UK hospital rolls out imaging platform from Feedback to manage COVID-19

A UK hospital Trust has rolled out a secure communication platform based on medical imaging to help manage its workflow of COVID-19 coronavirus cases.

The system is called Bleepa and is the flagship product from medical imaging technology firm, Feedback.

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said it will roll out the system with immediate effect to help manage patients and assist its response to the coronavirus.

Around 200 front line clinicians within the Trust's acute medical team have now been enrolled on Bleepa and more are anticipated in the coming week.

Medical imaging is an important tool to manage COVID-19, with chest X-rays and CT scans being key aids.

The app helps with decision making by making relevant imaging available at the push of a button, and capturing clinical dialogue during the process.

This can be added to the patient record after the admission is completed.

Bleepa will also help run a trial at the Trust, which is being conducted by a dedicated team of research nurses and will assess the recovery pathway of different patient groups from COVID-19.

The Trust has looked at innovative digital solutions to support greater collaboration and communication amongst clinical staff on the front line and has chosen Bleepa to help its response to the outbreak.

It has already piloted the technology for many months within its respiratory inpatient referral pathway.

Feedback from the pilot has helped to produce an improved version of the technology which is being deployed throughout the organisation to help with its response to the coronavirus.

New features developed at pace by the Feedback team include a smart form for clinical data entry, group transfer and the ability to designate patients with a clinical status such as ventilation status.

This allows coronavirus cases to be tracked as they move through clinical pathways and allows for more easy referral.

Feature image courtesy of Rocky Mountain Laboratories/NIH