Nursing Technology Fund Silhouette Update

NHS England has announced the launch of the long-awaited Nursing Technology Fund Round 2 (NTF), 4 November 2014. The Silhouette digital wound assessment and information management system qualifies as eligible technology, supporting capability building in digital imaging and digital capture of clinical data at the point of care for optimisation of wound management pathways.

Wound management is an important nurse-led field with significant opportunities for technology-enabled improvements in standardisation of wound assessment, treatment planning, documentation, reporting and health informatics. Silhouette is a market leading solution for digital wound imaging, data capture, documentation and reporting. Visit the Silhouette Virtual Workshop to learn more

Here are some key facts extracted from the NTF2 Prospectus as a quick guide:

• NTF is intended to support technology-enabled transformation of nursing practice, enabling the delivery of modern, safer, more effective and more efficient care.
• The fund is aimed at nursing, including nurses, midwives, health visitors and health care assistants, working across all care settings including acute, community, mental health and urgent care.
• Digital Imaging for nursing care and Digital Capture of Clinical Data at point of care are identified as key capabilities that qualify for NTF.
• £35m of capital funding is available, to be distributed as £20-25m spend in FY2014/15 and £10-15m spend in FY2015/16.
• Eligible categories of spend include hardware, software licenses, and spend on resourcing for software configuration, project management and implementation support, subject to local capital classification guidelines.
• The deadline for submission of NTF2 applications is 2 December 2014.
• NHS England aims to advise organisations of the outcome of their application in January 2015.
• Eligible applicants scope has been expanded - NHS Trusts & NHS Foundation Trusts in England. Local authorities in England on behalf of nursing-led services directly provided by the authority. Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) who operate in England.
• There is no matched funding requirement for the capital spend but organisations need to cover NHS capital charges, depreciation and any other consequential revenue or capital run-on costs arising from the initial award.
• Organisations need to indicate which financial year and are limited to 2 applications each, prioritised as 1 and 2.
• Applicants may incorporate non-recoverable VAT charges in the total amount of funding requested from the NTF.

"More effective care will be delivered through, for example, mobile access to digital care records enabling community nurses, midwives and health visitors to make informed decisions when with the patient, or nurses capturing and sharing images of wounds to facilitate a discussion with specialist tissue viability teams." NTF Round 2 Prospectus, November 2014

Silhouette Digital Wound Imaging and Wound Status Data at Point of Care*

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was awarded funds in the first round of the NTF to transform patient care with digital wound assessment capability. The Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic is currently implementing Silhouette for the management of diabetic foot patients in a multi-disciplinary team setting involving nursing, podiatry, diabetes care, vascular surgery, orthotics and microbiology.

View Kings College Hospital Going Digital Case Study

This NTF2 summary is provided as a quick guide only - please refer to the NHS England Nursing Technology Fund Website and Prospectus for full details of the application criteria and process. The NTF2 Prospectus provides a list of eligible technology/capability.

Visit NHS England Nursing Technology Fund webpage

Please contact us to discuss your vision and requirements for Silhouette and your Nursing Technology Fund application plan. We can support you with development of your NTF2 submission.

You need to act fast, contact Entec Health today

*Reproduced by kind permission of Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Insights from Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology Expo 2014

“Technology can transform, the NHS needs to seize this opportunity”

One of many calls for incisive action from Professor Sir Malcom Grant CBE, Chair, NHS England - “Commissioning for the Future Health Service” HETT 2014.

SilhouetteConnect - digital wound assessment at point of care

Here is a review from Entec Health on what was shared and debated at HETT 2014, Olympia London, 30 Sept 2014.

The keynote speakers and sponsored technology provider sessions provided compelling examples and experiences of transformation programmes designed to deliver healthcare efficiencies through technology:

• Electronic patient record systems, clinical management systems, electronic document management systems as foundation elements to support safe and efficient patient management
• Paperless; digital data at point of care for greater efficiency, releasing time for care
• Clinical applications to empower front line users with better clinical data and health informatics to support decision making, enabling better care and outcomes
• Mobile working with digital devices for agile work force, lower operational costs, better patient experience and sustainable care models
• Integration of data across care and social settings for better care and service experience and outcomes

Five Critical Success Factors for Technology-enabled Health Innovation

Here is a pick of five critical success factors that came through from several case studies presented, for successful and effective delivery of healthcare efficiencies and improved care, enabled by technology solutions:

1/ Ensure clinical leaders are involved from the start

• Clinical and service leaders need to be involved from the very start and take a lead in defining what they want to solve and in assessing the technology for purpose and ease of use.
• It should be about clinical and service innovation, not technology for technology’s sake.

