St. James’s Hospital Launches New Campus Guide App

FIACH MAC CONGHAIL, CAROLINE VIGUIER (THE DIGITAL HUB) & KERRILL THONHILL (OF THIS PARISH!)

We were delighted to be involved with this project that's helping hospital campus' in a practical and accessible way.

-          Tech and health community in Dublin 8 join forces to create new hospital app -

22 March 2018: St. James’s Hospital is pleased to announce the launch of its brand new app: The St. James’s Hospital Campus Guide. The app was designed to help patients, visitors and staff to navigate their way around St. James’s constantly developing 60 acre site. St. James’s hospital is the largest acute teaching hospital in Ireland, and with almost 300,000 outpatient sessions a year. The hospital sees a heavy amount of foot traffic. The app was developed by Anthony Edwards and Dr. Chris Soraghan from St. James’s Hospital in conjunction with MEG Support Tools, and was jointly funded by St. James’s Hospital Foundation and The Digital Hub, all based in the emerging med tech corridor of Dublin 8.

Some of the features of the app include instructions on how to get to the hospital, information about public transport options, maps for different areas of the campus and video guides showing users how to get from place to place. The app also features alerts which highlight key changes to the campus, including the development of new buildings or when services move from one location to another. Users can also give the hospital their input by using the ‘suggest change button’ to provide feedback on how the app can be improved. Maps and images within the app are available to users even when they’re offline.

Lorcan Birthistle, the CEO of St. James’s Hospital said: “This new app will provide an important service to all those who need to find their way around St. James’s constantly growing and developing campus. Users will be able to quickly and easily find out where they are and how to get where they need to be. I’d like to thank MEG Support Tools and the Digital Hub for their support in helping to provide this modern new feature to our patients and visitors to St. James’s Hospital.”

Dr Chris Soraghan, Clinical Engineer from St. James’s Hospital said: “It is not unusual to see a patient trying to navigate the hospital campus on the way to an appointment. There was an obvious need to assist these patients, so, working with Anthony Edwards, Clinical Photographer, we decided to develop this app. The app will assist all those making their way around our campus; patients, visitors and staff alike. The hospital is continually evolving and it is important that the app is able to grow as the hospital develops; the content management system on MEG Support Tools platform allows for this continued development.”

Commenting on The Digital Hub’s role as a co-funder behind the development of the St. James’s Hospital Campus Guide App, Fiach Mac Conghail, Chief Executive Officer at The Digital Hub said: “We are delighted to have supported such an innovative initiative with our neighbours in St. James’s Hospital.  This project is a great example of connected health in action and how The Digital Hub can really add value, connecting technology enterprises in our cluster to provide solutions for healthcare providers in our local community.”        

Speaking at the launch, Kerrill Thornhill, Managing Director of MEG Support Tools said: "Mobile devices and apps provide many benefits for patients and healthcare workers. Our goal is to provide hospitals like St. James’s with smartphone technology to enable staff and visitors with access to critical information at their fingertips".

14th National Health Summit

Minister Harris gets in on a selfie with the team from @MEGSupportTools @sundaybusiness @Health_Summits #Healthsummit pic.twitter.com/dICDutRjU6

— 14th National Health Summit (@Health_Summits) February 9, 2018

A few words from our founder...

MEG Support Tools - My Business Finder

At MEG we enable frontline medical workers to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative workloads by creating mobile first, paperless tools that promote antimicrobial stewardship in hospitals.

patientMpower!

Congratulations to our sister company patientMpower who were announced as one of three winners in the recent IPF Catalyst Challenge in Chicago on Wednesday.  More about the event on the patientMpower website but here's a snippet below;

patientMpower among the winners of $1,000,000 IPF Catalyst Challenge in Chicago

26 January - Three Lakes Partners, a venture philanthropy committed to ending Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), named Irish-based patientMpower, a provider of digital health solutions, among one of three overall winners of the $1,000,000 IPF Catalyst Challenge at an event in Chicago.

In Business Magazine

Welcome to the Team

Welcome Brian Grieco to the team - here we are enjoying the new break-out area in The Digital Hub

'Northside People' 22nd Nov 2017

'Northside People' 22nd November 2017

Irish technology and leading European hospital show how a smart hospital can reduce hospital infections

We are proud to be involved with this project, along with SureWash (Ireland).

Efforts to combat hospital “super bugs” highlighted during World Antibiotic Awareness Week

Two Irish medical technology companies, SureWash and MEG Support Tools, have collaborated with the global hand hygiene company GOJO and one of the leading cancer hospitals in the UK, The Christie in Manchester, to demonstrate how “smart hospital” technology can reduce infections without the need for lots of extra personnel.  A recent outbreak of CPE (carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae) in Irish hospitals indicated the seriousness of this issue, with a mortality rate of 40-50% recorded among infected patients.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say that good hand hygiene can prevent up to 50% of infections in hospitals.  Preventing infections is critical as these so called “super bugs” are resistant to antibiotics and have a high mortality rate.

