Mobile and app round-up

This month’s round-up of apps and mobile developments includes a link-up between Philips and Amazon to get ready for the internet of things, new mobile tools for the NHS from EE, a mental health passport app from NHS England, and a big iDevice roll-out to hospices in Kent.  

Partnerships and product launches

Philips and Amazon partner on ‘internet of things’

Philips is working with Amazon on a platform that allows Philips’ healthcare digital tools to connect to products on Amazon Web Services, the online retailer’s cloud-computing platform. AWS IoT will support Philips to create a secure environment on which data from IoT products, such as apps and medical devices, can be collected and analysed.

 EE launches mobile tools for NHS

Mobile communications company EE has launched a suite of mobile tools intended to support the UK healthcare industry. These include Intelligent Messaging, a two-way SMS service for communications between a GP practice and a patient, which practices can use to send personalised text messages. Other tools include an app for patients and GPs to manage appointments and prescriptions and an app to capture patient observations at the bedside.

Medelinked launches Personal Health Timeline

Online health platform Medelinked has launched a timeline for its Medelinked Health Partner Portal that allows healthcare professionals to get an overview of their patient’s history. The Personal Health Timeline features medical reports, records, messages, x-rays and scans and presents them in the style of a social timeline. It is available on PC, Apple Mac or any iOS or Android tablet or smartphone.

Ideas

NHS England launches mental health passport

Children and young people with a mental health condition now have access to a ‘passport’ of key facts to show to different health services. The passport is available either in a paper form or on a person’s phone. They are written by the young person with their GP and can include information such as summary of their issues, history, and preferences. It is hoped that the passports can help patients avoid repeating their history and preferences.

App to stimulate memories of people with dementia

Developers have launched a new app that is designed to stimulate the long term memories of people with dementia and improve their quality of life. RemindMeCare is developed by Health Connected and comprises personal photographs, music and games that relate to a dementia patient’s personal experiences.

It is available on tablets, computers and internet-linked televisions and can be used by patients, their carers and their families. The app is currently available for purchase by the professional market and is in use have several care centres. It will be launched for more general consumer use in the next 18 months.

Roll-outs

Kent hospice rolls out iPads and iPhones to nurses

Pilgrims Hospices in East Kent has rolled out secure iPads and iPhones to its team of community nurses. The devices mean that nurses can access patient records and test results in a patient’s home or elsewhere in the community.

Kent and Medway Health Informatics Service estimates that nurses will save around 144 hours a year by switching from paper. The devices were paid for through charitable donations from organisations including Kent Cancer Care and Kent Community.

Half of UK has used tech to track health

More than half of the UK population has used a gadget to monitor their health, according to a survey published by PushDoctor, an online service to connect patients with GPs.

The survey showed that the over-65 age group was the online one where fewer than half respondents had used technology in this way, although around one third had done so. The most active group was 18-24 year olds, with 91% saying they had used a device to measure an aspect of their health. The most common things to measure were medical symptoms, exercise levels and BMI scores.