Sign In

Digital surgical pathway delivers patient-centred healthcare. 

, ,

Definition Health provides an end-to-end digital pathway for surgical patients, to deliver continuity of care and avoid unnecessary appointments and cancellations.  

  • 200,000 patients have used the system to date, and it’s live in 21 hospitals in the UK. 
  • Innovation supports the move away from paper-based dependencies and reduces the need for travel, which supports the Net Zero agenda.    
  • Definition Health has a potential benefit of £1.50 for every £1 invested, and a return on investment of 48% for NHS trusts.  

With over 15 years’ experience in the NHS, Dr Rosie Scott is a Radiologist, NHS consultant and co-founder of Definition Health who enrolled onto the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme in 2023.   

Founded in 2018, Definition Health is a digital platform designed to support the care of patients safely and optimally in a hospital along their surgical journey, from beginning stages of preparing for surgery, through to monitoring recovery at home. 

“12 million people undertake surgery in the UK annually. * 

Definition Health was founded when two NHS consultants saw the increasing challenges that their clinical teams were facing, including large elective surgery waiting lists and how it was impacting hospital care. They found that this was a particular issue when preparing a patient for surgery, resulting in last minute theatre cancellations, delayed treatment, and suboptimal preparation of patients for surgery. 

A survey to patients exploring solutions to support their surgical care found that there was a positive attitude and enthusiasm towards digital technology across all age groups.  

Patients expressed a desire to take more ownership of their involvement in the surgical pathway and to be better informed about the process and anaesthetic, which is crucial for obtaining informed consent. 

Definition Health’s primary goals were to improve outcomes, increase efficiency and enhance patient experience. Together with a team of 10 NHS consultants and expert software developers, they created the Definition Total Surgery Solution, delivering an “End-to-End” process for surgical patients. The solution includes Definition Connect, Definition LifeBox and Definition Recovery. 

Each solution can be deployed independently to digitise key steps in the surgical pathway and includes a digital assist functionality, whereby a patient who may be in digital poverty or may not be able to interact personally with the platform, can still benefit from the solution, improving accessibility. The team aim for the combination of digital solutions to refocus the surgical pathway around the patient, to deliver continuity of care and avoid unnecessary appointments and cancellations. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the team were chosen by NHS England through the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) as one of twelve innovations to help the NHS recover. The Definition Health systems supported the NHS and Independent Sector with remote pre-assessments across multiple specialities including cancer care. The LifeBox electronic pre-operative assessment (ePOA) was integrated to allow patients to complete part of their pre-assessment at home via an online healthcare questionnaire, whilst also providing useful information ahead of their procedure. This helped to improve patient safety, reduce unnecessary face to face visits and deliver a `virtual ward’ to enhance post discharge care. 

Dr Scott is also a trustee of the Gam Med Charity (Gambia Medical UK Partnership) and in 2022, she travelled to work with Gambia’s first Orthopaedic Consultant to provide access and training to the LifeBox system in Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) and five other satellite hospitals. With a population of 2.1 million, the Gambia has limited access to healthcare, with EFSTH providing most secondary care. The use of Definition Health’s systems aims to enable remote care, planning and monitoring of patients, which saves some individuals travelling over 100 miles for care and preventing overwhelmed clinics.  

There is a backlog of over 6 million UK patients awaiting elective surgery. * 

As Definition Health grew and worked with more NHS trusts, they received grants from Innovate UK and SBRI. This led them to explore the benefits of their system in addressing carbon reduction within the NHS. They then collaborated with the peri-operative teams at The Royal Surrey Hospital to implement their suite of digital surgery solutions.  

As part of the SBRI grant, Definition Health underwent an independent study conducted by Unity Insights. The report compared the previous pre-assessment method at the Royal Surrey Hospital, to the Definition Health solution, Lifebox, which was evaluated over an 8-month period. The analysis demonstrated that the Definition Health system improved efficiencies around the pre-assessment pathway and created a subsequent cost saving with patient and staff satisfaction. Key findings included that the number of 60-minute appointments was reduced by 34.2%, and the number of 30-minute appointments and telephone POAs increased by 19% and 15.2%. The report also calculated the cost benefit analysis based on assessment of 12,132 patients per year to be £428K, which if applied to the ICS, is estimated to produce cost savings of £1.937K over the 5-year period, which equates to a 45% return on investment for the NHS Trust.  Additional benefits included the potential environmental impacts due to reduced paper usage and travel.  

“We are incredibly proud of these results which demonstrate that not only is our solution a good idea, but it also provides cost savings, staff and patient acceptability and a positive environmental impact. The HSJ recognised this, and we were awarded the HSJ award for best elective care recovery initiative in 2023.”

Said Dr Rosie Scott

The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has supported Dr Scott by providing the education and skills required to build resilience and push forward in the tough environment of being an entrepreneur in healthcare. She has benefitted from her mentor, who has shared useful insights and guidance to support her journey, and a community of 1,000 NHS entrepreneurs, which has acted as a safe space to listen, learn, and share experiences.  

Dr Scott is continually inspired by the programme’s leads and has benefitted from opportunities including funding, connections, IP sessions, business planning guidance and legal advice.  

“I am so grateful to be part of this supportive and innovative organisation. It gives you the best opportunity to meet truly amazing and unique people, all joined by a passion to make the lives of staff and patients better. 

I love the ability to meet and chat freely to the other cohort members and be inspired by their ideas, and experiences- both highs and lows!  

The content is amazing and delivered by real experts in their field, with potentially challenging topics being presented with energy and insight and I’ve learnt so much.”

Dr Rosie Scott

Looking to the future

The Definition Health team are continuing to listen and evaluate the needs of NHS staff and patients, to integrate this feedback into their system, to deliver meaningful improvements.  

Sustainability remains a priority, and the team are working to continually develop their health system so that it can have a greater impact on carbon reduction.  

“Our recent Precision Medicine grant from Innovate UK, will help us to analyse the data to improve understanding of the relationship between the health before surgery and patient outcomes. This is exciting because it will positively influence decisions around surgery and allow personalisation of such decisions, according to health status. 

If you would like to learn more about Definition Health, contact me- rosie@lifeboxhealth.com“

Dr Rosie Scott

For more information, please click on the links below.

*References:  

TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE THROUGH INNOVATION

Posted by

Lucy Dentice