GP led Smoking Cessation campaigns deliver response rates of 46%

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 www.bdpct.nhs.uk.

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

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
julia.hanley@iplato.net
One Lyric Square, W6 0NB, London, United Kingdom
www.iplato.net
Pictures available on request