[1] [2] London, December  10^th 2009. The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery announced today that it is launching a new service to support people with epilepsy.  This innovative service, offered in partnership with iPLATO Healthcare, aims to help the hospital’s patients improve the management of their condition using web and mobile based technology. The service will offer medication support for people with epilepsy with the option of alerts for carers, as well as helping them monitor their overall condition through a web based patient diary. 

To start with, Mobile and Internet Support for People with Epilepsy will offer:

Medication Support - will use text messaging to remind patients to take their medication. Patients will be able to choose their level of personalised medication support depending on preference and medical / social need. The most intense medication support will require the patient to confirm that they have taken their medication by reply text that, if not received, will send an alert to their nominated carer.  Medication Support will also support medication changes by reminding people to adjust dosages when planned changes to medication are due to take place.

Patient Diary - aims to assist with recording of essential information for epilepsy monitoring. Using a secure, password protected, web interface patients will have the opportunity to record seizures, injuries and medication profiles if they wish. The web service will also allow them to update some of this information directly via their mobile phone.  Patients will be able to run reports over a specific period and bring this information along to their consultations.

Statement from Professor John Duncan, Professor of Neurology: “Most individuals with epilepsy have to take medication regularly in order to achieve the best possible control of their seizures but remembering to take medication can be problematic for some. Taking medication accurately can become quite complicated when it is adjusted as this is usually done in gradual steps over a period of time. We hope that the additional support provided by this service will help some people to manage their medication more effectively which could help to improve the control of their epilepsy.”

Statement from Anthony Linklater, Epilepsy Specialist Nurse: “After a long period of preparation we are excited to be launching this service which we believe will be of great benefit to our patients. We have developed a holistic medication support package using both mobile phone technology and the internet which will support people to manage their medications better. If the service is positively evaluated, we are hopeful that it will grow in scope and sophistication over the next few years.”

“We believe there is a huge need for low cost telehealth services in the United Kingdom and elsewhere” says Tobias Alpsten, CEO iPLATO Healthcare. “We have always struggled with the notion that telehealth should require custom built hardware. By delivering a service to devices that patients already own we dramatically reduce costs, reduce barriers to usage while delivering solid health outcomes”.

Funded by UCB Pharma Ltd and the National Hospital Development Foundation for the next year, this service will be free to epilepsy patients of the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Patients can sign up by contacting the Epilepsy Specialist Nurse. Healthcare providers, payers and individuals who are interested in this service (outside the National Hospital) should get in touch with iPLATO Healthcare.

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About the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN):

The NHNN, part of University College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is a leading centre for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with a wide range of neurological conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, stroke and head injuries. With its neighbour, the Institute of Neurology, it is a major international centre for research and training. The NHNN provides comprehensive neurology and neurosurgery services for our other hospitals, including an acute brain injury unit, the national prion clinic and a neurorehabilitation unit.

NHNN Contact
Anthony Linklater
020 3018 0127
[3] epilepsy@uchl.nhs.uk

Coverage 2009[4] Coverage 2007[5] Coverage 2008

Coverage 2008[4] Coverage 2007

Coverage 2007

[6] London, 05 November 2009, Bristol residents have been benefiting from receiving GP Appointment Reminders and Health Promotion information on their mobile phones via text message. Over 90% of GP Surgeries in NHS Bristol signed up for the iPLATO text messaging solution to address important public health concerns, in particular smoking prevalence, via GP-led SMS Health Promotion campaigns.

NHS Bristol offered the iPLATO Patient Care Messaging (PCM) platform to their GP surgeries after evaluating the benefits of using mobile technology as a targeted and highly responsive way of engaging with smokers.  Where PCM has been used in PCT’s elsewhere, an effective communication channel for health information has been established.

More than half of the surgeries in NHS Bristol participated in this campaign. They reached, on average, an amazing 73% delivery rate to their target group. The surgeries also achieved an average 50% response rate, which is extremely high when compared to other forms of direct marketing.

The iPLATO Patient Care Messaging system works by integrating with the GPs’ clinical system where patient records are stored. Surgeries can use the clinical information they hold to target SMS supported Health Promotion text campaigns to specific patient groups.

All the participating surgeries in NHS Bristol using iPLATO’s Patient Care Messaging for these Smoking Cessation initiatives, are receiving comprehensive support from iPLATO’s Outcome Delivery Team, ensuring all GP surgeries benefit from both the experience and best practice techniques gained through the support of similar initiatives elsewhere in the UK.

