The Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has selected Bleepa to provide clinical messaging and imaging services.
As well as text communications, Bleepa allows images such as scans and X-rays to be shared between clinicians in the correct clinical quality, which is not possible using screensharing on mainstream video calls.
“It is vital that clinicians have access to clinical-quality images if they are to make the best judgements about patient care,” says Bleepa CEO Dr Tom Oakley, himself a qualified radiologist.
“Only Bleepa offers CE-certified image quality on an easy-to-use platform accessible from anywhere with internet access.”
This flexibility will allow the Royal Berkshire to implement Bleepa’s new Virtual Multi-Disciplinary Meetings module, which allows clinicians to assess patient cases at different times and instantly share their views with colleagues.
“Instead of waiting until everyone’s diary is aligned and they can all meet, different doctors can look at a case when it is convenient to them and add their comments to the patient file,” said Dr Oakley. “Everyone has their say, and can see what everyone else has said, but it can take place much more quickly, reducing the time taken to decide on the next stage of patient care.”
Bleepa will also roll out its new Photocapture capability, which allows users to acquire clinical images of patients, such as medical photographs of skin lesions or wounds, and share them with colleagues for discussion as part of the Bleepa patient file which in turn can become part of the patient record. Bleepa’s technology means no patient data or imagery is left on the device which took the photo, ensuring compliance with data governance rules.
Photocapture will allow Bleepa to be used for a wider range of clinical services outside this contract such as dermatology, community nursing and diabetes wound management.
Funding for the one-year contract is coming from the NHSX National Clinical Communication Tool Framework. Bleepa is the only CE-marked medical imaging platform on the framework, uniquely demonstrating its compliance with relevant medical device regulations. It allows trusts to move away from using non-compliant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
Bleepa’s creators, Feedback Medical Ltd, will also work with the trust to evaluate the platform’s referral module, linking it into the existing clinical referral pathways embedded in the trust’s Electronic Patient Record.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Assistant Director IT Support and Architecture, Nigel Unwins, said: “The Trust is excited to work with Feedback to implement and utilise the capabilities of the Bleepa platform in a number of areas. We have found Feedback very co-operative and are looking forward to a successful partnership with them in the coming months.”
Bleepa is already in use at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
