Connecting Health Care Project (CHC) – Pilot study starts in Cornwall and Scotland

The project delivers a package of satellite connectivity and e-health software applications to care homes (Cornwall) and GP practices (Scottish Highlands). Through this package, the project will facilitate efficient and effective e-health workflows, provide an access route to patients whose care has been challenging during the ongoing pandemic, and help reduce connectivity challenges. The connectivity and software will remain in place for approximately 11 months to complement potentially poor terrestrial connectivity. During this validation period the project team will evaluate the functionality of health sector software platforms on the satellite provided network, and assess benefits of satellite enabled healthcare from several angles (e.g., care home staff, GP and other practitioners, patient experience). We will be able to facilitate applications such as remote monitoring of health metrics to build a consistent, long-term record, remote diagnosis, and remote video consultations/remote ward rounds/MDTs.

After some delays due to the ongoing, and unprecedented pressures across the NHS and Care Sectors, the CHC pilot projects at various locations across Cornwall and Scotland are now up and running, and data collection has started.

Unpaid carers

The team are exploring if mobile technology can help to access and amplify the voices of unpaid carers. 

Compounded by the isolation of lockdown and the economic uncertainty involved in caring for loved ones who are disabled, ill or older and in need of support - the UK's 6.5 million unpaid carers say that social isolation is one of the most challenging aspects of their caring duties.

The CHC researchers are now paving the way for better support for carers in some of the UK's most remote locations. To assess the feasibility of using real-time data from unpaid carers using mobile phone short message service (SMS) to theme data using natural language processing.

The team has also begun the development of a “dashboard” which presents the data we are collecting from the unpaid carers in real-time, both in its raw form as qualitative data in the form of the original comments but also as quantitative data where the comments have been analysed using a machine learning algorithm to code and categorise the data. Access to this dashboard over the satcom link will also be tested.

Further details of all these activities can be found by clicking on the below link:

Falmouth CHC Studies

Care Homes

The plan for the CHC project was for 3 care homes from the Cornwall Care group to participate in the study. The continuing pressures on the health and social care system have impacted on the care homes we are working with, and we have lost 2 of the care homes to the project. However, the third home is fully engaged, and we are working around the significant issues and impact created by Covid 19.

The remaining care home is utilising the connectivity in a variety of exciting ways – working with specialist health practitioner teams and the local community.

GP Practices

The equipment has been delivered and connections set up at all three GP Practice sites (Torridon, Connel and Foyers, as shown on the map) in the NHS Highland area.

We will now begin testing three use cases:

·       Mental health support for non-critical mental health conditions (i.e., anxiety, depression, stress etc.) - NHS Highland

·       Remote monitoring and management of diabetic foot ulcers – University of the Highlands & Islands

·       Remote support for education and training of students / doctors - University of Aberdeen

The work for this project is carried out under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency.