New app connecting patients and doctors to deliver faster service launched at Peterborough City Hospital

A new innovative digital service has been launched to connect patients with lower-limb wounds with doctors to speed up waiting times.

The Minuteful for Wound app will be launched by the hospital’s wound care team and will allow patients to upload images of their wounds to a secure portal, where they can be assessed clinically.

The joint nurse-led pilot project makes use of an app to auto-measure and analyse the tissue types and has been launched across the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.

The aim is to provide an opportunity for remote monitoring, earlier intervention, and better outcomes for patients through the rapid and accurate assessment of wounds as well as cutting down on administrative time.

Gail Curran, vascular nurse specialist said: “The secure digital portal ensures wound assessment based on best practice and is aligned with the National Wound Care Strategy programme (NWCSP), if successful and rolled out across the trust it will also provide an opportunity for remote monitoring and patient support with quick access to specialist advice from the nurse-led service.

“The longer-term benefit of the app is the communication between primary and secondary care with instant access to patient wound care progress and concerns raised without having to wait for an appointment, but also being able to reduce the number of unnecessary follow up visits and outpatient appointments if a wound is obviously improving.

“There may also be a possibility of rolling the service out wider to the orthopaedic specialist nurses involved in diabetic foot care and possibly the tissue viability nurses in the new year.”