was a project that connected renal patients, in their own homes, to the renal department of The Lister Hospital in Stevenage.Patients on home haemodialysis, home peritoneal dialysis and with transplants were all included in the deployment.
v-connect deployed their video service to forty patients as part of this six-month project funded by a phase 1 Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).
Teleclinics (remote video consultations) to these patients are now well established and more than 50 consultations have taken place.
Through two engagement days (one at the start and one at the end of the project) and subsequent interviews with patients the reaction to the service has been assessed
The response has been very positive and the patients showing great enthusiasm for many aspects of remote care. With patients recording a 95% or higher satisfaction with the service. Clinical engagement with the service has been strong with five consultants at The Lister using the video to undertake renal consultations (2 transplant doctors and 3 nephrologists.)
The renal nurses have engaged very positively and report that the remote care has real benefits for the patients and staff in managing patients. The video service has been used to connect with satellite renal units. The experience of using the video has catalysed the formation of a telemedicine group in the hospital and the widening of the use of remote care is being explored.
During the project there was substantial collaboration on what the ideal renal home clinic would encompass and this resulted in several technological proof of concepts that were successfully implemented. These include:
• Return of weight and blood pressure over Bluetooth to the video service then delivered to the hospital and stored locally in a database.
• Connection of the Fresenius haemodialysis machine from the home to the hospital using the secure video connection and the two-way transmission of data to the Baxter peritoneal dialysis machine
• The implementation of a high-res camera for imaging in the home and securely returning the images back to the hospital.
Hence, the Renal Remote Clinic (RRC) is a service that has evolved out of the collaboration with The Lister and v-connect. It uniquely brings together a range of remote care technologies into a package focussed on support for renal patients at all stages of their care journey. It provides remote support in the form of video augmented by the ability to monitor physiological parameters, dialysis results and still images
By moving the clinic into the home the patient and their carers are supported and empowered whilst knowing that the renal department can monitor their wellbeing remotely. Communication is made more efficient and convenient by replacing some clinic contact with video consultations and ad hoc video calls into the renal clinic.
Reduction in clinics held, improves efficiency in the renal department and allows reallocation of resources providing increased capacity. This directly impacts on the sustainability of renal services as demands on services continue to increase.