askmyGP brings together a set of well proven technologies, but with the philosophy that they must enable rather than drive service improvement. At its heart is the relationship between patient and GP, and the system of general practice needs to support that relationship while addressing the acute problems of poor access, loss of continuity, and an unsustainable GP workload.Online technology enables more convenient, more timely, more precise and detailed communication. The core Instant Medical History (IMH) online history taking software has been over 20 years in development, contains some 80,000 questions, yet still does not give a diagnosis. Only the GP can give a diagnosis and decide the best course of action for the patient.
GP Access has a proven history of delivering change with over 60 practices around the UK, including CCGs, GP federations and PMCF winners, with extensive evidence on the sister site. Combining its intervention with an online entry point, in addition to the telephone, allows even better service and more time saving for both patients and hard pressed GPs.
Instant Medical History (IMH) is mainstream in the US, its acceptance by physicians demonstrated by some 700,000 patient histories taken online every day. In the UK Horton Thornley Medical Centre in Hyde, Manchester has pioneered the approach.
The comments from patients at Horton Thornley Medical Centre (http://www.htmc.co.uk/pages/pv.asp?p=htmc0473) speak for themselves on its validity and acceptability to patients, and papers below explore Computer Patient Interviewing over four decades:
In 1997, Professor Ray Jones produced a report for the “NHS Information Management Group” on computer patient interviewing (https://www.evernote.com/shard/s85/sh/12e8065c-4b34-4eed-b7c0-6fd6e8aa00f2/ccac30fc890657bd5f0132be9b654eb5).
In 2003, John Bachman, Professor of Family Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, published a literature review of the subject (http://www.internetmedicineuk.org/presentations/MayoClinicProceedings_The_Patient_Computer_interview.pdf).
In 2010, Professor Bachman published a paper describing his experience of 2,500 ‘e-visits’ from 4,282 patients at his clinic and demonstrated that in a significant number of instances a face to face consultation was not required (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2912730/).
askmyGP is not an online appointment system. It is not an online waiting room. It does not take patient demand and simply move it around to make it look like it’s gone away...as if by magic. It is an informed clinical communication tool that manages the demand, makes sense to patients, ticks the quality boxes and supports GPs by extending their clinical reach within hours. All that, while building in documented patient histories and continuity through robust, sustainable data. Our testimonials speak for themselves. Have a look! http://askmygp.uk/
http://gpaccess.uk/evidence/askmygp-pilot-study-30-demand-moves-online/