Sue Roberts, Information Governance Manager, Southmead and Henbury Family Practice, NHS Bristol said, “We decided to use iPLATO text messaging solution because it has proven to be a successful means to support smoking initiatives in other surgeries. We are committed to using every way possible to help our population to quit smoking and this innovative service does that. We have also found that this service has the potential of saving time and administration costs.”

To achieve optimal uptake of this free service, surgeries encourage their patients to hand in and update their mobile contact details.   With an estimated 85% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, the participating surgeries have the opportunity to reach a significant number of their population through this scheme.

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Notes for Editors:

About NHS Bristol

NHS Bristol responsible for local NHS health services in Bristol, UK, taking over from the previous Bristol South and West and Bristol North PCTs. We cover a population of around 400,000 and have a budget of over £600 million. Services include GP practices, pharmacies, dentists, opticians, a range of community nursing and therapy services are supplied by Bristol Community Health. We also refund the NHS hospitals when you are treated in them.

Press contact:
Lawrie Jones
[7] Lawrie.jones@bristolpct.nhs.uk

London, 26^th October 2009.  From today GPs will be receiving deliveries of the Pandemrix vaccine and will begin contacting ‘at risk’ groups for Swine Flu vaccination appointments.

It was recently reported that there are fears that the backlog of post following the current Royal Mail strikes will affect the programme, resulting in ‘at risk’ groups missing their appointments and therefore delaying getting their vaccination.  Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer has warned that thousands of people could miss appointments for their swine flu vaccine due to these postal strikes.

In response to this difficult situation, the Department of Health is now actively encouraging GPs and hospitals to use alternative methods of communication to combat the current limitations of the Royal Mail service.  Text messaging is seen as a method that could play a key role in ensuring the maximum number of ‘at risk’ patients are engaged with. It has also been reported that a number of doctors are already considering sending text messages to patients to invite them for the swine flu vaccination rather than letters.

Text messaging has proven itself to be an extremely effective and immediate way to contact ‘at risk’ groups of patients, when used for the support of health promotion initiatives such as Smoking Cessation and seasonal Flu.  As such, it is a resource that if used to engage with target groups relevant for Swine Flu, could make a real difference, especially if communication via the mail service remains problematic. When compared to other methods of patient engagement, text messaging consistently proves to be a considerably cheaper and more responsive communication channel than other options available (letters, landline call etc).

iPLATO’s flagship text messaging platform, Patient Care Messaging (PCM), is currently being used by GPs across 43 Primary Care Trusts. As a result, the iPLATO network of users represents a very significant resource to be called on in an emergency such as this.

The iPLATO service is a web based text messaging system hosted within NHSnet that integrates to all major GP administration systems, allowing fully automated appointment reminders and targeted group messaging. Patients can respond via text if they wish, with replies being automatically forwarded to a pre-assigned email address.  With an estimated 82% of the UK population owning a mobile phone, it is anticipated surgeries will be able to reach a significant number of their patients in this way.

iPLATO are currently actively engaging with their network of PCTs and GPs to highlight the potential of SMS GP-led Swine Flu vaccine invitations. 

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[8] 22 October 2009. Patients of GP practices in Greenwich will soon benefit from receiving text messages to support  health promotion and patient ‘access’. NHS Greenwich has recently funded iPLATO Patient Care Messaging for 39 Greenwich surgeries. This new text messaging service aims to provide an effective communication channel for the support of health promotion campaigns such as Stop Smoking and also help reduce the number of missed GP appointments, by automated appointment reminders.

The iPLATO service has proved to reduce missed GP appointments in General Practice by between 26% and 40%, and has proven to be a highly effective and efficient method of when used to promote Public Health services.

The iPLATO service allows healthcare providers to engage with smokers through their mobile phones, rather than traditional methods of broadcasting population-wide messages via posters or adverts.  By taking this approach, the PCT expects to significantly and cost effectively increase the number of people seeking support from the Stop Smoking Services.  

From searches made on their GP system, surgeries can send out a text message asking patients to text back if they smoke or not. Patients who receive this message can text back their response by a reply text, received by the GP surgery  as an email to a designated surgery email address.  All patients identified as smokers can then be sent an additional text message inviting them to Smoking Cessation support and advice. 

With an estimated 82% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, surgeries will be able to reach a significant number of their patients through this scheme. To achieve optimal uptake of the service, surgeries can encourage their patients to hand in their mobile contact details for their records to be updated.

Julie Richardson, Head of GP Support & Delivery at Greenwich PCT said, “We are excited to be offering this service to our patients.  Anything that can help bridge the gap between the healthcare provider and patient we see as a positive.  Using this system to request information from patients and as a way to invite patients to healthcare services is proving to be very helpful”.

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Notes for Editors:

About Greenwich PCT:

NHS Greenwich is the lead organisation for the NHS in Greenwich and is responsible for commissioning the health services needed by local people.

