The second open call for the Health Innovation Hub opened in December 2013. This month it was announced that 12 companies from the open call were selected and Slainte Healthcare was one of them, the project is centred around our Electronic Patient Chart, Vitro underpinning the data collection for the HSE's National Early Warning Score system.
The HSE's COMPASS Education programme that includes education on the use of the National Early Warning Score system is an interdisciplinary education programme designed to enhance our health care professionals’ understanding of patients who are clinically deteriorating and the significance of altered clinical observations. It also seeks to improve communication between healthcare professionals, while adopting a patient-centred quality driven approach, and enhancing the timely management of patients.
In addition a general vital sign observation chart for clinical practice areas was designed using an amended version of the CYMRU chart with the kind permission of Dr. Chris Subbe (Wales) on behalf of his group.
Mark Paul of the Irish Times reports...
www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/health-pharma/cork-health-hub-picks-16-tech-firms-for-final-pilot-phase-1.1760979
The Health Innovation Hub in Cork, which the Government wants to develop into an “IFSC for medical technology companies”, has selected 16 firms to take part in its final pilot phase, before the Government decides later this year whether to develop it into a permanent facility.
The hub, part of the Coalition’s action plan for jobs, is a centre for med-tech companies, providing them with access to State hospitals to test new products. It is a grand collaboration between the departments of health and enterprise, the Health Service Executive, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and a number of academic institutes.
Mirroring how the IFSC in Dublin has become a magnet for global financial corporations, the Government hopes to eventually attract medtech companies from across the world to locate in Ireland in the hub, where they could easily test their latest products within the Irish health system.
Dr Colman Casey, a director of the hub, said from companies sought to take part in the final pilot phase. It choose four companies to work on developing new products to address infection control and hygiene management, and Dr Casey said the hub has secured the agreement of two hospitals to host those projects.
The hub selected a further 12 companies from an “open call” for projects on a range of issues, including a large number of technology projects.
National meeting
“There will be a national team meeting on Thursday to assess the projects, and we would envisage that they would all kick off shortly after Easter,” said Dr Casey.
The companies and projects selected include Innerstrength, a Dublin start-up that has developed a web app called Tickerfit, a tool for GPs to monitor the physical activity of patients via a smartphone or wearable devices.
Sláinte Healthcare, backed by tech entrepreneur David Nash, has proposed trialling the HSE’s national early warning score system on Sláinte’s Vitro paperless system.