Hundreds of lives could be saved thanks to a ground-breaking new service devised by a Derby firm that will help GPs to identify and correctly treat patients at risk of a stroke.
The Oberoi SPAF and Case Finding Service, devised by Oberoi Consulting, based on Pride Park, assists GPs with the complete management of patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF), a heart condition which causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate.
Its real-time data extraction and analysis along with opportunistic prompts for missing clinical interventions ensure high-risk AF patients receive oral anti-coagulants which may prevent strokes.
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Stroke prevention is one of the priorities of NHS England, which has invested £9 million to fund pharmacists and specialist nurses in 23 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to work with GPs.
The aim is to avert up to 700 strokes and 200 deaths through extra investigation into 20,000 patients who are at high risk of AF.
Steve McClary, Oberoi Consulting’s head of development, said: “We recognised that a lot of patient data analysed is quite a few months out of date. We wanted to help clinicians to see a real-time picture.”
Oberoi Consulting was set up by Kavita Oberoi OBE in 2001 and supports the NHS to improve patient outcomes by delivering IT clinical support services that help enhance patient care and treatment at a primary care level.
Its new service is now already in place in Darlington, Thanet and South Kent - and will be key to helping CCGs and GPs meet NHS England’s ambitious targets.
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Professor Ahmet Fuat, is the North East and North Cumbria Clinical Research Network Industry and GP Engagement Lead and Darlington Primary Care Network and GP Federation Cardiology Lead.
He is a specialist in cardiology and for 17 years has run an integrated heart failure service across primary and secondary care.
He said: “It is essential, GPs, nurses and pharmacists have access to a system such as that developed by Oberoi, which is the best on the market.
“It is completely integrated within the practice system and carries out a real-time analysis of patients who may have AF and are at risk of stroke, based on certain search criteria which are already within the patient record.
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“It enables us to keep on top of detection of AF and appropriate anticoagulation in eligible patients and, if we use it correctly, we should reduce strokes and bleeding side effects by giving correctly dosed medications.
“It is very clever computing. Previously we analysed the patient records manually, often taking days to complete audits once a year, now we can now do it at the touch of a button on a regular basis enabling evidence-based treatment of AF.”
Mr McClary said: “Our service was developed and robustly tested for over a year and we are delighted that its value is now being recognised by key opinion leaders such as Professor Ahmet Fuat. It was always our aim to benefit patients while making the job of GPs easier.”