Ben Wanless
2020 Bio: Ben is clinical lead for a large out-patient physiotherapy service that uses a several digital solutions to deliver care. He is responsible for ensuring that the technology the service uses works effectively and benefits the service. He is also Allied Health Professional (AHP) lead for all things IT and digital within the trust he works in. As such he sits on several IT and informatics working groups. Specifically, he is involved in the implementation of a digital self-management solution for musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions across South West London (SWL).
You can also read a case study about Ben’s project.
Digital Pioneer Fellowship project summary: Scaling the getUBetter web and smartphone self-management solution across SWL to enable effective self-management of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. getUBetter delivers personalised recovery and prevention self-management support for common MSK conditions and injuries. The mobile platform and web-app provides true self-management that helps patients to trust their recovery and therefore they utilise less healthcare resource. It can be made available to the whole population and be provided wherever a patient interacts with the system e.g. self-referral, primary care, out-of-ours services (OOH), emergency department, physio or from work.
Each element of a CCG’s MSK pathways are configured and integrated locally and then made available to the population. getUBetter is not just about triage but a whole pathway approach that does not redirect patients to use resource elsewhere unless absolutely needed. By supporting patients using evidence-based tools, it promotes safe self-management but also automates referrals for treatment appropriately.
The next stage of this project is to now increase user and clinician engagement to maximise usage and therefore effectiveness. They hope to show significant system benefits including better healthcare outcomes, reduced hospital referrals and significant cost savings.
Estimated number of patients / staff impacted by the project: Approximately 100,000 patients and over 200 staff across the whole system (primary and secondary care clinicians).
Goal(s) for the programme: Increase clinician and user engagement.
Develop a robust way of collecting an analysing data to prove effectiveness.