We will significantly improve health solutions and reduce health inequalities across Greenwich so that local people feel positive about the care and support they experience from the services we commission.

We know that we need to tailor health solutions to suit the health needs of the local population and we will provide knowledgeable, strong and high profile leadership to deliver this vision.

NHS Greenwich is committed to building and strengthening partnerships with other commissioners and providers who can help us - and we will prioritise tasks and activities that are likely to have the most impact on delivering this vision.  

PCT Contact:
Claire Small
020 8293 6772
[9] claire.small@greenwichpct.nhs.uk

[10] London, 8^th October 2009, An innovative scheme to use mobile technology to obtain a patient’s current smoking status and invite ‘quitters’ for Smoking Cessation services, has proved a great success in NHS Hammersmith and Fulham.  NHS Hammersmith and Fulham have a smoking prevalence of 24.2% and are committed to cutting that number down every year.

The recent scheme using iPLATO Patient Care Messaging, requested a patient’s smoking status via text message.  Patients could respond via reply text - all patient replies being converted to an email and sent back to the relevant surgery email address. Once identified as a smoker, the patients could then be sent an additional text message inviting them to enrol in Stop Smoking programmes. The results were presented this year at the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference (UKNSCC).

22 GP surgeries sent out a request for a patient’s smoking status via text message. The surgeries received 6,085 valid smoking status responses. Some of the top performing surgeries received as high as 57% valid response rates - 95% of those responses received within 24 hours of sending the original message.

After confirming smoking status, the surgeries sent out another text, to enrol smokers in quit programmes. This message invited smokers to text ‘quit’ to be contacted by a member of the local stop smoking team.  

Another way NHS Hammersmith and Fulham have reached out to smokers is by producing posters to be hung up around their borough. These posters direct patients to text ‘QUIT’ to a designated number printed on a poster, members of the public that text in to the designated ‘trigger’ number are subsequently contacted by the local Stop Smoking Service. The posters also give an option of a number to call if the ‘quitter’ does not want to text in. The iPLATO supported poster campaign ran for 6 months and generated 282 responses via text and approximately 300 by phone.

These initiatives have proved considerably more effective than traditional ways of obtaining information and reaching out to ‘smokers’. The cost savings possible with this approach has also proven to be compelling, when compared to the cost of previous methods employed for similar ends.

Tim Roberts Stop-Smoking Manager, NHS Hammersmith and Fulham said, “This way of reaching out to smokers to help them quit is not only effective but very fast, because of this, text messaging is an essential component in the promotion of stop smoking services.”

iPLATO Patient Care Messaging is increasingly being funded by PCTs for GP surgeries across the UK and is being used to address important Public Health concerns such as CVD, Smoking, Sexual

Health, Flu, Childhood Immunisations and Obesity.  The system works by integrating with the GPs’ clinical system where patient records are stored.  GP surgeries can search the clinical information they hold on their clinical systems to target specific groups of patients for SMS health promotion campaigns. 

 
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 About NHS Hammersmith and Fulham:

Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust (PCT) is the NHS organisation responsible for 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).

NHS Hammersmith and Fulham contact
Press and Communications Department
Tel: 020 3313 7226
[11] communications@hf-pct.nhs.uk

Patient Care Messaging is being used successfully by GP surgeries to support both health promotion initiatives such as Smoking Cessation, Flu Jab, Cancer Screening etc. as well as ‘Access’ initiatives via our system’s automated appointment reminders.

BUT…

Patient Care Messaging can only send a message to a patient if you have a mobile number recorded for them…

iPLATO Champion Award Details

The iPLATO Champion Award competition is aimed at encouraging GP surgeries to collect mobile numbers to support the above benefits being achieved.

If you would like

to participate in this competition please follow the steps below:

RULES:

• By filling in the form below, surgeries can register for the iPLATO Champion Award (awarded to a winning surgery every 2 months).
• The surgery that achieves the largest increase in mobile numbers recorded on their administration system (as a %) over the relevant 2 month period will win an iPLATO Champion Award (Champion for 2 Months only!).
• The two month period will start December 1^st,  February 1^st,  April 1^st,  June 1^st,   August 1^st  and October 1^st..
• Entry for the competition will be 3 weeks before the next 2 month evaluation period.
• Any entries after each 3 week period will not be counted toward the current 2 month ‘Champion’ evaluation period but will be added into the next two month evaluation period.
• Our winners will be announced in our newsletter.
• Multiple entrees to this competition is permissible.

PRIZES:

The winning surgery will get:

• A £150 voucher (from a choice of Selfridges, John Lewis or Marks and Spencer!)

