Imagineear Health, working in partnership with with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and CW+, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s charity, have launched the Acute COVID app to support NHS staff redeployed to care for COVID-19 patients.
The unique Acute COVID app is now widely available for download on iOS and Android devices, but was originally created as a learning tool for staff at the Trust’s two hospitals – Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital. The app was designed to increase staff confidence and provide an easily-accessible, one-stop information resource, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The app, which includes video tutorials, training diagrams and schematics as well as written information and resource links, including step-by step guides to defining stages of COVID-19, was created for both doctors and nurses to provide staff with vital information on triage at A&E, hospital admission and in-hospital treatments.
Imagineear Health understood that the app would be used by medical professionals who did not necessarily have previous experience of some advanced care management procedures and therefore designed the app to ensure clear content flow, definition and treatment breakdowns and intuitive navigation.
The app also features training on non-invasive ventilation, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) which could then be - thanks to the training - delivered by staff who would not routinely use these techniques and which may reduce patient bed days and prevent the need for invasive mechanical ventilation.
Importantly, the app also includes links to staff mental and physical wellbeing support resources, acknowledging the toll that caring for COVID-19 patients can have on frontline staff, and supporting them to look after themselves and their colleagues.
Dr Ryan Dhunnookchand, Respiratory Registrar & Medical Education Fellow at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “During the first wave of COVID-19 in early 2020, we quickly realised that there were not enough staff with the specialist skills required to care for COVID-19 patients, and we had to rapidly train and redeploy many staff members across our hospitals. The goal was to develop a smartphone application that increased staff confidence in caring for COVID-19 patients, including setting up CPAP circuits, and provided an aid to troubleshooting problems that might arise, particularly when skilled staff may not be readily available to assist and thereby to improve patient safety.
“Working with Imagineear, and supported by a generous grant from Pfizer, we are pleased to be able to make this innovative and educational resource freely available to help all NHS Trusts and healthcare providers.”
“This app is an ideal way of delivering clinical training pathways for clinicians who have been redeployed to work on COVID-19 wards in an easy to navigate and immediately available format,” said Julia Laflin, Head of Healthcare at digital healthcare specialists Imagineear Health. “We worked with the respiratory specialists at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to turn their excellent training material and video content into a structure with clear interface design that could provide education on defining the categories of COVID, the admissions and treatment protocols as well as quick reference aid and troubleshooting guidance.”
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Julia Laflin Imagineear Ltd julialaflin@imagineear.com
About Imagineear Health and Imagineear Ltd
Imagineear Health is a division of Imagineear Ltd dedicated to design, build and manage apps and related digital tools in partnership with the NHS and other healthcare providers for use by patients and clinicians.
Imagineear Ltd is a leading provider of multimedia content and technology solutions. We design and produce multilingual content, which we often integrate with existing archive materials, as well as live audio. We publish to smartphones, and to smart devices on-site, working with sports venues, cultural sites and the healthcare sector. In London and Amsterdam we have experienced content, hardware, software and data solution teams. Our goal is to help our clients deliver exceptional value and memorable experiences to their visitors, both on- and off-site. www.imagineear.com
