Tunstall Healthcare and Inhealthcare have agreed to combine their skills and expertise at scale to help tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the NHS and social care services.
The UK technology companies, both of which have strong track records in innovation, announced their ground-breaking association at the Digital Health and Care Congress 2017, a major event hosted by the influential King’s Fund think tank in London.
Tunstall Healthcare offers a range of connected healthcare solutions designed to help older people and those with long-term needs to live more independently and with an improved quality of life.
The company has pioneered the use of technology to enable new models of care, working with its customers to manage demand and improve outcomes across health, social care, and housing.
Inhealthcare’s digital health technology provides the means of digitising care in a secure, simple and cost-effective way.
It works with NHS organisations across the UK to help patients manage long-term conditions, reducing pressure on GP surgeries and hospital departments.
Under the partnership, the two companies will roll out a series of services that aim to integrate health and social care.
David McKinney, managing director Tunstall (UK and Ireland), said: “This collaboration brings together best-in-class industry skills and expertise in health and social care technologies that will offer solutions at scale for the well-documented challenges facing health and social care.”
Bryn Sage, chief executive of Inhealthcare, added: “Collaboration and openness is the key to unlocking the opportunity for the NHS to transform the delivery of health and social care.
“Our collaboration will allow providers, whether they are in the health or social care sector, to deliver the best-possible care for patients where it is needed the most.”
Digital integration of health and care services will be able to support:
- NHS-managed monitoring of patients in homes and care homes, delivered locally by carers and care workers
- Identification of vulnerable patients most likely to be admitted to hospital, with tailored digital care plans being created to meet their wishes and needs
- Close involvement of family members so they are fully involved in all decision making about their loved ones
- Roll-out of 24/7 clinical care co-ordination centres for care workers and NHS community staff can contact for specialist support and accurate patient information instead of dialing 111 or 999
- Earlier discharge from hospital with remote monitoring by care teams to allow rapid intervention in the event of a deterioration
- Rapid innovation so that new ways of caring for people, whether in their own home or care home, can be introduced to harness the wave of emerging communication and mobile technologies
The collaboration will allow the rapid creation of innovative new services to meet local population needs, and enable the integration of new services and apps with existing clinical and care systems, such as GP and hospital records, so that patient data is always available.
Inhealthcare’s unique programming technology also significantly reduces the time taken to build new services and apps.
