Symptom checkers recognised for improving patient care
07 Oct 2011
The development of NHS Direct’s online health and symptom checkers has been recognised as having significant benefit to patient care by providing better choice and access to healthcare.
NHS Direct was awarded the ‘Excellence in Major Healthcare IT Development’ accolade at a ceremony on Thursday 6 October. The award highlights NHS Direct’s successful collaboration with software providers InferMed to develop a major IT project that has improved patients’ access to NHS trusted health advice and information online. The project is also aligned to the wider NHS ambition to improve the choice available to patients when they need to access healthcare. NHS Direct was one of three finalists shortlisted for the award.
Tricia Hamilton, Chief Nurse at NHS Direct, said:
“We are thrilled that our online health and symptom checkers have been recognised for their contribution to improved patient care. The tools use innovative IT technology to provide an easy to use platform, which hosts evidence-based content that has been developed by our highly skilled clinical team. We have very high satisfaction levels among patients who use the tools and they are highly thought of by other NHS organisations.”
NHS Direct has developed its award-winning suite of online health and symptom checkers over the last year and now has 40 tools. They are available at www.nhs.uk/nhsdirect and cover a wide range of problems such as dental pain, diarrhoea and vomiting, abdominal pain, back pain, rashes, burns, and colds and flu. There is also the opportunity for patients to get more specialist advice on issues such as mental health, contraception, sexual health matters and pregnancy problems.
Building on its reputation for trusted and reliable web services, and in response to the growing popularity of smartphones, NHS Direct launched a mobile app for Android and iPhone devices at the end of May 2011. The NHS Direct app gives patients convenient access to its range of health and symptom checkers, wherever they are.
The online health and symptom checkers are used on the web around 20,000 times a day and the mobile app has been used 900,000 times since its launch in May 2011.
The health and symptom checkers work by asking the user a series of questions. Depending on the information provided, users may be offered self-care advice so that they can manage their symptoms at home, or it may suggest that further advice is sought from another health provider. A call back from an NHS Direct nurse advisor is only a click away if a further assessment is recommended.
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