• £50 gift certificate to MagazineSubscription.co.uk for you and/or your patients to choose new magazines for your surgery waiting room (subscription for a year).

As the patients play a role in helping you win (by providing you with their numbers!!) We recommend letting the patients know about this offer, as it may help encourage them to help you collect their mobile numbers to win these magazines for the waiting room.

Please see below a PDF’d poster for you to download and put up in your waiting room to remind patients to hand in their mobile numbers and help you win!

[12] [View Poster]

Good Luck!

Camden, London, 24 September 2009 - Patients of GP practices in Camden are benefitting from receiving appointment reminders and health information to their mobiles phones via text message. NHS Camden recently funded their surgeries to launch and operate the healthcare specific text messaging platform iPLATO Patient Care Messaging. The new patient service aims to reduce non-attendance to appointments as well as informing about important 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 £790 million per year *. The iPLATO system has proven to reduce non-attendance in general practice by between 26% and 40%. In addition to reaping financial benefits through increased efficiency, NHS Camden 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 the subsequent benefits of this service, surgeries encourage their patients to hand in their mobile contact details for their records to be updated.

Peppy Begueria, Deputy Practice Manager of Prince of Wales Group Practice in NHS Camden said, “We are delighted with the text service.   It has definitely reduced our DNAs (did not attend) by a substantial amount.   Patients often comment on how helpful it is that they are reminded of their appointments by text.    We would definitely recommend this service.”

Kevin Hunter, Clinical Standards & Governance Manager at NHS Camden said, “Patient Care Messaging is the way forward in Camden. We have an ethnically and socially diverse population and many of them use mobile phones. I believe that text message reminders for patient’s appointments are the perfect first step towards building a ‘mobile relationship’. We aim to reduce missed appointments and look forward to using this service to support population wide health promotion initiatives”.

- Ends -

Notes for Editors:

* Imperial College research article- Effectiveness of mobile-phone short message service (SMS) reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments: Observational study

Elizabeth Koshy, Josip Car and Azeem Majeed

About NHS Camden:

NHS Camden is the local NHS organisation responsible for providing healthcare for people who live in the borough of Camden - a population of about 220,000 people. We commission or pay for services from a wide range of health providers, including GPs, dentists, opticians and community pharmacies, acute trusts and mental health trusts. We are also responsible for supporting the local population of Camden to maximise health by promoting healthy lifestyles for example through services like the stop smoking service and sensible drinking service.

NHS Camden Contact:
Sonia Amos
[13] sonia.amos@camdenpct.nhs.uk

London, 7^th September 2009, iPLATO has earned a place in the Tech Media Invest Top 100. This is a list of the hottest emerging and most innovative companies in the ever converging tech and media industries.

The Top 100 list was revealed today by Europe-Unlimited, Europe’s leading event organisers for investors and technology companies, in association with The Guardian, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kemp Little.

The Tech Media Invest 100 aims to showcase young entrepreneurial companies that are developing innovative new ways to serve business and consumers, and have the potential to radically change the shape of the technology and media industry. The Tech Media Invest Advisory Board felt iPLATO (along with other companies) was an example of the kind of company that may go on to be the leaders of tomorrow.

“Being on the Media Tech Top 100 list is confirmation of the emergence of iPLATO as an exciting business across the innovation spectrum”, said Tobias Alpsten Managing Director of iPLATO Healthcare. “Our company provides powerful new services that really make a difference to patients and healthcare professionals around the country. As a unique proposition, our mobile health services deliver measurable health benefits to patients, but they also deliver significant cost savings, making them a valuable choice in the midst of financial challenges for the NHS. iPLATO has more than doubled in size over the last six months, so this popularity is not exactly news to the thousands of healthcare professionals and millions of patients we work with every day. What is new is us emerging as an exciting proposition compared to growth businesses across sectors beyond healthcare.”

The Tech Media Invest Advisory Board deployed a detailed process to whittle down a pool of eligible, promising companies to get to the top 100 winners. Evaluations were made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integration. The results were moderated by the Board which consisted of some of the UK’s most experienced investors in modern technology and media - a mix of venture capitalists, investment analysts, professional advisers and technology lawyers, who applied their expertise to identify the best performers and the ones to watch.

For information on companies go to [14] www.e-unlimited.com/tmi

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Notes for Editors:

Europe-Unlimited

Founded in 1998, privately-owned Europe Unlimited supplies critical business intelligence to innovative technology entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and researchers throughout Europe. Our online community provides a platform to exchange knowledge and to facilitate networking at our pan-European venture events. Over the past decade, our activities have helped thousands of start-ups in finding partners and raising capital. Next to the UK Tech Media 100, we compile the Nordic Venture 50 and the Benelux Venture 50 rankings for the most promising start-ups in these regions, and identify Europe’s leading startups through the Eurecan European Venture Contest, now in its fifth year.

