The city’s Integrated Digital Service which sits across both the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Leeds City Council has joined forces with Luscii to pilot their healthcare product which helps older adults manage their health conditions.
By using the innovative Luscii solution, individuals with conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and other long-term conditions or issues can simply track their condition while at home. It is hoped this will lead to improved health and overall wellbeing.
The Luscii product enables GPs and other healthcare professionals to monitor and support people safely from a distance. Those who have agreed to be part of the trial are given the necessary equipment, skills, and training so they can use the product with confidence at home.
They will be shown how to measure their own blood pressure, weight, and oxygen saturation, and to use their devices to report these findings back to the GP practice. Individuals will be encouraged to access real-time insights, receive timely notifications, and securely communicate with their GP practice.
The trial will run for a few months with people who have opted in from Hillfoot Surgery and West Leeds Family Practice in Pudsey and Bellbrooke Surgery in Harehills. It will be closely monitored and evaluated by a team of experts from Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber who will not be able to see any identifiable patient information. They will assess whether it helps to reduce the need for people to visit their GP practice or attend hospital, and whether it improves their overall wellbeing.
Marsha Showman, Senior Clinical Pharmacist at West Leeds PCN said: “We are very excited to be part of this collaborative pilot in Leeds, where we get to test with people the benefits of using the emerging technology in remote monitoring. It allows them to measure and record key information in the comfort of their own home and to better understand and manage their symptoms, so savingthem having to visit the GP surgery or attend hospital .
“We will be able to monitor them safely from a distance and if one of their measurements doesn’t look quite right we will take the appropriate action. We look forward to sharing our learnings and journey with colleagues who are interested in remote monitoring.”
Leonardo Tantari, Chief Digital Information Officer, Leeds City Council and NHS (Leeds) West Yorkshire ICB said: “Helping people manage their own health better in the comfort of their home is a priority for the city. I’m excited to see the learnings from this innovative pilot and hope it helps to meet the needs of the people involved. It is through collaborative working across a number of organisations that allows for projects of this nature to happen, and I’d like to thank everyone involved in the hard work to date.”
Chris Malone, Managing Director at Luscii, said: “We are incredibly pleased to be working in partnership with Leeds primary care, third party sector, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber and digital transformation colleagues. This programme has a real opportunity to empower patients by investing in tools they can use to stay healthy and manage their long-term conditions from the comfort of their own homes. It will also help practices streamline access to a more proactive personalised approach to care and help reduce pressure on their systems; ultimately helping support the access to primary care recovery plans.”
