Leading healthcare technology company, Vantage Health (vantage.health), has announced it has successfully piloted a ground-breaking teledermatology solution to accelerate diagnosis of skin lesions and tackle the growing pressures on the 2WW (two week wait) pathway in East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT).
Results from the pilot, which ran from the beginning of January through to May, have been excellent, with 93% of the 96 cases triaged in one day and 50% of the total number being downgraded to either a routine referral or not requiring hospital treatment at all.
The solution allows 2WW cases referred via eRS to be triaged to Consultant Dermatologists, through Rego, the first eRS compatible solution to be deployed in the NHS. This will enable the Consultants to easily review the referral and determine if the patient needs to be on the 2WW pathway or if the severity can be reduced to a routine referral.
If the Consultant decides the case should be downgraded, an automatic request is sent from Rego to the referring GP asking them to approve the case as a routine referral. If the GP does not provide an approval within seven days, the patient will continue on the 2WW pathway.
ESNEFT & Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG chose Vantage Health to develop this solution following successful work with routine Advice & Guidance. In 2020 a teledermatology service was implemented for routine referrals to allow Consultant Dermatologists to review images of patients’ skin lesions on its Rego platform and provide guidance back to the GP of an appropriate course of action.
Peter Holloway, GP at Mendlesham Medical Group, Chair, Primary Care Group, East of England Cancer Alliance: “This solution has been excellent in helping us determine which patients should, and as importantly, should not be on the 2WW pathway for dermatology. Rego is such an intuitive platform and allows us to receive quick responses from Consultants and refer patients to an alternate care path, if necessary. Triaging in this way would simply not be possible without this type of innovation, so its importance, especially at this stage of the pandemic, cannot be understated”.
David Ezra, Co-Founder of Vantage Health, says: “We are delighted by the results of this pilot which represents a transformation in the way the 2WW pathways are managed. Our close partnership with Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and now ESNEFT has enabled us to develop the right processes and safety requirements necessary for the implementation of this solution which could not come at a more critical time. We hope to expand this pilot in ESNEFT and across other Trusts in the area”.
