Visionable is a complete connected care platform, facilitating collaboration across the treatment pathway, from the initial patient response through to hospital treatment and at-home care.
Founded in 2015 by Alan Lowe and Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, Visionable is making huge strides across the stroke pathway.
Alan explains:
“From the outset, Visionable’s aim was to deliver reliable, fit for purpose technology that helps healthcare professionals perform their jobs and simultaneously improves patient outcomes.
“Visionable was the first made-to-measure solution designed specifically for healthcare, and is now a unique collaboration platform that supports everything from large scale multi-disciplinary team meetings to telemedicine networks and connected ambulances.”
Treating a stroke presents a significant time-critical challenge.
A common refrain among stroke specialists is ‘time is brain’. The longer the brain is starved of oxygen, the more nervous tissue is lost and the worse the outcome for the patient.
Visionable uses high-quality video to bring the stroke specialist to the patient, when and where they are needed.
The technology is helping to overcome endemic staff shortages and ambulance delays, ensuring that patients receive the best treatment within the critical 4.5 hour window.
Alan says:
“By enabling health and social care teams to work more efficiently, Visionable has reduced door-to-needle (DTN) time, enabling patients to receive better, faster treatment because the stroke specialist comes directly to them.
“Moreover, patients have benefited from faster recovery times and reduced chances of lifelong physical, cognitive and mental disabilities.”
Lynda Sibson, Stroke Telemedicine Manager at NHS East of England, adds:
“When someone has a stroke, every minute counts.
“Visionable enables us to bring critical stroke care to patients wherever they are, when they need it most, so we can diagnose and treat them faster.”
The East of England has reaped the benefits from its collaboration with Visionable.
There simply aren’t enough stroke consultants to provide 24/7 care across the large, mostly rural area.
The Stroke Telemedicine Partnership teamed up with Visionable to connect patients to critical expertise via a telemedicine service.
When a patient has a stroke, Visionable connects them with a consultant working on-call from home.
By equipping first responders with wearables, remote stroke specialists can get eyes on scene.
As a result, they can act quickly to determine the best treatment plan, greatly increasing access to thrombolysis.
Alan explains:
“Using Visionable, the remote specialist speaks directly to the patient, their families and the local stroke teams, whilst reviewing brain scans and other clinical imaging in perfect resolution via an image transfer system.
“This allows the stroke specialist remote access to scans directly and securely from the hospital’s CT scanner.
“With the clinical history, assessment of the patient’s presenting symptoms and the scan, the specialist can make an initial diagnosis in real-time.
“The team in the local hospital can then treat the patient immediately, minimising critical door-to-needle (DTN) time and preventing an unnecessary patient transfer to another hospital.”
Lynda adds:
“Many projects that are called telemedicine give a clinician a data feed or access to the scan, but that is not telemedicine. Being able to see the patient really matters.”
Virtual wards are being increasingly relied upon across the NHS, helping to stretch clinical resources further, free up beds and monitor patients from home.
This tech-powered solution is now helping clinicians care for stroke survivors in the East of England and beyond.
Visionable-powered stroke wards provide a 360-degree of the patient, connecting camera feeds, diagnostic data and device readings.
Alan explains:
“Our virtual stroke wards will support patients who would otherwise be in hospital to receive the acute care, monitoring and treatment they need in their own home.
“Supporting patients to return home while still under the care of the stroke specialist team can help ensure faster recovery times in a relaxed, familiar place.”
Acute care is just the first step a very long path to recovery.
Sadly, many survivors do not get the support they needs to adjust to their new lives, which can be beset by health issues.
Long term neuropsychological support can make a huge difference to the quality of life of a stroke survivor, yet gaps in the system have created a postcode lottery.
Visionable has partnered with brain injury charity SameYou to address this gap and improve outcomes for patients nationwide.
SameYou was founded by actor Emilia Clarke who survived two life-threatening brain haemorrhages while filming Game of Thrones.
Alan says:
“Research shows that stroke and brain injury survivors feel abandoned after leaving hospital, and most do not get the support they need to maximise their recovery.
“Together, SameYou and Visionable aim to bridge this existing gap in the care pathway.
“Our partnership aims to create a secure and quality rehabilitation programme that takes an integrated approach to ongoing and long-term rehabilitation and empowers survivors to take back control of their lives beyond the acute risk.
“Visionable bring a trusted and secure platform, and SameYou bring the voice of the specialist clinician and more importantly, the voice of the survivor, to ensure a complete and accessible rehabilitation solution for all.”
Visionable has firmly established itself as an invaluable connected care resource across the NHS.
Now, the company has set its sights on tackling healthcare challenges facing diverse communities around the world.
As it expands into new geographies, Visionable plans to develop a ‘partner eco-system to create the best solution underpinned by a local plan across healthcare.’
“Our strategic partnership with the world’s second largest telco, Verizon, is helping us deliver next-generation healthcare and save lives at scale,” Alan says.
“We have several projects underway, including a First Responder Lab, Connected Ambulance focusing on a Stroke Pathway Pilot Program, and a joint UK Campaigns to NHS for Integrated Care Systems and virtual hospital.”
This is an excerpt from our Special Report – Innovations in Stroke
