Waterloo Health Centre undertakes diabetes self-management pilot with SmartMed service

Waterloo Health and DigitalHealth.London Accelerator company SmartMed are collaborating to run a digital health pilot scheme to improve the health and wellbeing of patients suffering with Type 2 Diabetes.

The innovative, award winning SmartMed service helps reduces the number of clinic visits, making care more responsive to and reducing costs.

Dr George Verghese, General Practitioner at Waterloo Health said: “SmartMed has the real potential of improving health outcomes in diabetic patients in General Practice with a supporting digital platform. We chose SmartMed as in the preliminary stages of the project they actively listened to the needs of our clinicians and the patients to create a great product”.

A number of patients already diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are being provided with the SmartMedTM self-care package, which includes an intuitive smartphone app called HomeCare, and a Bluetooth® connected glucometer. The device connects to the SmartMed HomeCare app running on the patient’s own smartphone, which connects securely to the SmartMed Clinical Portal which allows the doctors to monitor the patient’s progress, making timely interventions when needed.

The app guides the patient through the simple process of capturing blood sugar levels up to seven times a day (before and after various meal times).

Importantly, HomeCare also asks the patient a series of simple questions in order to identify other possible symptoms of potential complications and to provide the clinicians with information on the patient’s overall well being.

The aim is to improve the level of care provided to the patient and to enable them to take a more active and proactive role in the management of their diabetes.

SmartMed Business Development Director, Saadi Hussain said “This collaboration with Waterloo Health builds on previous pilots we’ve done with the NHS looking empowering patients with Gestational Diabetes, Hypertension and Respiratory conditions to self-manage their condition. Empowering patients to take control of their own chronic condition is the most cost effective way to overcome the burden that the NHS faces. Technology such as SmartMed is at the forefront of addressing this challenge head on”.

The objectives of this particular pilot are to capture data about the ease of use of digital health services and to gather evidential data regarding the real benefits to the patients’ health outcomes and the potential cost savings the NHS can make through the exploitation of MedTech and Digital Health innovations.

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Contact Simon Eyre, Managing Director, 07710 302634, simon@smartmedglobal.com
• SmartMedTM is the trading name of SmartMed Global Ltd, which is based in the UK, with headquarters in London and was formed in 2014 from its sister software development company Appdragon, which itself was formed in 2011. SmartMed Global has offices in the UK (London, Suffolk and Birmingham), Asia and the Middle East and provides services to several NHS Trusts.
• Trading names include The SmartIdeas Group Ltd, SmartMessaage Ltd and SmartMed Global Ltd.
• Its vision is to improve healthcare outcomes for every patient, anywhere by utilising the flexibility, user friendliness and ubiquity of mobile devices. It provides innovative apps for the healthcare market, including appointment reminder systems, NHS Friends & Family surveying using interactive SMS messaging as well as self-care of chronic conditions such as Diabetes, Obesity, Stroke and Heart Disease – all potentially huge drains on the NHS and private healthcare budgets if not adequately managed.
• Waterloo Health is a South East London health centre providing healthcare services including NHS GP Services, Travel Health Services and, through the Waterloo Select Health programme, private healthcare services.