In an effort to streamline treatment procedures and give clinicians more time with patients, the National Health Service will test virtual reality-style goggles.
Community nurses will wear the cutting-edge glasses during home visits, enabling them to:
By directly transcribing appointment minutes into electronic patient records, nurses can avoid unnecessary and time-consuming administrative tasks.
Broadcast live footage directly to hospital colleagues, thereby assisting clinicians in avoiding needless second appointments and expediting patient treatment.
Access thermal imaging technology that allows medical professionals to evaluate wound and injury healing.
Find out how long it will take to reach their next appointment based on real-time traffic updates.
It is estimated that community nurses spend more than half of their day completing administrative tasks and filling out paperwork, time that could be better spent elsewhere.
Dr. Tim Ferris, NHS Director for Transformation, stated, “Some of the best innovations come from local solutions, so NHS staff can test what works for them and provides the best possible care for patients through this project.
“These smart glasses are the latest in cutting-edge technology and demonstrate what the future of the NHS could look like; they are a win-win for both staff and patients, allowing nurses to spend more time on patient care by eliminating time-consuming administrative tasks.”
Clinicians can only use the smart glasses and record patient data with the patient’s explicit permission.
NHS England awarded the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust $400,000 to test the technology in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole. As a result, the programme will be implemented in areas supervised by the Trust.
The project is part of a larger scheme that will see the launch of sixteen additional pilots in the coming months.
Health Minister Maria Caulfield stated, “Health and care research is essential to transforming our health service and ensuring the NHS is able to provide world-class care.”
“These new high-tech goggles have the potential to revolutionise the way community nurses conduct home visits by reducing paperwork and enhancing the precision of diagnosis and treatment.
“Once again, this technology exemplifies the United Kingdom’s innovation and our foresight in the discovery of ground-breaking research that can help us beat the Covid backlogs,” the author writes.
Overall, it is hoped that the technology will increase capacity and allow nurses to devote more time to clinical tasks such as taking patients’ blood pressure and assessing their health conditions.