Europe Unlimited coordinated the selection of the UK Tech Media 100 and will organise the forthcoming Tech Media Invest 2009 taking place on October 1^st at the Emirates Stadium.

[15] www.e-unlimited.com

London, 5^th August 2009, GP Surgeries in Camden are successfully sending out text messages advising patients on what to do if they think they have Swine Flu.

The GP surgeries are some of the first to use text messaging as a way to help people deal with the Swine Flu pandemic.  The iPLATO Patient Care Messaging service, which is being used by the surgeries to send out the Swine Flu related text messages, was originally funded by the PCT to improve efficiency and performance across a range of healthcare areas.

This use of the iPLATO platform to communicate Swine Flu specific information is a great way to use the text messaging channel - which has proved to be both a highly responsive and by definition ‘personal’ method of GP Surgery/Patient communication. Furthermore, the system allows information to be targeted to specific patient groups that most need it, allowing patients to text back a reply (as appropriate) arriving at the surgery as an email to a predefined email address.

The Camden surgeries sent out a text message advising patients on the best steps to take should they suspect that they (or a family member) might be showing the symptoms of Swine Flu.  The messages were aimed at encouraging patients to phone a flu pandemic line first rather than call or visit their surgery. It also provided an opportunity to signpost patients to a relevant website to access further Swine Flu specific information.

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, has said that in the worst case scenario 30% of the UK population could be infected by the H1N1 virus, with 65,000 killed.  By using every available communication channel to update patients on what to do if they think they have Swine Flu, Healthcare Provider Organisations can potentially greatly decrease the impact of the Swine Flu pandemic.

The Camden GP surgeries are certainly leading the way by seeking to utilise all their resources and demonstrating best practice by using the iPLATO text messaging service in this way. Since sending out the message the surgeries have had less Swine Flu patients coming into the surgery in person and more patients calling up instead as advised.

The use of the iPLATO system in this way has shown how effective the text messaging channel can be in a pandemic scenario.   The more the population is educated about Swine Flu the better, and with GP users across 40+ PCTs, the iPLATO platform could play a very significant role in support of this.

Sandra Anderson, Senior Administrator of the Rosslyn Hill Practice in NHS Camden said, “Since sending out the message it has eased pressure off our surgery. Patients are calling in and getting advice about Swine Flu instead of coming into the surgery in person. It’s important to contact patients by all means possible when it comes to a pandemic and we are very happy to have iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to help us do that. Since so many of our patients have mobiles, text messaging is the best way to contact them quickly.”

Jeff Mitchell, IT Manager of the James Wigg Practice in NHS Camden said, “Using the text messaging service to reach 8,500 patients led to an immediate decrease in the volume of calls concerning swine flu and an increase the hits on our website where we provide Q&A for the patient. We know people are very concerned about Swine Flu and we want them to know what to do if they think they are infected. Many of our patients have mobile phones and text is a great way to send out a message instantly.”

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London, 17 July 2009 - The North London Community Dermatology Service (NLCDS), which started 1^st July 2008 and based at The Royal Free Hospital Hampstead, are now benefiting from receiving appointment reminders to their mobiles phones via text message on an ongoing basis. The NLCDS have started using the iPLATO Patient Care Messaging (PCM) system in line with an increasing trend to utilise mobile technology to efficiently communicate with out-patients. 

 The iPLATO text messaging service will be used to automatically send appointment reminders to the mobile phones of the relevant out-patients.  On receiving a message, the out-patient can reply via text - all replies being routed as an email to a predetermined email address.  The service also benefits from sophisticated reporting functionality, enabling users to manage all aspects of the system effectively.

 Like many NHS organisation, the NLCDS is keen to reduce ‘Did not attend’ (DNA) rates and improve patient Access.  The cost savings and increased efficiency possible with this approach makes projects of this nature very timely given the current economic downturn.

 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 in General Practice by between 26% and 40%. In addition to reaping financial benefits through increased efficiency, health services can establish an effective communication channel for health information.

 With an estimated 82% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, iPLATO PCM users 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 the subsequent benefits of this service, patients are encouraged to hand in their mobile contact details for their records to be updated.

