Award: Openbrolly and NHS Highland
Forres company, Openbrolly, and NHS Highland win the prestigious 2014 Scottish Life Sciences award
On Thursday 6 February 2014, in front of 800 guests at the the Edinburgh International Conference Centre Openbrolly and Professor Angus Watson from NHS Highland scooped the top prize.
Their commercial collaboration, using a mobile phone system to help patients, beat competition from many leading universities and commercial companies. They have created a patient care system that allows Crohns and Colitis patients to self-report symptoms, using mobile phones, direct to NHS Highland specialist clinical staff where their condition is monitored.
Patients can enter their symptoms daily and these are recorded securely to be shown on a console, within the NHS, to clinical staff.
The system is also in use with the National University of Ireland medical school in Galway. Geoff Wilcock, CEO of Openbrolly, said - 'These are very important developments for health providers like the NHS. They are being continually stretched to provide more care for an ageing population with limited resources. We are enabling patients to become part of their care management - which is what many have being calling for, leading to better care. In turn, this is also helping to make specialist staff resources go further. Early intervention and better use of clinic time all make sure that NHS resources are invested where the need is greatest'.
Openbrolly is now developing its patient care system system for other chronic diseases and is talking to potential partners to raise funding to support growth.
Contacts:
David Sim (Chief Technical Officer)
Tel: 01309 638077
Geoff Wilcock (Chief Executive Officer)
Tel: 07711 926270
Website: www.openbrolly.com
Creating a Self-aware, Smart and Healthy Highlands & Islands Region Using the Internet of Things and People
Presented by Professor Maged N Kamel Boulos, Professor of Digital Health
The Internet of Things (IoT) is made of sensors and other components that connect our version of the world made of atoms (i.e., us humans, our devices, vehicles, roads, buildings, plants, animals, etc.) with a mirror digital version made of bits.
This enables regions to be self-aware and dynamically reconfigurable in real- or near-real-time, based on changes that are continuously monitored and captured by sensors, similar to the way the internal biological systems of a living being operate and respond to their environment. Data collected by various IoT sensors can also help predict the immediate future with reasonable accuracy, which enables better planned responses/mitigation.
Furthermore, IoT can link atoms (humans) to other atoms (humans) (again via bits), resulting in the formation of 'smart(er) communities'. The Highlands & Islands Region could benefit from, and harness the power of, IoT to improve the health, well-being and overall quality of life of the local populations, actively engage citizens in a smarter governance of their region, empower them to better care for one another, promote stronger social inclusion, reverse the region's 'brain drain', and ensure a greener, sustainable and more enjoyable environment for all.
Professor Boulos presented his inaugural lecture on 2 April 2015.