31: How AccuRx Chain Rapidly Mobilised To Support Family Doctors During The Coronavirus Pandemic With Jacob Haddad

In this episode, Vinay speaks with Jacob from AccuRx. Jacob is one of the creators of Chain SMS, a program designed for primary care to be able to easily and quickly communicate with their patients, video consult, and send documents. The text-based service has proved a hit with many doctors in a huge shift to virtual and remote consultations in response to Covid-19.

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Topics Covered in this Episode:

• Chain SMS and its key features
• The why
• Vinay’s experience with Chain SMS
• How AccuRx mobilised quickly
• Chain SMS statistics
• The interesting ways Chain SMS has been used during COVID
• Will there be continued use or growth after the pandemic?

Chain SMS and its key features

• Originally designed for GP practices to communicate information with patients
• Over the past few weeks, have added the ability to collect data from patients, send documents, video consult, etc.
• The problem and the solution

“As a company, we believe that healthcare is a communication industry.”

The why

• Initially worked on antibiotic prescribing and how to send information to patients
• They wanted to build something easy-to-adopt and a useful way for doctors to contact patients. This led to them launching Chain SMS two years ago
• Jacob has a personal interest in healthcare systems and improving workflow

Vinay’s experience with Chain SMS

• Chain SMS formed part of a model supporting a switch to a total triage system where patients avoid coming into the surgery

“We do a new release of our software every couple of days, and are constantly making really small improvements.”

How AccuRx mobilised quickly

• Dedicated time to building good infrastructure (updating software, user accounts, support team, etc.)
• The team is committed to helping users and improving constantly
• Over a weekend in March, they enabled features to help doctors respond more effectively to Covid-19
• They wanted something that worked without an app or required new hardware and have also developed a hospital version

“The need to communicate has only just become a lot more acute during Covid, because things cannot be solved face-to-face.”

Chain SMS statistics

• 6 400 GP practices in England using the service out of a possible 7000
• 150 000 patient messages sent each day
• 15 000 documents and patient responses

The interesting ways Chain SMS has been used during COVID

• Practices can speak to patients on the phone, create a summary of the record or referral, and send it directly to the patient for them to take it to hospital if needed
• Adding multiple people to video calls (other family members or interpreters)
• Patients wait in the car park, and doctors send an SMS when they’re ready to see the patient

Will there be continued use or growth after the pandemic?

• Some facets aren’t specific to coronavirus
• Plans and hopes to bring new features and growth beyond primary care
• New features like facilitating patient initiation of sending a message

For more information:

Website: https://www.accurx.com/