Introducing Buddy

In the first of three posts, introducing the three proprietary products that we are developing, we’re going to kick-off proceedings with Buddy.

[For boring IP-related reasons, we're not going to be able to tell you exactly what is that we're working on, but we can certainly share some of the work we are doing 'around' the idea. In a sense, we think that will be more interesting too. Updating the world on how the soldering and coding is coming along isn't that interesting. Instead, we'll talk about some of the research we've found, research we do, other products in this area, links to stuff, developments we've ditched, and other stuff as we go.]

Buddy is a our attempt to bring the internet and playful design to the NHS.

Starting at the very beginning, I want to talk a bit about the problem that we’re trying to solve. Managing long-term conditions is the jargon. A few factoids then (courtesy of NHS East of England). The World Health Organisation has identified chronic conditions as the leading source of disability by 2020 in the Western world. Approximately 16 million in the UK have a long term condition, varying from asthma, diabetes, coronary heart disease, mental illness, stroke and other quality of life conditions. Incredibly, managing long term conditions accounts for £7 of every £10 spent by the Department of Health. And finally, public funding on long term care is set to rise 94% by 2022 in the UK. All at a time, when there is incredible pressure on public spending.

*gulp*

And that’s not all. We need to square this equation with a public who expect more. A generation grown-up with Ikea, isn’t going to make do with Stannah stairlifts in their homes. They’re going to want regular updates and real time communication, in the same way they check their bank online 24/7. They’re going to demand greater customisation in their care, just like they use Expedia to together tailored holiday packages for themselves. And they’re going to be armed with information and prepared to voice their disapproval if they don’t get what they expect. Just ask Nike, HSBC, TalkTalk and lots of other brands what it’s like to be at the wrong end of consumer activism.

To boil it down. People are living longer and longer, with illnesses that are more and more costly to manage, whilst there is less and less money to go round, and a stronger and stronger demand for treatment to be better.

*double gulp*

In my simple mind, there are only three scenarios:

1) There is less care. Treatment is rationalised (or ‘better targeted’ if you’re a government spokesman), so more people have to make their own provision. Which is not very palatable for all those who feel a sense of entitlement after years of paying the State, in the hope they’d have their nose (and other things) wiped when when they’re old.

2) There is the same amount of care, but for less money. To do this means being more efficient (‘Tackling Wastage’ as the same government spokesman would say). Generally, there’s a lot of talk about ‘cutting bureaucracy’ and ’streamlining systems’ when it comes to Tackling Wastage. More often than not, it means cutting staff and cutting the wages of staff. And often both. As age-old as this strategy is, this time round it won’t solve the problem of increased demand, in terms of numbers and consumer expectations.

3) More and better care, for less money. Even as I write that – more and better care, for less money – it sounds like one of those impossible challenges set to you by your boss, perched on your desk, with a smug grin on his / her face, knowing they’re not the one responsible for actually doing the work. Still, I’m sitting here, without a smug grin on my face (as we’ve made it our job), thinking that is exactly what we need to do, ‘more and better care, for less money’.

I for one, believe we have to do better than just leave people behind because the bankers’ pissed our money up the wall of an economic crisis. And I feel another efficiency-drive, simply isn’t ambitious enough. It’s just a sticking plaster.

All of which preamble points us to one simple place – innovation. Our basic belief is that without innovation, we’re stuffed. Totally. Utterly. Stuffed.

The good thing is that managing long term conditions seems ripe for innovation for a number of reasons. First, the challenge with illnesses of this type aren’t always of the acute variety, which is good because we don’t know much about proper medicine. Second, these are conditions 16 million people live with day to day, so whatever we do, it needs to have scale. Third, a lot of time and money is wasted by patients making frivolous trips to hospitals, and carers making ill-timed visits to patients’ home, a problem which real time communication can solve. Fourth, there are a lot of different professionals involved in the care of someone with a long term condition, and a person is often bounced around from the GP, to the hospital, to social services, to community nurses, to care co-ordinators, to voluntary groups; all of whom, could do with being better connected.

So, what is good at helping lots of people, on an ongoing basis, to connect and communicate in real-time, and isn’t really proper medicine? The internet of course. Which is lucky, because that’s the only way of innovating we know.

And there you have it, Buddy is a device and a service to help the NHS manage patients with long term conditions, by harnessing internet technology in order to

1) improve communication between professionals and patients

2) allow for fewer and better timed interventions from social services

3) integrate professional care services

and 4) allow patients to feel more confident and empowered in managing their own condition, closer to home

Telecare is what this kind of innovation is often called. Or E-Care. In the next post on Buddy, we’ll share some thoughts on the world of telecare.

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