EDA involved in award-winning mobile app healthcare project

A mobile application that collects health data from wearable devices worn by people with epilepsy and then shares it with their care teams has won a major health industry award. The app, called myCareCentric Epilepsy, was developed by the Epilepsy Care Alliance comprising the School of Engineering and Digital Arts at the University of Kent, Poole Hospital, Graphnet Health and Shearwater Systems.The platform won the Best App for Patients and Carers Award at the EHI Awards on 31 October. The awards, supported by NHS England, techUK and NHS Digital, seek to recognise innovation in IT to improve healthcare.

Dr Christos Efstratiou, a Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Digital Arts (EDA) and his team, helped with the development of the app by building key software components that capture and analyse the data sent from the wearable device worn by patients to the mobile application.

The myCareCentric Epilepsy app was piloted at Poole Hospital, and demonstrated a number of benefits to both patients and cliniciansincluding:

– Increased patient safety, faster speed of response and support
– Reduced morbidity, admissions and length of stay
– Less follow-ups, releasing clinical time
– Greater patient engagement.

The myCareCentric Epilepsy platform uses a mobile app that supports patients to self-manage their condition, links to a patient’s integrated digital care record, and improves the ability of care teams to treat patients with epilepsy.

Data collected by the app and wearables (e.g. sleep patterns, exercise, heart rate, temperature and sweat levels) is shared with care teams in real-time which enables faster response and support as close as possible to the time and point of need.

The technology provides auto-notifications and an easily digestible dashboard which helps health professionals quickly understand how epilepsy affects the individual, as well as giving a better understanding of their seizures and impact of treatment.