Liva Healthcare has announced a new partnership with Care City as part of the NHS Test Bed programme funded by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Focused on tackling the challenges laid out in the NHS Five-Year Forward View the programme brings NHS organisations and industry partners together to test combinations of digital technologies that can support an ageing population.
Care City is a community interest company with a dual focus on innovation supporting healthy ageing and regeneration. It was originally set up by the North East London NHS Foundation Trust and the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.
This new partnership will see Liva Healthcare working with GP practices to deliver a nine-month sustainable behavioural change programme to patients newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Liva Healthcare has been chosen as part of six innovative organisations which supply diagnostic, smartphone applications and management tools.
The company, together with Care City, will enable healthcare assistants and other non-clinical staff within primary care to become digital prescribers. This is where medication is supported by digital technology and lifestyle intervention, helping prevent chronic illness by driving sustainable lifestyle behaviour change.
The innovations will be used in combination with one another to promote digital inclusivity for clinical staff and their patients. The Liva programme supports patients to achieve life-changing results through a patient-centred service. Patients will be given a single personal coach who will meet with them over live video to discuss and set personalised health goals. They will then use the Liva app to log and track progress, with the health coach supporting the patient to establish sustainable lifestyle change.
John Craig, chief executive of Care City, said: “Patients want to take a more-active role in managing their own health and our partnership with Liva Healthcare responds well to exactly this need and we are excited to see what positive, long-term outcomes flourish from this collaboration.”
Rose Connolly, a health coach for the programme, added: “A strong and personal relationship based on trust, be that with a GP or other health professional, is the most-important driver for longer-term lifestyle changes for patients.
“It’s exciting to see that digital tools like Liva Healthcare have been specifically developed to enable these relationships for patients suffering chronic lifestyle diseases like Type 2 diabetes.
“And it’s fantastic that the programme allows for such a tailored and personal approach to each patient’s wellbeing needs, allowing for the best-possible health outcomes.”
With a higher-than-average patient population from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background based in North East London, 50% of patients treated through this programme will be from this group.
Simon Pickup, Liva Healthcare UK managing director, said: “We are pleased with this latest development to bring our personalised scalable programme back to North East London following the NHS Digital Diabetes Prevention Programme pilot.
“It’s important that patients from all backgrounds have the same access to digital health tools so that everyone can manage their lifestyle at the touch of a button.”
