing. Tobias left Accenture to set up a independent mobile technology consultancy in London in 2000.

Tobias holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm and ENST (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) in Paris. He is trilingual in English, French and Swedish.

Martin Rowden - Director Finance & Operations (Co-Founder)

Martin is the CFO of iPLATO and co-founder of the business. In additional to the traditional CFO responsibilities Martin manages all operational aspects of the organisation including the development and support of the company’s mHealth technology solutions.

Martin’s background offers a range of entrepreneurial expertise matched with institutional and global experience spanning over 20 years.

With a BEc and as a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA), Martin spent 10 years with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in both Canada and Australia in the Financial Advisory Services division before moving to the UK in 1997 and following his passion as an entrepreneur.

Since 19997 Martin has been involved (in varying executive and non-executive roles) in no less than 6 successful technology ‘start-ups’. In 2005 he co-founded iPLATO Healthcare with Tobias to focus on the nascent but emerging area of mHealth.

iPLATO is growing. We are always interested in hearing from ambitious and talented team-workers with a passion for healthcare. If you would like us to consider your qualifications, please send a full CV and cover letter to [46] jobs@iplato.net

We are currently looking for

[47] Account Manager - London
[48] Non Executive Director - Telecoms - London
[49] Non Executive Director - Healthcare - London

Account Manager - London

Job Title: Account Manager

Reports to: Head of Sales & Marketing

Location: Office based - Hammersmith London W6

Job Status: Full-time

Salary: £24k- 30k dependant on experience.

Background: iPLATO Healthcare LTD is a leading company developing and providing innovative technology solutions to the healthcare sector. Responsible for driving company expansion, the iPLATO Sales & Marketing Team is at the heart of the company. As a result of recent company expansion, we are now looking to add a bright and ambitious Account Manager to this team. Reporting to the Head of Sales & Marketing, yours will be a key position within the business, responsible for maintenance and development of strong client relationships to insure customer retention and sales maximisation of each account.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining and developing strong client relationships within existing accounts.
• Insuring customer retention
• Developing a thorough knowledge of our products.
• Maximising sales within each account by promoting iPLATO services & products where applicable.
• Maintaining effective regular communication with all key customer accounts through consistent monthly reporting and ongoing client liaison.
• Ongoing in depth analysis of each existing account to identify strengths and weaknesses in support of customer retention and sales.
• Dealing with all client queries and complaints in a professional and commercial manner.
• Working with other staff to influence company development priorities in the light of client feedback.
• Coordination, organisation and attendance of meetings/events/workshops as applicable.

Person Specification:

• 4 years in an Account Management role.
• Will have a proven track record in customer retention.
• Healthcare experience preferred, able to understand company products/solutions and their benefit to the client.
• Good analytical skills.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills with an ability to work well with different personalities.
• Good telephone manners.
• The ability to listen & understand a customer’s needs and able to suggest solutions and/or alternative strategies to meet those needs.
• Target oriented.
• The ability to organise yourself well, to set goals, to plan and execute the plan successfully.
• You will be punctual, reliable and honest in all your dealings with staff and customers.
• A focused individual and team player, willing to take the initiative.
• Microsoft Office Skills a MUST with emphasis on Excel
• A first rate communicator, fluent in English with good written English & an ability to compose clear/effective letters/emails.
• Prepared to travel throughout the UK and sometimes abroad.
• You must be eligible to be resident and entitled to work in the UK.

iPLATO’s solutions are cutting edge in its industry. This role will offer the right candidate an exceptional opportunity to influence the future of healthcare in general and personally contribute to the success of a world leading innovation company. Further details provided to selected candidates. Please submit your CV with covering letter to [46] jobs@iplato.net

Non Executive Director - Telecoms - London

Job Title: NED - Telecoms.

Reports to: Managing Director.

Location: Office based - Hammersmith London W6.

Job Status: 1-3 days in a month.

Salary: TBA.

Background: iPLATO Healthcare LTD is a leading company developing and providing innovative technology solutions to the healthcare sector.

Job Specification:

As a Non-Executive Director you will work alongside other Non-Executive and Executive Directors as an equal member of the Executive Board. You will share the responsibility with other directors for the decisions made by the Board and the success of the organisation in delivering a wide range of services to the members.

Person Specification:

The ideal candidate will be a respected thought leader in the UK and/or global telecommunications industry and be able to demonstrate the following:

• Significant relationships with international telcos.

• Prior executed global telecoms strategy.

