Shaping new remote monitoring health technology

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a movement towards healthtech devices, to reduce reliance on in-person healthcare visits and give patients more autonomy over their conditions. With a clear opportunity to improve the lives of people with chronic kidney disease specifically, the Thiscovery team worked with the What Works Centre for Wellbeing to understand what matters to patients and staff when using a device for the remote monitoring of kidney function in order to most effectively meet their needs.

Participants

120 people: 80 people living with kidney disease and 40 renal healthcare clinicians.

Methods

Online surveys, stimulus videos, Likert scales.

Impact

The production of a guide which will shape how remote kidney monitoring devices are designed and deployed to maximise staff and patient trust and confidence.

Delivered on behalf of:

What we did

Consulted with 120 targeted participants - 80 people living with kidney disease and 40 renal healthcare clinicians.
Designed tailored engagement methods to put the two groups' differing experiences at the centre of the project.
Used a stimulus video to set the scene ahead of a survey asking people to imagine a world in which remote monitoring devices are already available (two scripted versions, one for each audience).
Gathered feedback on the resulting experience statements, gauging support levels using a Likert scale.

Key insights

In addition to identifying key themes for patient and professional experience statements, the approach above meant the project team could develop five elements which underpin the provision of remote kidney monitoring:

1

Cultivate care partnerships

2

Understand and tailor to context

3

Confidently engage and learn together

4

Jointly explore risks, options and expectations

5

Collaborate to provide an integrated and accessible service

Improvement in action

Following this work the team has built a guide to what matters to patients and healthcare professionals for remote monitoring of kidney function. This guide offers practical guidance with applications beyond kidney monitoring. It has the potential to inform remote monitoring in other specialties, long term conditions and healthcare settings, including virtual wards.

The approach can also be applied across multiple settings for device developers, evaluators of remote devices and technologies, and NHS Trusts’ commissioning and procurement, clinical standards, and auditing and improvement activities.

The team could also show how this insight can be used to complement two existing frameworks: NHS England Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) and NICE Evidence Standards Framework for digital health technologies.

“I was struggling to work out how, within the systems and infrastructure we had available, we could hear those voices we needed to. Thiscovery unlocked that for us.”

Joanne Smithson

Head of Implementation and Learning

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing

Outputs

Guide

Guide to what matters to patients and healthcare professionals for remote monitoring of kidney function

View output ❯

Shaping new remote monitoring health technology

What we did

Key insights

1

2

3

4

5

Improvement in action

“I was struggling to work out how, within the systems and infrastructure we had available, we could hear those voices we needed to. Thiscovery unlocked that for us.”

Joanne Smithson

Outputs

Guide to what matters to patients and healthcare professionals for remote monitoring of kidney function

Learn more about how Thiscovery can help shape your product design and support continuous development. Contact our team today.

Other client stories for you to read

Shaping new remote monitoring health technology

What we did

Key insights

1

2

3

4

5

Improvement in action

“I was struggling to work out how, within the systems and infrastructure we had available, we could hear those voices we needed to. Thiscovery unlocked that for us.”

Joanne Smithson

Outputs

Guide to what matters to patients and healthcare professionals for remote monitoring of kidney function

Learn more about how Thiscovery can help shape your product design and support continuous development. Contact our team today.

Other client stories for you to read

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Giving people the care they want at the end of their lives