 Dr. Nirmin Patel, Interim Service Manager, North London Community Dermatology Service said, “The system is very useful for reminding patients about their appointments, especially as many patients forget about their appointments due to long lead times and misplace their original appointment letters. Reminding them the week before and also two days before their appointment is a great way of ensuring that they attend and gives them ample time to cancel it. The reporting feature on the system is also a very useful tool for identifying mobile numbers that are incorrect so that patient information can be updated.”                                                         

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Notes for Editors:

About The Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust has around 900 beds and sees about 700,000 patients a year from all over the world . We employ around 4,600 people and have a turnover of about £450m.

Our services include a major accident and emergency service, all branches of surgery and medicine, a renal service serving the whole of north London, paediatrics, maternity services, care of elderly people, an adolescent psychiatric service and one of two high security infectious diseases units in the country.

We are renowned for our specialist services including liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation, renal, AIDS/HIV, infectious diseases, plastic surgery, immunology, paediatric gastroenterology, ENT surgery and audiological medicine, amyloidosis and scleroderma. We are a leading cancer centre with a range of specialist diagnostic and treatment services in oncology and haematology and a major neuroscience base with a network extending throughout north London and into the Home Counties. There are associated internationally recognised research and training programmes.

The hospitals and associated medical school conduct medical research, much of which is of international status, and constitute a leading site for the training of doctors, nurses, midwives and professions allied to medicine.

Press Contact:
Philippa Hutchinson
Head of Communications
[16] Philippa.Hutchinson@royalfree.nhs.uk

Wirral, England, 15 July 2009 - Patients of GP practices in Wirral are benefiting from receiving appointment reminders and health information to their mobiles phones via text message.

NHS Wirral has recently funded participating surgeries to launch and operate a Patient Care Messaging service, which aims to inform patients about NHS services, such as cancer screening and immunisation, to reduce the number of people who do not turn up to their appointments.

According to recent research, non-attendance to appointments cost the NHS - and the tax payer - more than £750 million per year. The text message system, called iPLATO Patient Care Messaging, has proven to reduce non-attendance in General Practice by between 26% and 40%. In addition to saving money which can be best used for patient care, NHS Wirral hopes to provide patients with useful health information through this communication channel.

With an estimated 82% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, iPLATO Patient Care Messaging aims to reach a significant number of NHS patients. 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. Participating GP Practices will be asking patients if they are willing to record their mobile contact details for those who wish to benefit from service.  

Barbara Dunton, Deputy Head of Bebington and West Wirral Locality, NHS Wirral, said: “Mobile patient services have proven that they are cost effective and scalable and are, therefore, the way forward in Wirral. We have a diverse population of patients registered with GPs and many already use mobiles to run their daily lives.” She continues, “NHS Wirral chose iPLATO for its long experience in UK primary care.  This system of messaging is functional and secure. It improves service without adding extra work for healthcare staff and links with existing systems used by GPs to book appointments and clinics.”

Anna Commander of the Leasowe Surgery in Twickenham Drive, said: “I absolutely love having the system in the surgery and it has saved so much time. The Appointment reminders are very successful and I have also been able to send SMS messages notifying patients of extended hours over the holiday periods and a surgery open day.” 

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Notes for Editors:

About NHS Wirral:

NHS Wirral is the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) for Wirral. PCTs first came into being in April 2000. Since their time their role has developed to design, plan and develop better services for patients, ensuring that we get the best value for your money. Your PCT will work with local authorities and other agencies that provide health and social care locally to make sure that your local community’s needs are being met. PCTs are now at the centre of the NHS. As they are local organisations, they are in the best position to understand the needs of their community, so they can make sure that the organisations providing health and social care services are working effectively. For example, your PCT must make sure there are enough services for people within their area and that these services are accessible. They must also make sure that all other health services are provided, including hospitals, dentists, opticians, mental health services, NHS Walk-In Centres, NHS Direct, patient transport (including Accident & Emergency), population screening, pharmacies and opticians. They are also responsible for getting health and social care systems working together to the benefit of patients.

NHS Wirral Press Contact:
Philip Rostance
Senior Communications Manager
0151 651 3908

With Earth Day on the 21^st of April, the increasing adoption of iPLATO’s text messaging system, Patient Care Messaging, by NHS organisations across the UK for health promotion initiatives and GP appointment reminders is proving to be a great way of creating a ‘greener’ NHS. 

By implementing the iPLATO system, many NHS healthcare provider organisations have been able to provide an alternative communication ‘channel’ to paper and mail services.  

Users of the iPLATO system are achieving a significant decrease in the use of paper and mail services (a key contributor of CO2 emissions in the NHS), as a result of using the ‘two-way’ SMS system for a proportion of their healthcare provider/patient communication.

 Compared to paper and mail services, the use of text messaging is a significantly ‘greener’ option.  The NHS is responsible for 3.2% of all carbon emissions and 25% of Public Sector emissions in England.