2/ Speak a common language around what should improve for the patient and staff

• Clinicians and IT personnel often speak different languages and “med- speak” and “tech-speak” can sometimes lead to a jumbling of intent around a programme.
• In reality the common language needs to be around what do we want to improve?
• How is this better for the patient?
• How is it better for the health professional?
• What is the bigger picture impact for the patient pathway, service and organisation?
• What should we do together to implement and embed the technology adoption effectively?

3/ Create meaningful user engagement

• It is important to build in strong user engagement to ensure buy-in through-out the journey.
• Key elements for effective engagement include a strong communication plan and appropriate training plan.
• Recruit and support internal clinical champions who can help users to understand the value of the technology for staff and patients.

4/ Map out expected benefits and impact for a robust business case

• Mapping out the benefits of technologies and figuring out financial return on investment needs time and consideration from the outset.
• The team looking to adopt the technology to innovate in a given clinical area needs to build a robust business case, first to secure the investment and then, to support on-going review of what has been achieved.
• Sound and realistic assumptions around what will improve and by how much as a result of the technology is a great starting point for the business case.
• Clinicians are not necessarily motivated by cost savings as the project driver, clinical and patient benefits have to be tangible to trigger an appetite for change.

5/ Evaluate impact to support sustainable improvement

• Evaluation of technology impact is often neglected or missed due to other pressures.
• If evaluation of technology impact can be seen as a key deliverable to the project, the case for change becomes easier to sell-in and replicate across the organisation and across the NHS.
• Prioritisation of technology investment continues to be a challenge for the NHS, in the end, there is a finite pot of money available. The technology investment needs to show decent return in a reasonable timeframe to have any traction.

These five critical success factors will be top of mind as Entec Health collaborates with clients to deliver greater patient and organisational value through technology-enabled health innovation and service transformation. Congratulations to the HETT 2014 team for an excellent value-adding event for health professionals and Health IT providers.

Review our regular series of Entec Health email updates here to stay informed about the latest trends and opportunities for Health IT and technology enabled Health Innovation.

Current topics

EHI Healthcare IT Product Innovation Award for Entec Health & Silhouette

Wound Surveillance - the importance of accurate wound measurement and reliable healing trend data

EHI Healthcare IT Product Innovation accolade for Entec Health and Silhouette

Entec Health was delighted to be announced a winner at the EHI Awards 2014 for Healthcare IT Product Innovation at a prestigious ceremony held at the Roundhouse in London on Thursday 9 October.

Entec Health was selected from 6 deserving finalists as the winning entry for Product Innovation, based on the company's work in bringing an innovative digital wound assessment solution, Silhouette, to the UK market.

Entec Health and Kings College Hospital Diabetic Foot Clinic Team picking up their award at EHI Awards evening October 2014

Entec Health has introduced the electronic Silhouette wound assessment and information management system to health professionals in the UK to enable improved clinical practice through the use of the Silhouette solution which transforms wound assessment and documentation from a largely subjective, manual, paper-based process to an objective, automated, digital approach.

UK Clinicians who have experience of Silhouette comment on the advantages of this digital 3D technology system as helping them generate quality clinical information and health informatics for better treatment planning and optimisation of patient care and outcomes.
An important collaboration has been established between Entec Health and the pioneering Diabetic Foot Clinic Team at Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where Silhouette has been deployed successfully for clinical research and now being implemented in clinical practice for effective management of patients with diabetic foot ulceration.
Entec Health is an appointed sales and marketing partner for the UK to Aranz Medical the developer and manufacturer of Silhouette.
e-health Insider, as UK's leading media and business intelligence platform in digital health technology, hosts the EHI awards annually to recognise success and innovation in Healthcare IT.

NHS England is launching a £35m Nursing Technology Fund to support safe, effective, efficient care. NHS England has identified a range of technology-enabled capabilities that will be funded, as part of a competitive bid process, to help NHS Trusts adopt relevant digital solutions for front-line nursing services.

