Developing a mobile application for health and care workers to share patient information via smartphone

Project researcher: Dr Barney Gilbert, Academic Foundation Doctor

During Barney’s AFP he co-founded Forward, a mobile application for health and care workers to share secure, structured patient information on their own smartphones. The app was used in research partnerships with universities and other software providers.

The analytics from this project yielded workforce efficiency through reduced manpower hours on administration and more time for direct clinical care; and improved clinical outcomes, principally through remodelling patient pathways and connecting care across care compartments. This work has been published in the BMJ and presented at various national and international conferences, including the Royal College of Physicians’ Innovation in Medicine conference. The team’s policy recommendations were reported by NHS England, NHS Digital and embedded in the vision of the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. The work was also reported in The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, BBC, ITV Forbes. In the summer of 2018, Barney and his colleagues launched Forward among healthcare workers in Uganda as part of a research project in collaboration with a team of Oxford DPhil researchers and the Ugandan health ministry.

August 2018