Virtual ward for Covid-19

Covid-19 and the following pandemic situation, prompts healthcare providers and authorities to find new processes and tools to cope with the situation. To contain the spread of the virus, patients are being treated at home and vulnerable patient groups are especially at risk. Dignio excels with capabilities to follow-up many suspected and confirmed cases in parallel, allowing staff to easily identify and prioritise critically ill patients or patients with symptoms which need attention. With a whole sector under tremendous pressure, Dignio Connected Care can be an important part of the solution.

Safer at home

Connected Care is given through a user interface on the patient’s smartphone or tablet, that offers a user friendly menu with important features to manage their situation. The patient will receive care from healthcare professionals during this period. Healthcare providers can manage and monitor patients through the platform, Dignio Prevent. It is designed in accordance with the preferences of healthcare personnel with fully controlled settings for thresholds for patients. Additionally specific monitoring tasks, such as regular temperature checks and symptom reporting, can be set up for each patient or cohort of patients. The user interface for clinical staff supports three main tasks:

  • Find patients in need of attention promptly  and identify patients early if their symptoms worsen
  • For critically ill patients, build a comprehensive overview of related symptoms
  • Communicate with patients in a prioritised manner and establish asynchronous dialogues  which enables staff to handle communication when appropriate. Four way video communication is available for real time communication as well allowing multi-disciplinary teams to convene.

Given the current situation with Covid-19, Connected Care can be provided to three main groups of patients:

People in quarantine
Residents and employees  in quarantine are followed up using questionnaires to identify symptoms that require attention. In addition, easy access to chat and video is provided with health professionals for advice and clarifications.

Patients in isolation
Identified infected patients can be closely monitored with questionnaires and temperature measurement to monitor possible deterioration in status  Tools to consult healthcare professionals remotely via chat or video are available.

High-risk patient groups
Patients with chronic diseases or weakened immune systems, have special needs during a pandemic situation. These patient groups can be managed remotely to avoid exposure to sources of infection. Healthcare professionals can follow up the patient with measurements which are automatically uploaded to Dignio with regard to clinical pre-set action thresholds.

“With technology playing a vital role in our response to this pandemic so far, the MyDignio app will enhance our ability to provide high quality healthcare and reassurance to the people of Dudley. It will also allow healthcare staff to remotely manage the monitoring process of suspected coronavirus patients safely, and without infection risk to themselves.”

Dr Jonathan Darby, GP and IT Lead, Dudley CCG

“[…] ..the Government will seek innovative operating models for the UK’s health and care settings, to strengthen them for the long term and make them safer for patients and staff in a world where COVID-19 continues to be a risk. For example, this might include using more tele-medicine and remote monitoring to give patients hospital-level care from the comfort and safety of their own homes.”

The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy, May 2020

Important functionality

The patient app is user friendly and co-created with patients and easy to access. Dignio Prevent, the portal for healthcare professionals is both advanced and intuitive at the same time, and can be accessed by several clinicians with different roles. All patient data is handled securely and stored in our cloud solution.

Overview and triaging: Based on a questionnaire and measurements from medical devices (e.g. thermometer or spirometer), healthcare professionals get a clear overview, can triage more easily and have important clinical management decision support from the reported data.

Chat function: Patients and healthcare professionals can send messages to each other and, through asynchronous communication, stay in dialogue in a timely manner.

Video function: Video consultation can be arranged, and patients and healthcare professionals meet in  “video rooms”. Several people can attend at the same time – for example the patient, GP and/or other members from a multidisciplinary team.

Information page: The patient app has an information page that can be updated from the web portal by healthcare professionals. It is possible to bulk update and to give different information to different patient groups.

Symptom reporting: Patients can report symptoms by, among other things, responding to a questionnaire either a pre-set questionnaire or a set of questions created by the healthcare professionals.

Monitoring: Patients can measure values using measuring devices, such as a temperature, weight, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and lung function.The results can also be manually added.

If you would like to know more about the solution and to discuss potential immediate use  please contact us:

Chief Operating Officer: ole@dignio.com
For UK operations: ewa@dignio.com