A New Era in Paediatric Remote Care at Alder Hey
Revolutionising Remote Healthcare
Together, we’re stepping into a new era of healthcare
Megan Foden, Junior Innovation Consultant and Design Lead at Alder Hey Innovation.
In collaboration with Isla Care, Alder Hey Innovation has launched groundbreaking features for a remote monitoring platform, addressing critical barriers in children and young people’s healthcare. This innovative solution empowers clinicians with advanced tools for remote patient management, enhances patient engagement across specialities, and ensures access to rich data for timely clinical decisions.
Identifying Barriers to Effective Remote Care
Through observation, interviews, and empathetic research, Alder Hey identified key challenges in delivering remote paediatric care:
- Inconsistent data submission disrupted patient monitoring.
- Lack of secure communication between families and clinicians.
- Administrative burdens on healthcare staff strained resources.
- Financial and logistical obstacles caused missed appointments and incomplete data on patient progress.
- Low health literacy impacted patient and family engagement.
NHS data from 2021 revealed that 8% of missed appointments were due to financial constraints, placing additional pressure on healthcare resources and delaying timely care. With these challenges in mind, Alder Hey and Isla Care co-created a platform to optimise efficiency, improve access, and deliver personalised care.
What Did We Create?
The Isla platform provides Alder Hey clinicians with powerful tools to remotely monitor patients through secure photo, video, and data submissions. Key features include:
• Data Requests: Patients receive secure SMS or email links to upload visual data without requiring app downloads or logins, improving accessibility for families with varied digital skills or technology access.
• Automated Scheduling and Follow-Ups: Clinical teams can automate data requests and schedule follow-ups, reducing administrative workload. Dermatology and ophthalmology pilots demonstrated significant time and cost savings, with thousands of hours saved.
• AI-Powered Triage: A proof-of-concept AI tool identifies clinical keywords in referral letters, highlighting cases that may benefit from visual data. Early trials improved triaging accuracy by 69%, enabling clinicians to prioritise high-need cases.
• Customisable Patient Pathways: The platform enables patient-specific pathways, allowing clinicians to collect the most relevant data, reduce unnecessary clinic visits, and streamline care.
• Enhanced Caseload Management: Clinicians can monitor patient progress with dashboards that display outstanding requests, follow-ups, and specific health needs.
• Direct Image Comparison: Clinicians can compare visual data over time, streamlining decision-making in specialities such as dermatology, orthopaedics, and ophthalmology where monitoring physical changes is critical.
• Educational Video Support: Video-sharing functionality improves engagement by providing tailored instruction for at-home therapies. For example, speech therapy caregivers reported improved confidence and adherence to therapy plans.
Real-World Impact
Since its rollout, the Isla platform has been adopted by 31 specialities within Alder Hey, supporting over 8,500 patients. The results have been transformative:
- 93% patient satisfaction, with families recommending the service.
- Reduced waiting times in dermatology and community physiotherapy clinics.
- 2-week decrease in community physiotherapy wait times.
- Significant reduction in dermatology backlogs.
Wendy Blumenow, Senior Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Clinical Innovation Consultant at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Trust, highlighted the project’s origins in clinical problem-solving: “That’s how we work as an innovation service. We’re problem-solvers.”
Iain Hennessey, Clinical Director and Co-Founder at Alder Hey Innovation Centre, added: “Using technology to help families lead more normal lives is one of our key goals. The partnership with Isla Health has been fantastic in exploring the future of remote care.”
Building the Future of Remote Care
The Alder Hey and Isla Care partnership continues to evolve, with plans to integrate additional features and expand capabilities. Alder Hey Innovation is actively seeking collaborations with partners, funders, and healthcare providers to scale this platform further.
Partner with Us for a Healthier Future
Alder Hey Innovation invites potential collaborators to join us in advancing this pioneering platform, improving healthcare accessibility, and delivering better outcomes for children and young people. Together, we can shape the future of patient-centred paediatric care.
