Wolverhampton to offer virtual appointments by chatbot

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Babylon have signed a 10-year partnership to create the world's first integrated digital health system, offering virtual hospital appointments and diagnosis via AI.

The new healthcare delivery model of ‘Digital-First Integrated Care’, helping for 300,000 people across Wolverhampton and its surrounding areas, will mean that patient will gain greater control over their own health, faster treatment, fewer trips to hospital, treatment from their own home and greater access to their own data. Furthermore, staff will have time freed-up for patients with the most urgent and complex issues, avoid duplication, and improve information-sharing.

Through a single, free app, patients will have connected primary and secondary care with access to: clinical consultations with The Royal Wolverhampton and Babylon doctors and specialist nurses, whilst also giving patients control of appointment booking and prescriptions; Personal Clinical Records, which allow patients to see their own medical information and watch their consultations again; Health Assessment, which creates a health report based on a user’s medical history and lifestyle and displays it with a ‘digital twin’; AI Health Assistant, which gives users medical information and triage advice, based on epidemiological data, about their symptoms; Health Management, which generates personalised care plans to support the proactive care of patients with chronic diseases; Monitor, which can use real-time health information from wearable tech and connected apps; and rehab following hospital admission, with fast remote clinical responses to help recovery and avoid readmissions.

The first new services are expected to go live before the end of 2020.

David Loughton, chief executive of the trust, said: “I am delighted to announce this long-term partnership with Babylon who will work alongside the Trust’s primary, secondary and community care teams to deliver transformational changes to the way we deliver care.

“We know from our active engagement with patients of all ages and backgrounds that they are keen to use technology that will improve access and give them greater control of their own health, wellbeing and social inclusion. For example, it should be normal for a patient with a long-term condition to take a blood-test at home, have the results fed into their app which alerts the specialist if they need an appointment. The patient chooses a time to meet, has the consultation through the app, works with their specialist to build a care plan, and the app encourages them to complete it whilst assessing the impact it’s having. This is our vision for properly joined-up and integrated care.

“We also know from our engagement with clinicians that releasing time to care for our sickest patients is a top priority and there is consensus that this could be facilitated by technology, if we partner with the best and work collaboratively and openly. This partnership with Babylon is rooted in clinical and patient co-design and we recognise that we are going on a journey together to transform our care delivery and our workforce.

“Workforce is the biggest challenge facing healthcare in the NHS and internationally. In the next ten years the gap between staff needed and the number available could reach almost 250,000 just in England. As medicine transforms over the next 10 years, and cutting-edge technology improves, it is critical that the NHS develops a digitally empowered workforce. With the Trust’s end-to-end care portfolio this is a huge opportunity for us and Babylon to constructively tackle all of these things together. I am confident that this won’t be just good for our patients, it will benefit the wider NHS through early prevention, treatment and the sharing of our learning.”