MedQ

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NHS problem

­­­­Currently, NHS is routinely collecting patient-reported outcomes in various settings from orthopaedics to IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) services, from inpatient to outpatient consultations. Although digital collection of assessments is available in some Trusts, others are heavily reliant on paper. Unfortunately, it requires unnecessary admin time to print, manually calculate scores, followed by scanning them back onto the patient medical records. In some cases even posting it to the patients. A lack of accessible digital tools creates a barrier in the field and reduces the uptake of such assessments.

The solution

MedQ, is a SaaS (Software as a service) company that enables any registered healthcare professionals collect clinical outcome measures anytime, anywhere.

Clinicians can complete assessments in three simple steps:

  1. By selecting a validated assessment from the MedQ library
  2. Completing it now or sending to the patient to do later
  3. Analysing instant results.

Additional features include repeated assessments automation, in-depth analytics and integration of MedQ platform with existing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems

Impact

The NHS had 42 million follow up appointments between 2019 and 2020 alone. The NHS states that each hospital outpatient appointment costs approximately £120. If MedQ were able to prevent just 1% of potentially unnecessary follow-up appointments using virtual patient monitoring through medical questionnaires and analytics, that would be an annual saving of £50m.

Secondly, for every 100 digital assessments, healthcare professionals waste approximately £77 and eight hours of their time. This is based on a minimum wage of an administrative assistant, printing costs and an assumption that each transaction takes five minutes from printing, to calculating scores, to scanning it back in after completion. MedQ would not only save staff time, paper and printer toner but could also increase the uptake of such assessments by patients.

Additionally, multiple research studies have shown that routinely using Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) can empower patients, facilitate symptom monitoring, and enable clinicians to better understand patient needs. Based on their field research, when speaking to more than 250 clinicians, MedQ found that some of them were still resistant in collecting such clinical outcomes. Providing digital tools to staff will also increase uptake of questionnaires leading to better patient care.