Living With is excited to announce the launch of a new digital product to help improve care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
The Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis product was developed in collaboration with Dr Philip Hamann, Clinical Lecturer at the University of Bristol and a NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Fellow.
“The problem with the current clinical management of RA is that it is based on infrequent and pre-scheduled appointments, with patient data collection solely based around these interactions. This means that when the patient is seen they may either be in remission or have already experienced a flare-up. It is challenging for patients to remember exactly how active their disease has been over the months since their last appointment, meaning it can be difficult to correctly tailor treatments to the patient’s need. Studies show approximately 20% of RA patients are in remission at any point in time suggesting these appointments could be avoided, or patients could be offered a telephone review, saving them the time and hassle of coming in to hospital,” says Dr. Philip Hamann
Using the product, clinicians will be able to monitor patients’ disease activity quickly and easily both on an individual and group level. Patients will be given access to an app where they will be able to track and self-manage their condition and access relevant and trusted information about their disease. This will allow them to work in partnership with their clinical team to make informed, personalised decisions about their care.
With the ability to monitor patients’ disease activity remotely, clinics will be able to optimise patient appointments for those with the greatest need at any one time. Better monitoring of disease activity may also help reduce costs of medication, inpatient stays and attendance in the A&E.
The platform will be piloted in selected rheumatology clinics at Southmead Hospital for a 12-month trial period. During this time, feedback from app users and members of the clinical team will be incorporated into the platform to improve it for future users.
“I’m excited to be able to start using the platform in clinical practice and continue to work with Living With to improve the user experience and value of the platform to both patients and the clinical team,” says Dr Philip Hamann. “The development of this platform and its pilot shows how collaboration between industry and the NHS can solve real-world problems for patients and provide tools that can drive benefits for both patients and the clinical team. In the 70 years of the NHS, the way we deliver outpatient appointments has changed very little. This platform offers the opportunity to move the delivery of outpatient clinic services into the digital age.”
About Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis
Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis consists of a digital clinician dashboard and a patient app. The app allows patients to track and self-manage their condition more effectively, capture disease activity by completing weekly or monthly disease activity questionnaires, report on flare-ups, read recommended information about rheumatoid arthritis and treatment articles and stay in touch with their clinicians between appointments.
The dashboard allows clinicians to monitor patient disease activity remotely and see condition severity with red – amber- green indicators. This focuses support from the rheumatology team and enables appointment optimisation, ensuring patients receive support when they need it the most. For further information, please visit https://livingwith.health/products/living-with-rheumatoid-arthritis/
About Living With
Living With is a heath technology company. Living With has a digital condition management platform that helps patients self-manage their conditions and enables clinicians to monitor real-time disease activity, identify the early warning signs of flare-ups and optimise their clinical resourcing for patients who need it most. Living With has over five years of experience in creating and developing health apps that change behaviours and drive adherence, most notably Squeezy, the NHS endorsed, market leading pelvic floor muscle dysfunction app. For more information, please visit https://livingwith.health/