The Silhouette solution meets the criteria for the Nursing Technology Fund in a number of capability areas:

• Digital images for nursing care
• Digital capture of clinical data at point-of-care
• Real-time digital nursing dashboards
• Remote face-to-face interaction
• Mobile access to digital care records across the community

This is a unique and significant opportunity for Nursing Care Innovators to step forward and develop a vision and bid for adoption of the Silhouette digital wound assessment system and to push forward capability building and improvements in their wound management services.

The NTF2 Prospectus and application process details are due for release shortly on the NHS England website. See further information on NHS England website

• Request a NTF2 Silhouette Bid Support Pack
• Contact us to discuss your requirements

A new White Paper (July 2014, Woundsource.com) authored by Dr Mark Nixon, Chief Medical Officer, ARANZ Medical, discusses the importance of using accurate and precise wound measurement and healing trend data to support early and effective clinical management for patients. Based on a sound understanding of wound management trends in the US and other health economies, the author examines the limitations of current wound assessment methods and points the way to a new era of practice when systematic and quantitative tracking of wound healing progress is used routinely to support effective clinical decision-making.A digital imaging and 3-dimensional wound measurement method (Silhouette, ARANZ Medical) is described to illustrate how such novel technologies will play an increasingly important part in enabling clinicians to achieve higher standards of wound surveillance to support effective clinical management of patients.

Download White Paper Summary , 4 pages (WoundSurveillance_FINAL_MNixon_Summary)

Access Full White Paper, 21 pages, visit ARANZ Medical website

Entec Health has been selected as a finalist in the EHI 2014 Awards, Health IT Product Innovation Category. EHI received 270 entries in its call for Health IT Excellence, with some 70 shortlisted projects invited to present to the EHI Judging Panel during July 2014.

Entec Health’s submission is built around the theme of “Transforming wound assessment practice for improved patient care”. The company is working across the NHS to raise awareness and partner on adoption of Silhouette, an innovative wound assessment and information management technology, to address some of the unmet needs of current wound management practice.

Traditional methods of wound assessment are paper-based, cumbersome and unreliable. The Silhouette innovation supports health professionals to transform wound assessment practice and clinical management of patients with wounds, utilising digital imaging, 3D wound measurement, quantitative wound healing progress data and electronic data capture at the point of care.

The EHI 2014 Awards submission presented by Entec Health incorporated qualitative evidence and user experience from the Kings College Diabetic Foot Clinic, where the clinical team are pioneering the use of Silhouette for assessing diabetic foot ulceration, initially in their clinical research programme and clinical development plans. Following successful clinical validation of Silhouette, the Kings Diabetic Foot Clinic team and nursing colleagues are preparing to expand the use of Silhouette into clinical practice during 2014.

“The EHI 2014 Awards are a great platform to acknowledge the importance and value of Health IT excellence and innovation. We are delighted to be selected as a finalist and welcome the recognition given to the successful collaboration between Kings College Hospital health professionals and industry partners Entec Health and ARANZ Medical. We represent a great example of how collaborative success is possible through having a common goal of moving clinical practice forward for optimal patient care. “ commented Achala Patel, Managing Director, Entec Health

The EHI 2014 Awards winners will be announced at the EHI Awards Ceremony in London in October 2014.

Learn more about Silhouette

View Kings College Diabetic Foot Case Study

Contact us to discuss your requirements

Following participation at an Industry Partners Stakeholders event hosted by West Midlands AHSN, Entec Health and WM AHSN Digital Leads are working closely to engage partner NHS Trusts on the opportunity for adoption of Silhouette for improved wound assessment practice and health informatics capability building.

Based on Silhouette’s value as an enabling technology for improved clinical management of patients with wounds, the WM AHSN Digital Leads are putting the Silhouette solution on the radar of their partner NHS Trusts to seek feedback and facilitate further dialogue where Trusts are ready to consider the Silhouette innovation to support the organisation’s strategic plan for improved patient safety, outcomes and care.

WM AHSN is keen to catalyse and support adoption of relevant digital technologies by partner NHS Trusts to support priority clinical areas, with a view to delivering enhanced patient benefits, improved efficiencies and cost-effectiveness.

See the Entec Health case study on page 9 of WM AHSN Annual Report 2014

http://wmahsn.org/annual-report/

“Entec Health is a SME, a small-medium enterprise, which welcomes alliances that can support market success. We have become a member of West Midlands Medilink and are working closely together to develop regional health sector opportunities and support our growth as a health innovation provider. The support and professionalism has been outstanding from day one.” commented Achala Patel, Managing Director, Entec Health.