Partnerships: Keele Business Bridge
Based at Keele Science and Innovation Park, Bitjam works with clients all over the world. But we do love working with those on our doorstep and Keele Business Bridge has been instrumental in helping us along the way. Bitjam is proud to be one of their specialist suppliers.
Local eligible businesses, with Healthcare and Medical technology ideas but without the resources to put it into action, can apply to Keele Business Bridge for an Innovation Voucher of up to £6000 for their innovative ideas to be matched with a relevant supplier and the voucher exchanged for services. Allowing many different business sectors to succeed in this market. Part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the England 2014 to 2020 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Growth Programme.
Reddyscope
Bitjam has recently been working on an exciting, transformative app with Dr GV Reddy.
As a Staffordshire based ENT surgeon, experienced General Practitioner and entrepreneur running GVR Products, Dr Reddy approached Business Bridge for funding for the ‘Reddyscope’.
Bitjam has been working with him directly to create an Android and iOS app which links to a lens adaptor. Dr Reddy’s invention, allows clinicians to attach a lens adaptor to a smartphone. This opens the app, takes a photo or video of the patient (ears, eyes etc) and adds the patient EMISS number, saving this in the app. They can then share this entry with colleagues via WhatsApp or email. The clinician can then delete old entries. This speeds up diagnostics and encourages collaboration between clinicians.
We have worked closely with Dr Reddy on the research and development of the app design, prototyping, logo, branding and testing, giving him our technical expertise with Business Bridge scheme funding.
Edith: Simple Telehealth
Bitjam is proud to be working with Simple Telehealth on another of their revolutionary SMS based clinical systems. Edith is the sister project to Nellie (Australia) and Florence (UK), first developed in 2008.
Telehealth doesn’t come much better than these widely used applications. Based on a simple premise of a chatbot any patient with a standard mobile phone can use the unique, low cost and simple system. The patient is sent a reminder message to track readings for weight, blood pressure, temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. Its fully customisable by the clinician and can measure a wide variety of data. These systems are speeding up healthcare processes, allowing clinicians and patients to interact and communicate easily.
Telehealth is extremely powerful. Adopting cutting edge technology to deliver health-related services and information, it allows the NHS to care for a larger amount of people in their own homes and therefore reduce GP visits and hospital admissions, possibly saving £2 billion in the longer term. It can be used to help diabetic patients, the elderly population, those with obesity, mental health recovery, the list goes on. Many people are finding it of use because it is “Telehealth with a human touch”.
- Patients aren’t tied to a machine at home or visits to surgery or hospital. They take readings at their convenience whether at home with family or on holiday.
- Regular, personalised health tips and medication reminders are sent to patients based on their readings. They become more involved and take more responsibility for their own healthcare.
- Frequent, short messages are unobtrusive and help the patient feel more cared for, more involved, and more in control of their own healthcare.
These three siblings, Edith, Nellie and Florence are leading the way in helping patients manage their own health, and we are delighted with the social impact this is making. SMS and chatbot technologies have proven to enable positive behaviour changes.
Our modern secure software design is being used with Simple Telehealth evidence-based methodology, through further funding from Keele Business Bridge.
For further information on these telehealth projects and the launch of Edith, keep an eye on our Twitter account @bitjam. You might also be interested in SIMPLE TELEHEALTH: NELLIE.
To find out more, contact Carl at Bitjam. For Keele Business Bridge information please see their website.
Visual Impairment: recommendations for the NHS
Visual impairment affects more than 2 million people in the United Kingdom. The NHS needs to improve its services to accommodate this sector of the population.
We were especially pleased to be working with Keele University student, Klaudia Suchowiak, over the past few months, using her research knowledge, to enable us to gain her insight into how the NHS could improve its accessibility to the visually impaired community. She has summarised her conclusions in her 3rd white paper.
Klaudia is an award winning blind student, with cerebral palsy. Her concluding white paper brings together her two previous reports and advises NHS bodies that listening to their patient groups is imperative to building accessible services. She gives us 10 key points that service developers need to consider when commissioning new services and consider the engagement the patient will have with the service whether it is a physical service or digitally via health apps. She notes the need for more staff awareness for the needs of visually impaired patients within hospitals and GP surgeries, who are so often overlooked.
Klaudia’s white papers have been enlightening. To quote her words in her summary white paper:
“the NHS has made noticeable progress in making their services accessible to everyone. There are still areas with room for improvement like accessible communication, for example. However, in most cases, it is the interaction between the sighted and VI, as the former does not very often know how to behave around a VI person. Let me tell you that we are the same as you are, we just cannot see, or we have another disability, but we can interact with you as you interact with your sighted peers.”
Klaudia Suchowiak
We have really enjoyed having Klaudia in the office. We have learned so much from our time together, she has helped to challenge and shape our thinking around software design and digital service design for sight affected people. We wish her well with her future studies.
Read her 3rd white paper for free. All we ask is for a shout out on twitter @bitjam as a thank you to Klaudia for all of her hard work.
To work with Bitjam on your next innovation project, please get in touch with the UK based team. We design, build and manage software, IOT and AI tech, focusing on partnerships with health and education organisations.
Cyber Essentials Plus accredited
Bitjam has hit the next level. We are delighted to announce that we are now accredited with Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
The National Cyber Security Centre created Cyber Essentials to bring companies up to a common standard in the face of cyber attacks. Cyber Essentials Plus is a rigorous test of company cybersecurity and is carried out independently by a Certification Body.
Our team once again worked with D2NA of Newcastle under Lyme, who tested our systems and software. We are thrilled to be awarded the higher level certificate.
We take cyber security seriously. We are also accredited with
the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit which is a self assesment enabling organisations to measure and publish their own performance against the National Data Guardian’s ten data security standards. Providing assurance that we are practising good data security and that personal data is handled safely and to GDPR guidelines.
Bitjam has a strong social ethos, helping organisations who are working for social good, to perform better. We develop websites, apps and software that solve real world problems, connecting digital systems together and harnessing data more efficiently.
Please get in touch to find out how we can help you.
