We’re delighted to be working in partnership with North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT), UCLPartners and XIM is testing a new and improved method of monitoring and measuring physical health for patients with mental illness.
The health disparity faced by people with serious mental illness is well documented, as are the multiple contributing factors for this. NELFT and EPUT are committed to maximising opportunities for their mental health staff to support people to improve their physical health alongside their mental health. Digital technology offers a potential tool to support staff, build confidence in physical health assessment and ultimately improve outcomes for our population.
Lifelight is a software technology that allows completely contactless measurement of three vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure and respiration) in just 40 seconds using the camera built into a standard tablet device, with no additional hardware, making the process of taking vital signs much simpler and less distressing for staff and patients. We anticipate that implementing this technology will enable staff to gain confidence in physical health monitoring and detection, better supporting people to look after themselves, improve their health and prevent avoidable health problems.
The project will evaluate the effectiveness of the tool as well as service users’, their carers’ and staff acceptability of such digital contactless vital signs technology use on mental health wards. The aim is to reduce the distress and discomfort of having vital signs taken in comparison to current methods, and to enable mental health professionals to deliver more effective detection and intervention for physical deterioration or physical disease risk factors.
Dr Caroline Allum, Executive Medical Director, NELFT commented “We are really excited to be part of this project. This will help in situations where taking manual observations may be difficult and allow better patient care. The staff are excited to find technology that helps them in their daily work.”
Hannah Harniess, Deputy Chief Executive, Care City commented “People with long-standing mental ill health often suffer a greater burden of physical health conditions. Technology which can help staff better monitor and manage physical health during an acute mental health admission could contribute significant steps towards addressing this disparity. We are therefore delighted to be able to support NELFT and EPUT to implement and evaluate the use of digital technology to improve physical monitoring of mental health in-patients.”
Dr Kallur Suresh, EPUT’s Deputy Medical Director, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to test the use of this exciting technology in our care for people with mental ill health. It is very important that we look after people’s physical health as well as treating their mental health conditions. This innovation has the potential to improve people’s health outcomes – as we could better monitor any deterioration in their health – and also improve their experience of care.”
Professor Mike Roberts, Managing Director, UCLPartners AHSN commented “The NHS Long Term Plan challenges us all to implement new technologies that provide solutions to key clinical challenges. This exciting programme is one such innovation that will help us develop a technologically enabled workforce to meet the needs of our patients today and tomorrow.”