• Experience in designing, promoting and negotiating deals with mobile operators.

• A high level of commitment to the needs of members across Health and Social Care.

• Strategic Direction - The ability to think and plan ahead, balancing needs and constraints.

• Effective influencing and communication - Be able to influence and persuade others.

• Intellectual flexibility - The ability to think clearly and creatively.

• Experience of strategic planning, financial risk and performance management.

Key Tasks:

From day one, you will play an active role in iPLATO’s international expansion plans, at first, targeted at near markets in Europe but, increasingly, at a global scale targeting the large healthcare markets in terms of population or spend. Specifically:

- Facilitate the Company’s relationships and commercial negotiations with dominant mobile telecommunication operators outside the United Kingdom.

- Facilitate the creation / negotiation of business models that meet the requirements of the mobile network operator partner and iPLATO as well as other local stakeholders.

Further details provided to selected candidates. Please submit your CV to [46] jobs@iplato.net.

Non Executive Director - Healthcare - London

Job Title: NED - Healthcare.

Reports to: Managing Director.

Location: Office based - Hammersmith London W6.

Job Status: 1-3 days in a month.

Salary: TBA.

Background: iPLATO Healthcare LTD is a leading company developing and providing innovative technology solutions to the healthcare sector.

Job Specification:

As a Non-Executive Director you will work alongside other Non-Executive and Executive Directors as an equal member of the Executive Board. You will share the responsibility with other directors for the decisions made by the Board and the success of the organisation in delivering a wide range of services to the members.

Person Specification:

The ideal candidate will be a respected thought leader in UK healthcare and be able to demonstrate:

• Significant existing relationships with senior NHS or DoH management.
• Significant existing relationships with senior UK Healthcare payer organisations.
• Execution and/or negotiation of ‘turn-key’ countrywide deals with NHS organisations.
• Execution and/or negotiation of grant funded research in the healthcare sector.
• Strategic Direction - The ability to think and plan ahead, balancing needs and constraints.
• Experience of strategic planning, financial risk and performance management.

Key Tasks:

From day one, you will positively impact iPLATO’s ability to reach its commercial goals in the United Kingdom and assist company management to effectively market the organisation to enhance its standing in the UK healthcare sector and the NHS.

- To establish and facilitate the Company’s relationship with leading funding bodies for mobile health services such as NHS organisations (PCTs, Acute Trusts and Central) as well secondary sources for funding such as grants from Government, the EU, and other.

- To develop and maintain proactive relationships with senior NHS and DoH executives to influence commercial decisions pertaining to the use of iPLATO services and mobile Health solutions.

- To support iPLATO’s goals of communicating the benefits of mobile health and join the iPLATO team in educating the UK market on the improvement of patient care through mobile health initiatives and services.

- To provide a professional management interface with policy development in the health and social care sector.

- To strengthen connections with the local community, patients and stakeholders and represent iPLATO externally.

Further details provided to selected candidates. Please submit your CV to [46] jobs@iplato.net.

iPLATO’s evidence based mobile health solutions have proven to transform patient services and reduce health inequalities across populations. We work closely with national and regional health authorities as well as healthcare providers (large and small), pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and health insurers using mHealth to, measurably, improve outcomes.

Harnessing the potential of new technology often includes process redesign, technology customisation, integration and change management. To deliver end-to-end patient service transformation, therefore, iPLATO’s solutions include a comprehensive set of professional and technology services.

Wellness

iPLATO has extensive experience in the area of primary prevention. Following a tried and tested methodology, iPLATO’s consultants work with GPs and pharmacists to collect and validate data, engage and enroll patients and, if necessary, support adherence and persistence to treatment.

Here are some examples:

• [50] Smoking Cessation
• [51] Weight Loss
• [52] Childhood Immunisation
• [53] Flu
• [54] Pandemic
• [55] Malaria

Diagnosis

iPLATO’s solutions have proven to maximize the benefits of diagnostics services. iPLATO can help in three important ways. First, we can enable population-wide risk stratification. Second, we support patient self diagnosis or pre-screening. Finally, we can increase the use of existing screening facilities and equipment or, if required, bring additional diagnostics services to the community.

Here are some examples:

• [56] Breast Screening
• [57] Vascular Checks
• [58] Chlamydia Screening
• Cervical Screening
  

Long Term Condition Management

With demand on health services consistently raising there has been a growing enthusiasm for telehealthcare services. mHealth is an attractive sub-segment of telehealthcare. In fact, by leveraging existing networks and devices, iPLATO has proven that mHealth can transform telehealthcare. Operating at much lower cost, mHealth allows telecare services to reach to more people.

