Working in partnership to prepare the workforce for a future with AI – Anna

I’m Anna, and I’m a Practise Nurse here at Pulborough Medical Group. I’ve been here for 5 and 1/2 years. I’m a partner in the Practise, and the lead nurse, and advanced nurse practitioner. Digital technology is part of my daily routine. There isn’t a part of the day that it isn’t affected by digital technology. Without technology, my job wouldn’t be possible. I use technology every day in Practise, from patient records, through to devices that help me manage patients with long-term conditions. We use the patient management system here for clinical records, called System 1. And this is an electronic record of patient consultations. As a general Practise, we’re trying to be paperless, and this allows us to be a paperless Practise.

It enables us to manage all the patient appointments. It enables us to record their consultations, manage referrals to other agencies, laboratory results. There is no issue with handwriting. It allows an accurate audit trail of the interactions we’ve had with patients, and it’s a complete record of their clinical medical history. So it’s a total patient management system. With chronic disease management, monitoring patients is very important, and digital technology allows us to do that– either face-to-face with the patient, or remotely. One of the things that we use here to help patients manage their condition is something called an AliveCor device, which is an app that patients download onto their mobile phone.

We loan them a device, and they are able, then, to record and ECG, and then they send that into us electronically. We’re able to review that ECG, and then advise on best management for them. Often, when patients present in general Practise, they’ve had a symptom that isn’t occurring when they get to their consultation. So this is a device that they can take home, and when they have the symptom, they can record their ECG, and then we can review to advise the patient the best course of action as a result.

We’re also using a system called Docobo, which is a device that patients can take home with them, or indeed, if they’re house-bound, they can have in their own home, which allows them to record vital signs such as pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturations. This is particularly useful for patients with chronic disease who we’re trying to manage at home, trying to reduce unnecessary admissions into hospital. The patients that I see are generally older, and every single one of them is keen to use technology in a way that enhances their care. If they can see the benefit of that technology for them, they will use it. I’m not particularly eloquent with technology. My children would say, for goodness’ sake, mum, you are hopeless.

But actually, the way the programmes are designed are straightforward, are simple, and easy to use. And I think it’s something that we should embrace, and something that we should be excited about, and not something to be frightened about.