App launched for patients and parents at Alder Hey Hospital
- May 11, 2016
- EmmaArnold
Liverpool children's hospital, Alder Hey, are developing an app to help patients and doctors work better together.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) app is designed to make hospital visits run more smoothly by answering questions children and their parents may have about their stay in hospital and is the first UK hospital to work with the AI platform.
Hundreds of Alder Hey patients will be asked a range of questions such as what they like to eat, their favourite games and films, their favourite colour and what they want their bedroom to look like.
They will also be asked what questions they have about their operation, general anaesthetic and clinical procedures.
This information will then be used by a team of experts to train the app - known as 'Watson' - to anticipate and respond to questions from patients and families before they come into hospital.
Lesley Herbertson, senior clinical negligence solicitor at PotterReesDolan, said:
The news that Alder Hey Hospital intends to introduce a patient/doctor app is interesting. As we move towards more “paper-free” ways of working, dispensing with Patient Leaflets and, instead, providing information via technology is inevitable.
Alder Hey Hospital is clearly committing to AI and this is a small first step. However, whatever the format, it is the ability to properly communicate with patients that is paramount and that should mean tailoring the means of sharing information to the individual patient.
The AI platform is already being used in twelve cancer hospitals in the USA to offer insights into possible treatments by trawling through 40 million documents in 15 seconds.
The hospital hopes the app will help patients and their families prepare for coming into hospital and reduce their anxiety about their stay.
They say that future apps could be used to spot trends across the hospital by using summaries of patient notes and could even be used, as in the USA, to offer treatment and care options.