Examples:

• [59] Epilepsy
• [60] Hypertension
• Asthma
• HIV
• Diabetes

One Lyric Square
London
W6 0NB
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3178-4675
Fax: +44 (0) 20 3008-6161
Email: [24] info@iplato.net
[61] [Full Contact Details]

iPLATO is looking for healthcare specific organisations to partner with.
[63] [Read More]

[2] GP Practices in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale are piloting a new text messaging service to help reduce the number of missed appointments.

Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust (HMRPCT) is investing £25,000 to fund the initiative, known as iPLATO Patient Care Messaging. This service will enable practices to send a reminder text message to patients who have supplied their mobile phone number 24 hours in advance. If a patient is unable to attend the appointment, they can notify the practice by simply replying to the message.

GP practices will also be able to use the service to prompt patients to attend check up appointments.

Vivienne Ben-David, head of primary care at HMRPCT, said: “It’s really important that patients attend their GP appointments or cancel them if they cannot attend. The Patient Care Messaging service will help us to reduce the number of wasted appointments and pass cancellations on to patients who really need them. Of course we will be evaluating the effectiveness of the service during its pilot stage and will be welcoming feedback from patients.”

The following practices are taking part in the pilot:

Heywood
Longford Street, Heady Hill Surgery, York House Surgery

Middleton
Windermere Surgery, 133 Bowness Rd, Junction Surgery

Rochdale
Drake Street Surgery, Ashworth Street Surgery, Village Medical Centre, East Street Surgery, Healey Surgery, Baillie Street- Dr Babar & partners, Vicars Drive Surgery, Triple H Practice, Lowerplace- Dr Syed’s, Milnrow Village Practice, Tweedale Street Surgery, Dr Ghafoor- Baillie Street Surgery

Appoints Chief Medical Officer from Imperial College to accelerate development of evidence based mobile health services

Mobile health specialist, iPLATO, announced today that it has rolled out Patient Care Messaging extensively across 10 Primary Care Trusts in the first quarter of 2008. The roll-outs will allow an additional 2 million people across England to benefit from improved access and mobile health promotion from their GPs. Confirming the national appeal of the platform the majority of the PCTs to launch iPLATO Patient Care Messaging are located outside of London.

Underlining an evolution in market perception, only half of these launches primarily targeted DNA rate reduction - with the remaining PCTs adopting the platform for the support of Public Health areas such as Smoking Cessation, Obesity, Screening and Immunisation.

“Our Primary Care Trust has funded iPLATO Patient Care Messaging as a strategic capability for 42 surgeries, to enable broad engagement with our population”, says Lesley Mountford, Director of Public Health at City and Hackney PCT. “We are looking at text appointment reminders as a means to establish a ‘mobile relationship’ with patients, but we emphasise the opportunity to run mobile health promotion campaigns. This year we plan to use the texting in breast screening and smoking cessation. We are really pleased that the vast majority of the surgeries chose to take part. As a result more than 90% of our population will now benefit from mobile services.”

A crucial aspect to fuel this growth has been iPLATO’s evidence based offerings, which have allowed its NHS partners to not only identify and engage with at risk patients through mobile health promotion, but also to confirm the impact of these campaigns as well. The company has appointed Dr Josip Car as Chief Medical Officer to accelerate the development of the company’s service offering, clearly emphasising its commitment to deliver evidence and outcomes.

“I am delighted to join a young and dynamic team”, says Dr Josip Car, General Practitioner and Director of e-Health at Imperial College. “With a rapidly growing patient base and platform integrated to the current healthcare delivery system, I feel that there is a magnificent opportunity to expand the offering and really improve the health of patients and populations. The three main areas of offerings we are looking at are access improvement / practice efficiency, health promotion and support to patients with long term conditions. The mobile channel has a huge role to play in all three areas.”

- Ends -

Notes for Editors:

Press contact for City and Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust:

Pamela Froggatt
External Communications and Campaigns Manager
City and Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust
020 7683 4265

[2] A highly innovative scheme to use mobile technology to obtain a patients weight has proved a great success in Hammersmith & Fulham PCT.

The recent scheme found that by using iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to request a patient’s weight via text message, the patient’s medical record could be updated quickly and efficiently with a current body mass index (BMI) reading. This finding ties straight into the government’s £372m ‘Healthy Living’ strategy, which aims at cutting levels of obesity in England.

