[London, UK] Assessment of digital health tools should be updated to reflect the current pace of development in the tech space, Dr Murray Ellender, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of eConsult, has said.
eConsult is a digital platform developed for the primary care sector that allows patients to access an online portal providing round-the-clock support, used in approximately 400 GP practices across the country.
Last year, researchers from the University of Bristol released a study that looked at the use of the system across 36 practices in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
It found that most patients valued the option of being able to use the system in addition to existing processes, but that most of them were accessing it for administrative purposes.
The study then made a series of recommendations to ensure platforms were ‘carefully implemented and effectively marketed’.
But in an interview with BJ-HC, Dr Ellender revealed that the study was made available to the team a year before it was published, which meant that by the time it was released to the wider public, the recommendations suggested had already been implemented.
This led to a twofold increase - from 2016 to 2017 - in the number of e-consultations at practices that had deployed the system in England and a fourfold increase at a London Clinical Commissioning Group last year.
Dr Ellender argued that, while the system should not rely only on suppliers for evidence, there was a need to improve evaluation methods to encourage adoption of solutions aiming to provide efficiencies for the system and streamline workflows.
In an article written earlier this year, Dr Ellender explained:
“Academic studies are important but whether they are the most effective way to evaluate rapidly evolving technologies is questionable.
“A time lapse of 18 months between study completion and study publication does not reflect the status quo where all online consultation models have evolved significantly since their early pilot days.
“Until new academic data is available, we continue to collect and analyse data on a weekly basis, listen to clinical and patient feedback and constantly refine the eConsult platform for ease of use, efficacy and, most important of all, clinical safety.”
This could also be supported, he added, through an emphasis on the importance of embracing the use of digital tools in healthcare.
“It is clear that we are indeed past the point of debating whether new technologies have a place in general practice, after all we do almost everything else in a digital manner and it should be a just a matter of time before general practice catches up."
But more needs to be done to train GPs to use these tools, Dr Ellender added, calling for further investment from the centre.
