Secondary Care

Award-winning e-health product created by Cornish company secures key NHS contracts

A Cornish company based at the award-winning Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro has signed two contracts with NHS hospitals to trial its innovative online patient assessment system, with another three contracts in process.

testMyPreOp is a visionary new online service launched by Cornish company Ultramed which allows patients waiting for an operation to log into a secure website and complete their pre-operative assessments online from the comfort of their own home, using a computer or even a smartphone. The online assessment saves time for doctors, nurses and patients, but still provides all the vital information needed ahead of an operation.

Ultramed has now signed contracts with North Middlesex Hospital in London and Hull to trial the system, and three other NHS trusts are expected to sign up imminently following major interest across the UK in the new technology.

Dr Paul Upton, co-director of Ultramed, said: “We are delighted to have our first two NHS sites live. We have also developed Ultraprep, which is a suite of integrated products to help in the assessment of patients needing procedures such as endoscopy or cardiac catheterisation.

“Patients are asked to provide the same information online that would conventionally take up to 45 minutes for a nurse to collect in person, so our system saves clinicians valuable time, as well as saving patients having to make more trips into hospital for appointments. The software is extremely easy to use and we are confident in the business, and hope we can help more patients in other UK hospitals.”