NEWS - 09 January 2012
NHS Direct's InferMed-managed health & symptom checkers popular over Christmas
London, UK, 09 January 2012
Performance statistics published by NHS Direct show its telephone and online services were used over 730,000 times over the festive period (19 December 2011 to 2 January 2012). Nearly 60% of those contacts were via the NHS Direct online health and symptom checkers powered by InferMed's Arezzo technology.
The busiest days for the NHS Direct telephone service were Christmas Eve and the three bank holidays with over 98,500 calls made over these four days. Over the same period NHS Direct's online health and symptom checkers were used over 133,000 times. The most popular online health and symptom checkers were for colds and flu, abdominal pain, rashes and skin problems, diarrhoea and vomiting and female sexual health issues.
A large number of patients accessed NHS Direct's online health and symptom checkers on the web or via a free mobile app for Android and iPhone smartphones. Following the initial online assessment, those patients who needed further advice were able to provide their contact details to receive a call back from an NHS Direct nurse advisor (click-to-call back).
Nick Chapman, NHS Direct Chief Executive, said, "Over the last year we have seen a growing demand from patients wanting to access our health advice and information online. Christmas was no exception with usage of our online health and symptom checkers far outweighing call volumes. We're pleased that the Government is committed to developing an NHS 111 online service, which will complement the new telephone service. This will ensure that in the future patients can continue to access health advice from the channel they want to."
The InferMed-managed NHS Direct online patient health and symptom checker service (www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk), which is also available as an iPhone and Android app, provides information and advice to users on a wide variety of symptoms and conditions. Where appropriate it gives people advice on how to treat their symptoms at home and refers them to another part of the NHS if necessary. Those who need further advice can enter their phone number to receive a call back from an NHS Direct nurse, or in some cases can even web chat with NHS Direct. The InferMed consortium also re-developed NHS Direct's own corporate website, at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk, where the symptom checkers can be found.
For more details on the launch of the service please see this news item on the InferMed website.
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InferMed Limited
Since 1999, InferMed has provided software and services to support best practice in medicine. Through its MACRO EDC application and Arezzo® decision support technology, patients receive safe, up-to-date medical treatment based on best available clinical evidence. InferMed solutions tame the volume and complexity of clinical information, transforming it into actionable knowledge, available at the point of care for clinicians in research and practice, and to patients in their homes. InferMed solutions are accessed over a million times per month across Europe, North America and Australasia.
NHS Direct aims to provide care, remotely delivered over the phone and on the web, which is increasingly valued by patients and the wider health and social care system. The online assessments mirror the clinical assessment criteria currently used by telephone advisors, allowing patients quick and direct access to advice on the web based service. NHS Direct's web services are used around 600,000 times every month. NHS Direct health information and advice line handles over 12,000 calls a day. That's nearly 4.5 million calls a year. NHS Direct employs 2,900 staff, over 1,200 of whom are trained nurses.
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