 The NHS could significantly reduce their ‘primary and secondary footprint’ (a measure of the direct and indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products that the NHS uses) by the wide adoption of SMS messaging technology to reduce the amount of paper and mail services used.

 This approach could also have a major role to play when taking into account the challenge that the NHS faces in achieving the Government’s aim to cut carbon emissions in the NHS by 10% by 2015 and by 80% by 2050.

 In addition to reducing the amount of paper and mail services used, text messaging can also reduce NHS costs considerably.  When compared to sending a letter or calling a patient via a landline telephone (both activities requiring considerable time, cost and effort) for health promotion initiatives such as Smoking Cessation, the instantaneous and cheap nature of sending a text message is an excellent alternative.

 Recent studies have also shown that the use of the iPLATO system for SMS supported health promotion has also delivered much higher patient response rates than traditionally achievable via existing methods of healthcare provider/patient communication (letters, landline telephone call etc.).

 For all these reasons, text messaging can make a significant contribution to CO2 emission reduction and all round efficiency within the NHS.

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Recent results from a Tower Hamlets PCT text messaging campaign have shown that text messaging contributes to improved attendance for Breast Screening in Tower Hamlets. The iPLATO supported campaigns that ran throughout last summer were implemented alongside a number of tools and techniques to improve the rate of screening (e.g. posters campaigns, calling patients directly, well women clinics and focus groups), all designed to encourage women in Tower Hamlets PCT to attend their breast screening appointment.  

A list provided by the Central & East London Breast Screening Service (CELBSS) was uploaded by the 9 participating GP surgeries who then sent out appointment reminders to selected patients reminding them to attend their breast screening appointment with the CELBSS screening service. Similar campaigns are also now being run in PCTs elsewhere in London.

Breast screening is a high priority in Tower Hamlets.  One in nine women will develop breast cancer at some point in their life and it is essential that attending a breast screening invitation is regarded as a high priority.  According to Cancer Research UK, new figures have revealed that women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer following a routine screening appointment have the same lifespan as women who have never had the disease, highlighting the importance of women attending their breast screening appointment.

Maxine Khol, Practice Manager at Wapping Group Practice, said: “The iPLATO texting has been an excellent service to our patients; it helps very much with our non attendees, which then gives us the opportunity to offer more appointments. We also use the service for other clinics and recalls such as diabetic, blood pressure, flu clinics. We most certainly will be using this service for the foreseeable future”.

The PCT has already started new Breast Screening appointment reminder campaigns that will be run over the coming year.

Kay Eilbert, Senior Public Health Strategist at Tower Hamlets PCT said, “iPLATO offers an easy, inexpensive way of reminding women about their breast screening appointments”.  She also added, “Text messaging could provide a key piece of the puzzle in our quest to improve screening coverage among hard to reach women.”

Funded centrally by the PCT, the service has been adopted by over 95% of Tower Hamlets GP surgeries and will be used to address important Public Health concerns such as Smoking and Breast Screening.

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Notes for Editor:

About Tower Hamlets PCT:Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust is made up of 1,250 nurses, midwives, therapists, doctors, support and public health staff, working with more than 158 GPs in 36 practices. We are improving health by:

• Commissioning services from NHS Trusts and others to meet the needs of local people
• Providing high quality health care in the local community
• Working with general practitioners, the local authority, NHS Trusts and voluntary organisations to find new, better ways to provide care

Press contact:
Jacqueline Katz
Communications Manager
Tower Hamlets PCT
Tel. 020 7655 6685

Increasing numbers of GP surgeries across London are opting to use the iPLATO text messaging capability to increase the uptake of self screening tests for Chlamydia.  The iPLATO Patient Care Messaging system is being used to support initiatives aimed at addressing the dramatic increase of the infection, which according to the National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) could be affecting 1 in 10 people under the age of 25 who are sexually active. 

From searches made on their GP systems, surgeries sent out a group text message to selected patients inviting them to call or visit their surgery to pick up or request a self test Chlamydia ‘pack’, patients taking the self test Chlamydia ‘pack’ will be asked to give a urine sample or alternatively women can take a swab from the lower vagina. The Chlamydia test is confidential, free, simple and painless. 

Text messaging has been proven to be a successful way to contact ‘hard to reach’ patients, especially young adults.  The use of text messaging to effectively invite young adults to GP surgeries to increase the uptake of Chlamydia self-testing has considerable potential.  A recent study has proven that text messaging is an acceptable medium for communicating sexual health information to young people*.  

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK.  The infection has no signs or symptoms, but if left untreated can cause several long-term health problems, such as permanent infertility.  However, if diagnosed early, Chlamydia can be easily treated with a course of antibiotics. 

