NHS Lothian

Dr Deborah J Wake

CSO Innovation Grant

DL_2021_001

Almost 10% of the global population has diabetes and rising; 15-17% of all UK hospital (inpatient) beds are occupied by people with diabetes at any time, costing ~£2.5 billion/ year. Significant numbers suffer a deterioration in diabetes care (such as low or high blood glucose events, and preventable foot ulcers) during hospital stays, as a result of poor management, in part due to general hospital staff being poorly trained in diabetes management. This proposal aims to develop a computer-based (digital) tool to support clinicians in hospitals make better decisions. The tool will identify ‘at risk’ individuals; support triage of patients, and give advice around the correct decisions for foot care and medication changes/ titration. This tool makes use of historical information (data) contained in medical records to find patterns in the data that predict when escalation of treatment or expert input is needed, ahead of time, thus preventing serious health outcomes/ medical emergencies/ reducing hospital stay, preventing ill health and death. This project is a collaboration between MyWay Digital Health (MWDH), a University of Dundee spin-out, NHS staff and academia.

Almost 10% of the global population has diabetes and rising. In the UK, 15-17% of all hospital (inpatient) beds are occupied by people with diabetes at any time and diabetes in-patient care consumes around £2.5 billion/ year. Outcome statistics for diabetes in hospital are frightening, with significant numbers suffering a deterioration in their diabetes care as a result of poor management. In 2017, an estimated 9,600 people suffered a severe low glucose event whilst in hospital. In addition, a further 2,200 people (around 1 in 25 with type 1 diabetes) suffer from diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) during their hospital stay, due to under treatment with insulin, and unfortunately fatalities are still occurring due to mis-prescription of insulin. In addition, foot ulceration continues to occur during hospital stays due to lack of identification and foot protection for those with ‘high risk' feet. Patient reported experience during inpatient stays is poor (ref: Diabetes UK, Making hospitals safe for people with diabetes, 2018). General hospital staff are poorly trained in diabetes management, and there is limited capacity within specialist diabetes teams to support the entire hospital population. Staff training and tools to support clinical decision making are therefore vital to improve outcomes. This proposal aims to develop a computer-based (digital) tool to help clinicians more easily identify individuals at risk of deterioration during an inpatient stay aiming to achieve better outcomes in people with diabetes, making use of increasing use and capability of technology and availability of data.

Health Services & Delivery

13/10/2021

De-Personalised

TRE