The Christie goes live with new ePROMs service

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMs) service which helps to connect patients with the Trust through their cancer journey.

The 24 ePROMS forms have been launched across 10 cancer pathways, with another 10 planned by the end of the year.

The service was developed using Better’s low-code environment, part of openEHR digital health platform.

The trust is rolling out ePROMs as part of its five-year strategy to modernise its electronic health record underpinned by openEHR data standards.

Alistair Reid-Pearson, Chief Information Officer, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“Better’s openEHR platform and low-code tools are helping us modernise our EHR and refining how we collect data with high quality, high user experience and high security.

“The use of open storage standards will support integration with regional and national partners as more data streams are connected.”

ePROMS are the first in over 680 forms set to be digitalised by the Trust using Better’s low-code tools.

Development of the ePROMs application took just four months, with a major part of the process including joining up and structuring siloed data to be used in the forms.

Completed data is pre-modelled using low-code tools, feeding seamlessly into the Better platform which enables both patient and clinically captured to be stored longitudinally and instantly available to present back to clinicians across the Trust.

Clinicians are already seeing the huge benefits from the service and clinical staff patients have noted the ease of entry in the new forms as well as transparency of data and improved patient communication as a result of more efficient workflows.

Other recorded benefits include:

• 66 per cent of time taken to conduct telephone review saved
• 28 per cent of total review time saved
• 97 per cent of patients found ePROMs easy to complete
• 99 per cent of patients found ePROMs easy to understand

The digital team at the Trust has also developed a new patient scheduling module within the EHR which allows clinicians and researchers to schedule questionnaires faster and more reliably.

The app, which took less than three months to develop, sends notifications to patients to complete forms that support their care.

Better’s platform with low-code environment provides the data capture elements which are both open format and accessible in real-time, supporting the trust’s plans for transformation and its ambition to access the potential of data for clinical as well as research use.

The Trust now plans to integrate the Better platform with other applications into the vendor-neutral data layer.

Professor Janelle Yorke, ePROMs SRO & Executive Chief Nurse and Director of Quality, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“The seamless integration of patient captured ePROMs with the Trust’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) was a key objective of the programme to close the loop between remote monitored patients and clinicians on the frontline.

“The Christie ePROMs initiative is key to the ambition of becoming a world leader in real world outcomes research.”

Matthew Cox, Managing Director of Better for the UK and Ireland, said:

“The new digital forms have transformed data entry and recording at the trust, and we are delighted The Christie has selected Better for its new digital health platform.

“We’re pleased to see momentum now towards healthcare organisations choosing open data and open standards, and The Christie is leading the way for acute NHS providers in England.”