Digital innovation helps to save lives

Using technology to keep patients safe

Even though COVID-19 does not severely affect the vast majority of children, Alder Hey must take steps to protect patients, their families and staff to keep them safe throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve got to let our staff work in safe environments and digital interfaces are really helping us do that and continue patient care,” says Dr Chris Grime, Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. 

By moving over to Microsoft 365, the hospital was able to give its staff access to information on the go without compromising data security. In this way, Alder Hey has eliminated old paper-based processes and their associated clinical risk. 

The digital transformation during the pandemic that has enabled new ways of working is inspiring future transformation. Grime says, “I think it’s a really positive future for medicine using digital working.”

Improved teamwork

Collaboration via Microsoft Teams has enabled clinical teams to reduce the number of people on a ward round and helped facilitate physical distancing for staff without compromising teamwork. ”It just brings us together better than we’ve ever known,” says Kate Warriner, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Alder Hey. 

The hospital has used PowerApps to generate a handover list for each patient to which everyone who needs it then has access. By combining this with the use of Microsoft Teams to link in colleagues with staff in other centres, Alder Hey is able to ensure optimum knowledge sharing and maintain the highest quality of patient care.

Life-saving innovation with Microsoft Hololens 2

During the pandemic when staff had to maintain a physical distance from each other, Alder Hey advanced knowledge sharing further through the innovative use of Microsoft Hololens 2. 

When a small baby who had tested positive for COVID-19 required complex heart surgery, the Alder Hey team drew on the expertise of an extended team by using Hololens 2 in the operating room. Rafael R. Guerrero, the Clinical Director of Cardiac Services & Director of Innovation at Alder Hey, was the Consultant Congenital Cardiac Surgeon leading the procedure. Using the technology, he was able to connect with colleagues to agree and change the clinical strategy for the operation something that would otherwise not have been possible because the operating room was a restricted COVID-19 area.

The operation was a success. Guerrero says, “Hololens 2 is opening new doors to what we can do in a hospital setting while keeping our patients and staff safe.”

A future full of innovation

For the team at Alder Hey, the rapid digital innovation that Alder Hey has driven through necessity during the pandemic has amply demonstrated the bright future digital working has in healthcare.