Recent government modernisation strategy requirements for sexual health call for an expansion in the provision of Chlamydia screening. The NCSP aims to ensure that under 25s are aware of the risk of acquiring Chlamydia, its potential complications and have access to screening, prevention and treatment services. 

Grace Kamel, Administration Co-ordinator at the Hampstead Group Practice in Camden PCT (one of the surgeries opting to adopt this SMS supported approach in London) said: “Getting hold of young adults for sexual health checkups is often difficult to do. The system makes it a lot easier.” She also added, ‘We decided to use texts messaging, because texting is very popular amongst young adults. The use of text messaging in this area is a really innovative idea - it’s immediate, convenient and non-intrusive.” 

iPLATO Patient Care Messaging is increasingly being funded by PCTs across the UK 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.  GP surgeries can search the clinical information they hold on their clinical systems to target specific groups of patients for health promotion campaigns. 

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*Alexa Wilkins and Donna B. Mak (2007), Sending out an SMS: an impact and outcome evaluation of the Western Australian Department of Health’s 2005 Chlamydia campaign, Health Promotion Journal of Australia;18:113-20

NOTES TO EDITOR

About Hampstead Group Practice in Camden PCT

The Hampstead Group Practice is a very busy, forward thinking and high achieving surgery serving a highly diverse population of over 10,500 patients in the Hampstead and Gospel Oak areas of Camden. We like to look at innovative ways to develop patient services and recognise that a lot of our patients have very busy lives. 

Contact details
Grace Kamel
020 7433-3904

[17] GP surgeries in Southwark Primary Care Trust (PCT) have been using iPLATO’s text messaging solution to invite patients for their MMR jab and to alert parents of the recent measles outbreaks in local schools within the Borough. Southwark PCT decided to partner with mobile health promotion specialists iPLATO in response to an increase in the number of measles cases reported in Southwark over the last few months.

Every quarter, surgeries receive a list from the central system known as Open Exeter, which indicates all the children who are due their immunisation for the combined measles, mumps and rubella jab (MMR). By running a search on their clinical system, practices were able to send out a text message to a group of selected patients, who were due their first MMR or booster MMR jab, advising them to call the surgery to make an appointment.

Nicholas Christou, Practice Manager at The Hambleden Clinic said, “The iPLATO system has been a huge help, it has made it a lot easier to target parents asking them to call the surgery to book an appointment for their child’s vaccination”. He added, “We know mobile phones are used by a lot of our patients, so text messaging is an effective way to communicate with them.”

Southwark PCT aims to ensure that everybody under the age of 18 not previously vaccinated, receive both doses of the MMR Jab and that information is made available on how this service can be accessed.  As part of the Southwark PCT campaign, iPLATO Patient Care Messaging was used to send text messages to parents of children under the age of 16, inviting them to contact the surgery to make an appointment. The iPLATO platform was also used to send messages to 16 -18 years olds, in order to invite those who have not been previously vaccinated with the MMR Jab, to text back to receive info on walk in clinics.

Measles cases have soared across England and Wales with 1,049 confirmed cases last year, surpassing the total of 990 cases in 2007. As a result of these alarming figures, the achievement of ‘herd immunity’ is a major priority for the NHS. The use of iPLATO Patient Care Messaging in Southwark PCT’s childhood immunisation campaigns has proven to be a very useful tool to support the PCT’s goal of achieving ‘herd immunity’.

Maxine Grimes, Primary Care Information Officer at Southwark PCT, said, “We chose to partner with iPLATO because the technology has proven to be a quick and successful method to engage with patients”. She also added, “We are very committed to helping increase the uptake of childhood immunisation, and pleased to offer this additional support to our surgeries, to expand and accelerate their efforts.”

This recent initiative forms part of a wider plan to utilise the text messaging channel for a variety of health promotion initiatives (such as Smoking Cessation and Healthcare Data Collection) within Southwark PCT surgeries.

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NOTES TO EDITOR

About Measles and Herd Immunisation

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases and it is caused by the measles virus and unfortunately the complications of measles affect one in every 15 children. Beginning like a bad cold, the child then develops a fever and a rash.

Herd Immunisation is when enough people in a community are immunised against certain diseases, then it is more difficult for that disease to get passed between those who aren’t immunised.

About Southwark PCT

Southwark Health and Social Care is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of the people who live in the London Borough of Southwark. We have over 2,000 staff. We deliver, manage, pay for and are responsible for a wide range of services that thousands of local people use on a daily basis.

Press Contact
Andrew Pike
Communications Team
020 7525 3105
[18] southwark.communication@southwarkpct.nhs.uk

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