AirEmail

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NHS Problem

Effective communication is critical for high-quality patient care, but email overload causes significant technostress among NHS staff, with 64% finding email unmanageable. With over 29 million daily NHSmail messages, crucial patient information risks being overlooked. Half of NHS clinicians report missing patient-related emails, contributing to missed test results and care delays. Communication breakdowns cause 1 in 6 NHS complaints, with 1 in 6 patients believing their referrals are lost and 1 in 4 chasing them up. This results in delayed care and patient harm, disproportionately affecting patients receiving complex care. The impact extends beyond patients, contributing to staff burnout. 

The Solution

AirEmail is a novel, digital tool enhancing healthcare email productivity whilst reducing staff technostress and is the only NHS England-approved add-in for NHSmail. It is:

  • a smart assistant auto-highlighting critical dates, urgent tasks and Patient-IDs 
  • the first software to hyperlink Patient-IDs from emails to clinical systems 
  • colour-codes emails, making patient-related emails immediately identifiable 
  • a wellbeing assistant, alerting staff when overbooking themselves to meetings, scheduling comfort breaks, and showcasing meeting-related emails 
  • has been validated in the prospective NHS DigiWell study, the first healthcare communication software trial, processing >400,000 NHS Staff emails

Impact

AirEmail transforms NHS care by: 

  • Reducing missed patient-related emails by 34% 
  • Saving staff 5 minutes daily (nearly 3 working days annually)  
  • Accelerating patient-related email responses by 17% (12 hours faster) 
  • Decreasing staff anxiety levels by 13%, improving mental health 
  • Potentially preventing 140,000 patient care delays/incidents annually across the NHS 
  • Offering potential NHS-wide savings of £1.4 billion annually through productivity gains and cost reductions 
  • Provides a single solution, deployable to > 1.4 Million NHS staff using NHSmail