After sharp increases in the last decade, nearly a quarter of adults and nearly a fifth of children are now currently obese in the UK. By using their GP Administration System (EMIS, INPS Vision, etc.), linked to Patient Care Messaging, GP surgeries can support ‘obesity related’ mobile health promotion campaigns via the sending of personalised text messages. In this case: ‘What is your weight?’

This approach has proved considerably more effective than traditional ways of obtaining this information. The Bush Doctors Surgery, in Hammersmith & Fulham PCT, successfully tested the platform and achieved response rates of 29%.

Mandy Norton, Practice Manager at The Bush Doctors said, ”Text messaging has been a massive help, enabling us to gather a patient’s weight quickly in order to calculate their BMI. Of course we weigh people at the surgery, but this method allows us to quickly and very cost effectively update the records of people who may not need our services very often. With mobile being the communication method of choice for our very varied patient base and with obesity levels being where they are, we feel that this is a perfect complement to our current service ”.

Hammersmith & Fulham PCT’s Local Enhanced Service for Cardio-Vascular Disease requires a recent BMI reading for 40% of the population. The campaign took less than one hour of a Practice Manager’s time, including searching for patients with old or no BMI reading, sending the text message, receiving replies and entering the results back onto the patient record. The campaign will now be replicated across the Borough, touching the lives of almost 100,000 people.

iPLATO’s Managing Director, Tobias Alpsten said, “Over the years we have seen surgeries use our text messaging system to develop health promotion campaigns. Being able to obtain a patient’s current BMI reading in a fast and accurate way could play a significant role in the fight to reduce obesity levels nationwide.’

- Ends -

Notes for Editors:

About Hammersmith and Fulham PCT

Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust (PCT) is the NHS organisation responsible for providing and commissioning healthcare for people living and working in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Our aim is to improve the health of local residents by providing access to high quality health services and encouraging people to make healthy lifestyle choices (for example stopping smoking, eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise).

All media enquiries should be directed to the Press and Communications department on
Tel: 020 8846 6572 fax: 020 8846 7961 [64] tom.stevenson@hf-pct.nhs.uk

EMIS accredited partner iPLATO Healthcare revealed that coverage of their Patient Care Messaging services has risen to over one million GP patients. Facilitating this growth has been the ground breaking platform, securely linked to EMIS, coupled with a unique service offering and expertise, which allows its NHS partners to dramatically improve patient access and deliver powerful health promotion campaigns. With continued focus on delivering improved health of patient and populations in partnership with primary care organisations, iPLATO expects reaching 10 million patients within the next 24 months.

Sean Riddell, Healthcare Managing Director of EMIS said: “We are delighted to celebrate the one million patient milestone for this innovative text messaging service, which is delivering very real benefits to both EMIS practices and patients.”

“For example, within Lewisham PCT in South London it has been credited with reducing missed appointments by 27 per cent over the last year. If you projected these figures nationally, the service could potentially save more than 2.7 million GP appointments a year.”

He added: “This is a great example of how interoperability between different systems can extend services for GPs and help to improve patient care.”

Tobias Alpsten, Managing Director of iPLATO, said: “EMIS has been instrumental in enabling us to reach our first million patients and delivering such great results. However, this is only a step on the way. EMIS systems hold 39 million patient records and there are more than 69 million mobile handsets in the UK today, each owned by a person for whom health is important. It is our view that there is a lot of room for growth. To address this opportunity we actively seek partners with specific clinical skills to add to our overall service offering. We owe our healthcare provider partners and patients best-of-breed mobile health services. We expect many of these new and exciting services to be delivered in partnership with universities, hospitals, clinical experts and other innovation companies across the world”.

- Ends -

Notes for Editors:

About EMIS

EMIS is the UK’s leading supplier of IT systems to GPs, providing the software that holds the medical records for 39 million NHS patients nationwide. Around 56 per cent of GPs in the UK currently use EMIS software.

The company has a 20-year history of innovation within the UK primary care market. Founded by GPs Dr Peter Sowerby and Dr David Stables, its guiding ethos is that the software used by GP surgeries should be “written by doctors, for doctors”.

EMIS is responsible for a number of innovatory products and services for GPs and patients, including EMIS Access - the only online appointment bookings service currently available within the NHS; a groundbreaking electronic prescription management service and a shared data system that enables secure GP-to-GP exchange of patient records.