Speaking at the start of World Antibiotic Awareness Week, Kerrill Thornhill of MEG Support Tools said; “A multimodal approach to improving hygiene standards is critical in combating hospital acquired infections and the reliance on antibiotics.  We are working with SureWash to reduce rates of infection and improve the lives of people across the healthcare system.” 

The WHO provide guidelines on when to do hand hygiene (the 5 moments) and on how to do hand hygiene (the 6 poses).  But validated training and auditing of these guidelines is very resource intensive and sometimes overlooked.  The research carried out was published by the American Journal of Infection Control. Results indicated that integrated digital tools can provide both rich data and novel tools that both measure impact and provide feedback to support the implementation of multimodal hand hygiene campaigns.

The infection control team in the Christie Hospital describe how live data from the MEG audit app, the SureWash interactive training kiosk and GOJO’s SMARTLINK™ dispenser system was combined to create a live data dashboard to facilitate better infection risk management.  Analytics were run on the live data to provide actionable feedback to both staff and patients if the standards of hand hygiene practice were slipping.

Patients and their families have a key role to play in infection prevention. However, there are few if any resources available to training patients in clinical infection prevention.  During the study, patients were encouraged to learn about hand hygiene using gesture recognition and camera based algorithm technology which teaches them correct hand hygiene technique – 70% of the training episodes were by patients helping them to maintain infection control for wound care post-discharge.

At the annual Infection Prevention Society award in Manchester in September, SureWash & MEG Support Tools also received industry awards voted on by delegates from hospitals across the UK and Ireland.

For more information or interviews, please contact:

SureWash / Glanta Ltd:  Dr. Gerry Lacey, info@surewash.com, +353 87 2396567

MEG Support Tools:  Kerrill Thornhill,  info@megsupporttools.com, +353 87 9349516

Video Link: https://youtu.be/DJsYRstYTjs

Link to research paper: http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(17)31048-9/fulltext

About Us:

 MEG Support Tools

MEG Support Tools enables frontline medical workers to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative workloads by creating mobile first, paperless tools that promote access to information, antimicrobial stewardship and improved reporting in hospitals.

SureWash

SureWash uses camera based vision systems to teach proper hand hygiene technique. By taking learning out of the classroom and direct to where it is needed most, the units or wards, SureWash can help reduce training costs whilst not interrupting workflows. SureWash systems come with a full analytic and reporting suite giving hospitals the tools they need to manage their infection control risk and achieve regulatory compliance.

World Antibiotic Awareness Week, 13-19 November 2017

Today begins the World Health Organisation (WHO) directed 'World Antibiotic Awareness Week'.

Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change when they are exposed to antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics).  Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs”.  As a result, the medicines become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others.  The WHO say that good hand hygiene can prevent up to 50% of infections in hospitals.  Preventing infections is critical as super bugs that are resistant to antibiotics and have a high mortality rate.  For example, the most recent outbreak of CPE (carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae) in Irish hospitals has a mortality rate of 40-50%.

MEG Support Tools, have collaborated with the global hand hygiene company GOJO and SureWash along with one of the leading cancer hospitals in Europe, The Christie in Manchester, to demonstrate how ‘smart hospital’ technology can reduce these infections without the need for extra personnel. 

The infection control team in the Christie Hospital describe how live data from the MEG audit app, the SureWash interactive training kiosk and GOJO’s SMARTLINK™ dispenser system was combined to create a live data dashboard to facilitate better infection risk management. Analytics were generated on the live data to provide actionable feedback to both staff and patients if the standards of hand hygiene practice were slipping.

The results indicate that integrated digital tools can provide rich data that measure impact and provide feedback to support the implementation of multimodal hand hygiene campaigns, reducing the need for significant additional personnel resources.

If you'd like to read further, more details are available online from the American Journal of Infection Control here.

MEG Support Tools enable frontline medical workers to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative workloads by creating mobile first, paperless tools that promote access to information, antimicrobial stewardship and improved reporting in hospitals.  If you think this is something that your hospital would benefit from, contact Kerrill on;

 087 394 9516 

Health Innovation Week 20-25th October

Health Innovation Week is a series of interactive events that encourage creation, learning and collaboration by showcasing the innovations that have the power to transform the Irish healthcare system and build a better health service.

eHealth Ireland, with their partners, will host these free events to inspire all of us to make sense of the challenges that we face in healthcare. It doesn't matter if you are a clinician, a researcher, a service user or a student - there is something for everyone.

Monday the 23rd willl feature The Innovation Showcase and will demonstrate the progress in the creation of a digital fabric that is transforming the Irish healthcare system. eHealth Ireland will take over the Printworks for a special one- day exhibition, presentations and series of workshops to reveal highlights of eHealth projects in Ireland and showcase the leading digital and connected technologies, which will revolutionise Irish healthcare by 2030.

Our Founder / CEO Kerrill will be there to field any questions from clients and clinicians and will also be sitting on panel dicsussion on Monday 23rd October.  If you'd like any further information get in touch;

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info@megsupporttools.com // 01 679 1597 // www.megsupporttools.com