CW Innovation programme—one year on

The CW Innovation programme, run by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with our charity CW+, is celebrating its first anniversary. It’s been a year like no other with the COVID-19 pandemic spurring a wave of innovation across the Trust. CW Innovation has enabled the rapid introduction of new innovations and technologies that deliver better, more responsive and cost-effective care. Watch our short film to find out more.

CW Innovation has a portfolio of more than 80 innovations including remote symptom monitoring, wearables and environmental sensors that track patient recovery, new models of care that rapidly reduce time to diagnosis and treatment, state-of-the-art robotics, and new digital patient pathways including the Test Beds programme and the remote care of stable HIV patients, to name a few.

The programme has fast-tracked a raft of new technologies and innovations in response to the pandemic that better care for patients with long-term conditions, ensure new mums and their babies return home to their families sooner, more accurately monitor our most seriously ill patients and improve patient care and experience outside of the walls of our hospitals.

Additionally, we have changed the way we connect with our patients. With the right technologies in their hands, our patients can manage their health more effectively from home via digital platforms such as Patients Know Best, DrDoctor, Attend Anywhere and Medicspot. These technologies enable access to their online health records, monitoring and reporting of symptoms and, critically, setting up and holding appointments via virtual consultation.

Bruno Botelho (Director of Digital Operations at the Trust) explains: “Thanks to the support of our partners and benefactors, CW Innovation has helped establish an infrastructure and internal culture that have responded quickly to the increasing demands to innovate and address the evolving needs of our patients and staff.”

The programme has also worked with staff to bring their new ideas to fruition to improve patient care and address emerging needs. One example of our staff-led innovations is the eye-tracking technology currently being trialled in the increased cohort of patients in intensive care (ICU) who are at risk of developing delirium. The technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the eye movements of patients, facilitating early detection of delirium.

With leading partner organisations, the use of AI and other data mining tools have expanded to help us work smarter and deliver better care. For example, over the last 12 months, we’ve seen real-time data and analytics support clinicians and managers to get diagnoses right first time and identify patients with deteriorating health earlier.

“The world we live in is changing dramatically with very significant impacts on how we care for our patients,” says Chris Chaney, CW Innovation co-lead and chief executive of CW+. 

He adds: “CW Innovation has enabled us to move at pace over the last year to respond quickly to the pandemic, implementing permanent, technological advancements that not only improve care but also make us more resilient to, and prepared for, whatever the future may hold. It is our intention to continue to build on this momentum and respond to the new challenges as they emerge.”